Maia's 11th Birthday Update
Maia is the most determined, creative, enthusiastic and sweet girl! She LOVES all animals, especially her puppy. She has amazing ideas and the ability to stick to her plans and get stuff done. She loves Mark Rober’s stem kits and you can hear screams of joy from the mailbox on the day they arrive. She is swimming and playing soccer and loves both! She really flourished on her soccer team this year and at the end of the season she was actively trying to make sure every person was coming back for the spring season! She loves reading, and is working her way through a lot of science fiction right now, mostly Ender’s Game related. She’s excited by math in school and Daddy loves talking to her in the mornings on their way to school! She is simply awesome! Here’s a year full of cute pictures of her to enjoy =)
Maia’s 10th MaiaCraft Birthday! She is SO cute dressed as Aphmau! And she still has that banner up in her room a year later =) And her Meemeow collection has been growing all year!
December 2023: Maia got a bunch of different Aphmau type things in her advent calendar, which she got to open after we successfully completed an exit puzzle every day! She got five of these Christmas themed Meemeows, which were blind boxes so I warned her she would likely get duplicates as there are only six designs. Well, the one she wanted the most was this Gingerbread Cat, and when she opened the last one she got it! And she got NO duplicates! A bit of Christmas magic. =)
Donuts for Maia’s actual birthday! Last year of elementary =)
Maia frequently reads Eric’s Calvin and Hobbes books and also Foxtrot. She’s read them so many times they are actually falling apart now! I love that she still reads piles of books every night, and she finds these Graphic Novels hilarious! She also loves Phoebe and her Unicorn, Babysitter’s Club, and Big Nate. So sweet to hear her giggling at bedtime.
January 2024: Puppy Mama!
January 2024: Meemeow Collection
February 2024: Crazy Hair Day
Valentine’s 2024: Maia’s last class valentine party! I had to make it a donut shop theme for my sweet girl!
Working hard at swim lessons at the high school pool!
Maia still loves baking! She made these adorable Hedwig meringues and the family devoured them too!
March 2024
Maia and Sera LOVE taking pictures together where they are copying the statues or artwork behind them! SO CUTE!! Sera calls Maia her Seastar, a play on the word sister that references when she said her name should be Starfish. Maia’s taken to calling her that too. Adorable.
Maia has made such great friends at school! I could tell because they all wanted pick up hugs and to give her pick up hugs in return. I love that she has found friends that appreciate her exuberance! She is such a joy.
Easter 2024: The theme this year was dragons! I made these cute Wings of Fire plushies for each kid because we all love the books and graphic novels. Maia also suggested we build all the Lego Elves sets because they have the coolest dragons, and I was absolutely on board with that! My building girl!
April 2024: Maia’s 10th birthday trip to the Petrified Forest! In a clear example of Maia’s determination, she decided years previously that she wanted to see the Petrified Forest after Billie, Casey’s mom, showed her a piece of petrified wood. She never wavered and when it was time for her trip she jumped into planning a trip to Arizona. When we got to the Petrified Forest the winds were so crazy that there were literal warnings to hold on to your car doors. With Maia though, it was the perfect adventure! I love her zest for life, enthusiasm, and strong will!
April 2024: Maia also knew she wanted her turn at the Great Wolf Lodge, and she wanted to spend almost all her time doing Magiquest! She hardly used the pool, this is a girl who knows what she likes! She also rocked the Ropes Course. She got to do it so many times in a row as there were no lines, that she got a speed record!
May 2024: Medieval Fair! We love visiting the medieval fair and Maia adores the super fancy face paint! She budgeted for it and everything. SO beautiful! My MerMaia =)
May 2024: Sad to leave elementary school at Northwest! Maia LOVED her teacher Mrs. Neal. She was a first year teacher so she really treated this class like her own kids. Maia also had a really great set of classmates. She and Landon have started having gaming playdates where they play really complicated board games like Horrified and Legendary. So fun to have a gaming buddy!
May 2024: Eric had an X-men game day, and Maia is still game for a dress up theme! She chose Gambit, who is one of my absolute favorite x-men of all time! And she painted glow in the dark cards herself!
June 2024: Girl Scout Camp! Maia still loves going to camp! She’s so brave and knows her mind! This year the theme was riding horses!
Maia was SO EXCITED about Home Maintenance week for Like Skills boot camp! . She woke up early on Sunday and strapped on her tool belt! She walked me through all her tools and added a flat head screwdriver to her collection. She practiced hanging pictures, using her own level and my stud finder.
June 2024: In case you were in Lowes and thought you heard Gollum, that was just Maia proclaiming the paint to be PRECIOOOUUUSS
Summer 2024: Maia loves snow cones and popsicles! She asks for popsicos =)
July 2024: Maia’s first job: Dogsitting. No one was surprised =) She took great care of Aunt Jen’s dogs Skye and Max! And loved every second of it.
July 2024: Life Skills Boot Camp, Cooking Week! Of course Maia picked challenging recipes to follow! Ube tarts, Meringues and strawberry shortcake for Sera’s birthday! 🤩. They were yummy!
Back to School 2024
August 2024! 5th Grade is amazing! We love Mrs. Motz and Maia is having a great year!
September 2024: Fancy hair for school picture day! We did the soft rag curlers and it worked! I love that her style still includes wearing alllll the necklaces. We made the big one on our road trip to Colorado in 2023.
I also love the crazy hair she gets after having Rey hair for soccer. She wore it to the first game in the fall, and they won, so she had to wear it every game this season! And they are undefeated so I expect the trend to continue =)
Maia loves her soccer team!
November 2024: We went on a road trip to Mississippi and Louisiana, and we stopped at the Mardi Gras Museum! The girls still love taking pictures mimicking the statues, so this was a blast. Maia and I made lots of Kane Chronicles and Percy Jackson connections 🥰🥰🥰 so happy she enjoys my favorite stories!
Maia’s 11th birthday party! She wanted to play Blood on the Clocktower, and we themed it with Harry Potter! I made the knight bus, Chamber of Secrets, and the Forbidden Forest for her sleepover! She was so happy I love it!
December 2024: The kids big present this year was getting some amazing animal encounters! We fed sloths and capybaras, and got to feed and play with a baby penguin! Soooo soft!
My Maia still loves legos =)
She is game for a dress up theme! I still think of Maia whenever we see deer, as her first stuffed animal was a baby deer and she has a giant deer pillow too. And a deer onesie. And a deer fuzzy hat. .. Soooo cute! She combined her cute eevee dress with a new sweater from Rae to make a perfect dress up as a reindeer outfit!
December 2024 showing off the meemeows to John.
December 18th, 2024. Maia is actually 11! She wore her Rose Hill to dress up with her friends as 8 Maids a Milking. LOVE HER!
