Nicole // 8 Years

I'm finding it a little hard to swallow that this girl is 8 now. HOW CRAZY?! I remember being 8! She's going to enter the preteen phase before I know it. She's still deep in the magic of childhood right now, though. Unicorns are still cute, Santa is still magical, and climbing on the furniture is still something that happens too frequently for mom's liking. Haha!

Her birthday was on Sunday, and we dragged the celebrations out over 3 days with a party at Hang Time with some of her friends, dinner at my mother-in-law's, and another dinner and dessert of her choosing (taquitos...chocolate peanut butter cheesecake and ice cream). 

Nicole at age 8:

- Sings daily and has a strong voice with a fantastic sense of pitch.

- I finally picked back up on teaching her piano this year (after an almost-1-year hiatus because #babysister) and she's making very quick progress. Music makes sense to her.

- LOVES to read and will easily spend hours a day with books. She stole a nightlight from the hallway a couple nights ago so that she could use it to finish one of the chapter books we gave her for her birthday that she had spent all evening reading. She was so grouchy the next day...

- Loves playing Mario Kart

- Night owl

- A liiiiitle boy-crazy. Her list of "boyfriends" (AKA boys she has a crush on) currently amounts to 7.

- Has an impressive Polly Pocket collection

- Favorite book series include (but are not limited to): Owl Diaries, Unicorn Diaries, The Magic Treehouse, The Princess in Black, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I also finished reading the 7th Harry Potter book to her earlier this year.

- Thanks to her acrobatics class, she is very close to perfecting a backbend kickover. She worked VERY hard on her handstands and backbends all summer. It's so cool to see her get stronger and more flexible, especially because acrobatics was very hard for her when she first started.

- In addition to acrobatics and jazz/ballet she has started taking contemporary dance, which she LOVES.

- Obsessed with KitKat bars

- Spends any money she gets on.......books and KitKats. :D

- Does not like soda/lemonade, so water is her drink of choice...unless there's chocolate milk!

- Enjoys swimming at local recreation centers, or her grandpa's pool during the summer

- Regularly lets us know that she wants to go back to Disneyland (Incredicoaster is her favorite ride)

- Had two more teeth pulled this year, bringing the total # of teeth pulled up to 4 (and 2 lost naturally)

- Loves a good card or board game

- Such a goof. For every nice picture I got of her for her birthday shoot, I got two that were of her being goofy. The ones I've shared are just a tiny taste!

We're so lucky to have this crazy chicka in our family! Happy birthday, Nicole!