Walking with the Cooks: Happy 9 years, Sarah!

What a wonder it is to have a nine-year-old among us. We are big fans!

Weight: 70 lb 7oz
Height: 4' 6.75"
Clothes: 8/10, L
Shoe: size 3

Likes: gymnastics, reading (swept through Magic Treehouse and loves reference books), helping, teaching, babies

A day in the life

7:00am: Sarah is usually up and at 'em at 7:00am when the kids can come down. She gets right to work helping fix breakfast.

Morning: Our routine begins with "morning chores" and the hopes of starting school around 9:00.

Lunch: Sarah likes to help fix lunch. She often chooses to make a salad or help fix sandwiches.

1:00pm: In our new home Sarah spends nap time in the guest room. She spends the first hour reading books of her choosing (she has to bring her own library bag to contain all the books she checks out!). The second hour she plays legos, colors, or finishes other projects she has going on.

Afternoon: We finish up things we started earlier in the day or tackle other chores. Sometime we run errands, and we definitely play outside as much as possible.

Dinner: Sarah's favorites are tacos, noodles, rice, and all the the fruit and vegetables she can get.

Bedtime: We tend to read a lot together during the day, so at bedtime Sarah is on her own. She gets to stay up an extra hour (until 8:00pm) reading before heading to bed.

How we celebrated: Sarah's day began with a call to Dave, who was on his way to class in Louisville. He was very sad to miss her birthday, but got to spend quality time with her the day before at gymnastics and a concert with some church friends. They even surprised her with cake! For breakfast, Sarah choose homemade cinnamon rolls and I added cheddar bacon scones to the menu. She opened gifts from her siblings, then we hit the road for piano lessons. Her teacher had a sweet birthday sign on the door! We went home for lunch so we could FaceTime with Dave. The kids played Sorry (a gift from Josiah) while I cooked mac and cheese and assembled a rainbow lunch per Sarah's request. The plate included strawberries, carrots, mac and cheese, green grapes, blueberries, and purple kool-aid. It was a yummy meal! We then sang happy birthday and had a pink gymnastics cake. We had to sing three times- the first time we forgot to hit record and the second time Josiah realized I only had seven candles on the cake. Whoops! Third time was the charm. She opened more gifts and enjoyed reading a new book during nap time, then watching the American Girl gymnastics movie. For dinner she choose hamburgers at Jaggers and was tickled when they surprised her with a milkshake. It was a wonderful day celebrating our sweet Sarah!

Random, but fun:
* Sarah has become a fluent reader and it is awesome.
* She continues to be a great helper and has a mothering spirit, both with our kids and little ones out and about.
* In September we confirmed that Sarah is dyslexic. It has been so neat to see the way her brain works!
* Over the summer Sarah took gymnastic lessons and loved them. We loved watching her do brave things (adventurous by Sarah standards) and become a better steward of her body.
* She was baptized on May 5, 2019!

A Chronological Look At Our Sarah Over the Past Year