Nine Years Old: Lucie

Our sweet, smart, lovable and adventurous girl turns nine today. To commemorate her birthday, I decided to ask Lucie nine questions capturing our favorite girl at this special age.

1. Tell me five GREAT things about you (even though we all know there are more than 5!)
- I'm a daredevil. If you tell me to try something, I'll do it!
- I love to do art. Some art is really silly, like drawing a mustache on my finger and holding it up to my face. Some is really good like my watercolors.
- I love to read. If you ever put a book in front of me, and it looks interesting, I will probably read it in one sitting.
- When I'm playing a sport, I always feel really happy and glad to be outside. I don't care if I'm winning or losing, I just want to be outside playing.
- I can easily go from being a really good big sister to joking with my friends and doing cartwheels on the grass.

2. On a scale of one to ten - how strict do you think your parents are?
I would say a 5. They can be really strict when they want to and then really nice once the problem is solved. I think that's a good amount.

3. What do you know how to do that you can teach to others?
I can teach someone to do a handstand and a header with a soccer ball. In school, sometimes when doing math, if my partner doesn't know the answer, I always know just when to stop helping someone so they can do the problem on their own.

4. If you could choose a new name for yourself, what would it be?
Kaitlyn or Katherine. I've always wanted to be a "Kate" because it's a simple name. I also know it would have been Jake's name if he had been a girl. But I like the name Lucie too.

5. How would you change the world if you could?
I would change it so that every school had more recess so we would get more exercise. Instead of putting people in grades by their age, I would put them in grades by how much they know so that younger kids could work with older kids. I would make it snow in places where it never snows! Whenever they bring a hurt baby animal to the zoo, I would always make sure that the animal's mom could come too.

6. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I would like somewhere where it's cold. I've always liked cold more than hot, and I would really like it if we had a blizzard every single day! I would also want to live where it is old fashioned, because I'd like to try to do things without TVs, computers, or iPads.

7. What's the most wonderful thing that ever happened to you?
Two things. The first one is in kindergarten when we had an art competition and I won an award and got to read my story in front of the whole school (even though I got shy and had my mom read it instead). The second thing was starting gymnastics at a special studio because now that I'm getting better, I can do cartwheels and handstands whenever I want.

8. Who do you look up to?
I look up to a lot of people. I look up to older kids like my cousin Maggie and my neighbors in 6th and 7th grade. I look up to the women who started their own baseball league during World War II. I look up to everyone in family too!

9. How do you want to celebrate this birthday?
I want to have a Rock Star themed sleep-under (all the fun of a sleep over without the overnight part) with lots of arts and crafts, movie, popcorn, and lots of fun. And clown cones from Baskin Robbins.

We love you Lucie! Have the best 9th birthday!