Evelyn

Check out this girl...

That's Evelyn, and she is one of the funnest people I know to hang out with. Maybe it's because I really appreciate good conversation, or maybe it's because her creative thoughts and ideas never cease to amaze me, or maybe it just because she is my little girl. For whatever reason, Evelyn is pretty remarkable.

A few weeks ago we got a call from her school. One of the "special" teachers wanted to have a sit-down meeting with us. Results were in from a big national test thing for all first graders, and the school thought we should address some issues. Rachel and I went into the meeting with a hunch that Evelyn had done well, but we were not prepared for this...

Apparently, Evelyn is pretty smart. Next year she will be starting a "gifted and talented" program. Good for her. We have never put much pressure on her at all (in fact, I have wondered before if we should be a little more strict about things like homework and reading minutes and stuff), but we have never had to before because she is so good at just getting things done. She is extremely self-motivated and a hard worker. I am proud of her.

Here are a few other highlights:

Evelyn is extremely entrepreneurial. Rachel and some of her friends got together and had a garage sale last week. Evelyn set up a bake sale/lemonade stand and sat out in the sun for hours in order to promote her business. She did pretty well too- at the end of the day she had more money in her pocket than she could have if she were working a minimum wage job in Idaho!

She also sold toys at steeply inflated prices and learned a lesson about supply and demand. Those toys are now sitting at Goodwill, and are roughly 1/5th the price she was selling at.

I know I put this picture in here a few weeks ago to highlight a scavenger hunt we did at Cabela's. I'm including it again though, because of what it says about Evelyn. She was very excited for this picture because it is an Elephant tusk, and elephants are her favorite animals. Based on the tusk, she can tell you what kind of elephant it was, and how big it was. She could also tell you a bunch of other things about elephants...and coral reefs...and supply chains for grocery stores...and a variety of classical artists...etc. Evelyn definitely shares my enthusiasm for learning things. If she is interested in a topic, she will ask me to help her research it. She is insightful and draws connections that sometimes surprise me. I love it.

Evelyn loves art. If you ask her what she wants to do when she grows up, then she either wants to be an artist, or own an art gallery (or both). This summer she has signed up for an "art camp." 

This is Evelyn shaking a bag and making ice cream. As I have mentioned before, we have a tradition in our family to make a special dessert on Sunday nights. Evelyn is always creative with these. When it is her week she will spend a lot of time researching different ideas, and then she will talk us through the process of what she wants to do.

In short, I am really, really glad that Evelyn is around. She has a wonderful emerging personality, great ideas, and great creativity. She is smart and skeptical and forces me to keep up with her. She loves to have fun and her initiative has led to many fun outings as a family. 

And most of all- she is My. Little. Girl. And she always will be. Even when she's big.