A Wonderful Life: Evie turns 5!!

My baby is not a baby anymore! She is a little girl now. She can shower by herself, do her hair all by herself, she has her own fashion style and likes to pour her own drinks, make her own eggs and cut her own veggies. She is all grown up! In many ways, we are enjoying this new stage of independence (sleeping in on a Saturday!) but I catch myself sometimes wishing it would just all slow down a bit. I have a feeling that that is the way it is always going to be…

Evie's request...a Barbie Cake (Phil's 3rd one he's made!)
It's been a hit with all 3 girls!

Evie loves her friends and doing anything with anyone…just not being by herself. Although she has improved in her ability to stay put during her quiet time hour, she still pokes her head in to my room and asks ‘Mom, can’t I just sit on your bed with you? I won’t make any noise!’….and the times I have let her come in, it ends up as us hanging out…which is lovely, but defeats the purpose of quiet time! She loves our ‘room dates’ where I bring a candle and a nice drink and snack into my room and she brings something to do together like a puzzle or game or coloring.

I like those times too…special to just be with her and put the list of ‘to do’s’ aside and enjoy hanging out, 4 year old style.

Evie loves to be fancy. She is like the fancy Nancy books only…fancy Evie. :) Most evenings she will rinse off the day’s dirt in the shower and then spend a good amount of time getting herself ready for dinner. She usually shows up with fancy hair, a nice dress and some clip on earrings or jewellery she has found. So cute.

She doesn’t need her blankie anymore…she still likes to have one if I ask her, but she could easily go to sleep without one. She likes to be tickled while I pray and sing to her as she falls asleep. Heaven forbid I leave the room before she is asleep!

The bday crew...all of Evie's friends.

When Evie wakes up, she gets dressed and runs out the door, ready to play with her friends. I have to keep reminding her NOT to knock on our neighbours door but wait til the kids come out to play. A while ago, I found her in her friends house across the compound, having breakfast with the family! She just loves her friends and can’t wait to play ALL DAY with them. Most of the time, they have fun but there are some days when the girls are just more sensitive and need some time and space apart. We are very thankful for the two little girls who live on the compound as well…they are Evie’s best friends. One of them is leaving very soon for another country and Evie will miss her terribly. She will always be remembered as Evie’s very first best friend. There have been some bedtime tears about being lonely and not having any friends anymore and we’ve talked a lot about that and prayed about that too. I wish I could say that this hardly ever happens, but it actually happens a lot to our kids and us too. The life of a missionary, or someone who lives and works overseas is fraught with many hellos and many goodbyes. We go deeper faster than we would back home in our relationships, partly because over here, we are eachother’s family, and partly because time is short and many do not stay very long.

Evie loves the colour pink and her favourite game to play is house with her being the mom or the big sister. She loves to swing, swim and jump on the trampoline (flips are her speciality). She loves to bake (lick out the bowl) and recently she has been into ‘making her own thing’ where I put out the same ingredients I use to make a cake and she just puts a little of this and a little of that into a bowl and we bake it and see what comes out. She’s had a couple of success and lots of hockey puck cupcakes and loaves. Haha. She’ll get the hang of it one day.

Evie enjoys reading books at bedtime and if I can steal her away from her friends during the day, we can spend a while reading through a stack of books. She likes the Berenstain bears books, Franklin, Curious George and the Frog and Toad books. I am looking forward to this coming school year where Evie will begin Kindergarten with me at home. Brings back so many memories of homeschooling Lily and reading a ton to her. Stacks of books.

Evie has an ice obsession and will often request a bowl of ice cubes for a snack!

She can ride a two wheeler (for a while now) and loves to have me watch her race around the compound. Her new trick is to lift her feet off of the pedals and wing them out to the side while riding.

She is desperate to climb our big tree out front, so she has been practising on some smaller trees…wonder when she’ll get the courage to try the big one.

Evie HAS to sit beside me at dinner time…we have to prep her before dinner if that is not going to be the case. Same with bedtime…she LOVES her daddy, but when it comes to bedtime, she prefers to have me do it. (Phil doesn’t mind that much as he then takes that time to hang out with Kaitlyn and Lily, doing ‘older’ things likes games and movies).

Evie loves to play with her older sisters and despite the challenges that come with a 5 and 7 year gap, they make it work (most of the time). She loves playing barbies and lego and play mobil and I will catch her just watching Lily and Kaitlyn act out a scene…kind of like a real live movie! She’s getting there but still takes her cues from the girls when she plays with them. I know their play interaction will only get better…for now, we embrace those character building moments for Kaitlyn and Lily (patience, grace, kindness) and for Evie too (putting others first, patience, kindness).

I love that Evie has two older sisters…just this past week, Kaitlyn and Lily ran a day camp for the younger kids on the compound…Evie gets to enjoy those kind of fun things that her sisters plan.

We love Evie, and are appreciating her independent personality and her strong family ties. She is one of a kind and we are so thankful that God blessed our family with her.

Happy 5th Birthday Evelinne Rose! We love you!