Zoe’s Popsicle and Painting Party

Zoe wanted to celebrate her birthday with her friends by painting and enjoying popsicles. I kept asking if she wanted any kind of cake or cupcakes but she said she just wanted popsicles. That made things very easy for me. She had such a great time celebrating with her sweet friends from church!

Zoe is 8!

I still cannot believe that Zoe is 8 years old! Each year now just seems so old!  She is growing up way too fast and I wish time would slow down. 

Zoe had her well check right after her birthday and she is right on track developmentally. She is a very healthy little girl. Zoe’s stats were:

Height: 50.2 in (47th percentile)

Weight: 54 lbs (40th percentile)

She is still petite (although I guess just slightly below average compared to kids her age) but she definitely had a big growth spurt. We really feel like she’s grown a lot in the past few months. She is wearing size 7 clothes and size 1 shoes. She suddenly outgrew all her shoes and I thought she would need 13s but when I pulled out some of Ava’s old shoes, I was surprised that the 1s fit her.  

I continued with the annual birthday questions with Zoe this year. Like I’ve said before, I love being able to remember the girls at different ages in their own words.

How old are you?

8

What is your favorite color?

Coral and orange

She remains pretty consistent with this one. Although the pink has changed to coral. 

What is your favorite food?

Pasta and rice

Pasta and rice are definitely staples for her. We try to make sure to add some kind of protein in but she would be happy to eat just plain pasta and rice. I recently found rice made out of chickpeas that she really likes, which makes me feel a little better since she is getting some protein with that. She also likes my gluten free  pasta, which is better than just the plain pasta. She loves to have tomato soup, corn chowder or a chicken and tomato soup that I make with her rice and pasta. She still loves edamame beans and we still call them entamale beans like Bluey. She also loves roasted broccoli and brussel sprouts. She still loves bread of any kind but a recent favorite is biscuits. And she still loves her school lunches and says the crispy chicken sandwich is her favorite to get.    

What is your favorite restaurant?

Tropical Grille and Mexican

These are our top choices in the house as well. We love the family meals from Tropical Grille because Zoe will eat on the rice and beans for a few days. It is one meal she cannot get enough of. She loves to order rice and beans at the Mexican restaurant too. She also still loves Chick-fil-a, Swamp Rabbit, Panera, and Eggs Up Grille.

What is your favorite outfit?

My romper

Recently, Zoe has become obsessed with rompers and overalls. She isn't into dresses as much these days, it’s all about the rompers. I think they may remind her of her footie pj’s (which she is so sad don’t come in her size anymore, or at least not until Christmas). She loves to pick out her clothes each day and is very particular about what matches…and her idea of matching doesn’t always line up with my idea but we just let it go because she is very opinionated about her clothes. She definitely only wants leggings or jeggings or knit shorts….the girl likes her comfort but I can’t blame her for that.

What is your favorite TV Show?

Bluey

Bluey is still a big hit for her. Some other favorites are Gabby’s Dollhouse, Ada Twist, Fancy Nancy, Ariel, Little Einsteins, Super Kitties, Eureka, Spidey, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Doc and Kiya. 

What is your favorite song?

Let it Go

Disney music is always a favorite. She loves all of the Frozen music, Encanto music, Moana music, Spidey and Friends music and Desccendants music. She also loves Greatest Showman. She is still a big fan of Colony House, Toby Mac and Jamie Grace too. 

What is your favorite book?

The Fairylight Friends books

These are books she discovered at school. They are early chapter books that are kind of like graphic novels too. She loved the fact that she could easily read it by herself and felt proud that she read a chapter book. They are cute stories about fairies too. She also still loves the Elephant and Piggie books and the Pigeon books by Mo Willems. Click, Clack, Moo books and Pete the Cat books are also regular series we check out from the library. We discovered some early chapter books called King and Kayla that are about a girl and her golden retriever that solve mysteries and she loves those. She is slowly becoming more confident in her reading and wants to read on her own. She has progressed so much this year in her reading and we are really proud of all the hard work she’s put in with her reading.

What is your favorite toy?

Melody

Zoe still loves her American Girl doll. I think she mostly likes dressing her up and accessorising her but she does play imaginative play with her too. She is still very into her baby dolls and is always wanting to play with her babies. It usually switches between the baby dolls though as to which one she is obsessed with at the time. Right now it is Lulu, her very first doll that she is super attached to. Speaking of attached, she is still very attached to Bun Bun, her stuffed bunny that she sleeps with. She loves him and her blankie so much.

What is your favorite thing to do?

Go outside and draw

These are definitely still her favorite activities. She has a playroom full of toys but she definitely prefers to be outside or crafting. She loves the trampoline and loves to practice her acro skills on it. She also still loves bubbles and sidewalk chalk. Now that the grass is growing and there are weeds again, she loves to go and pick all the clovers and wild violets. As long as her perfecitionism doesn’t take over, Zoe is probably happiest when she is crafting. She is so creative when it comes to projects. She is always asking for tutorials online for certain craft ideas but the end project is usually better when she just does her own thing. We recently discovered that you can download printable projects on Etsy and that has started a whole new obsession. She loves to look for projects and ended up with an Etsy gift card for her birthday. That means our house is now covered in craft projects. She just can’t get enough when it comes to crafting.

Where is your favorite place to go?

Disney World

We hope we can make that happen sometime in the next year or two but we will see. As Disney adult parents, we love that our girls share our love of Disney, just wish it was easier to go more often. 

Who are your best friends?

Kolby, Jordyn, Camden, Evie

These are all friends from school. Jordyn has been her best friend since kindergarten. Unfortunately, they are not in the same class this year but they are still such sweet friends. It took her a little while this year to really find a good friend in her class. But, thankfully as the year has gone on she has made friends with the other 3 girls. She is still super extroverted and is always energized by people, something the rest of us in the house just do not understand. But, we love watching her friendships grow and her teachers always say what a sweet friend she is to the kids in the class. 

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Engineer

She is definitely still set on being an engineer of some sort. Her little mind can definitely picture things and then plan it out to create that just amazes us. She will usually say she wants to be an Imagineer and we love that big dream.

What do you hope to accomplish as an 8 year old?

Stop sucking my thumb

This was the same goal as last year and we thought we had the goal met. She stopped for a few weeks but when school was more challenging this year, she just couldn’t help but start again. We are really hopeful that this is the year she will accomplish this goal.

Zoe wanted to add another question…what’s your favorite flower?

Any kind

Zoe still loves flowers of all kinds. Although, she has said before that Dahlias are her favorite.

And another by Zoe…what’s your favorite sport?

Acro and I like to run

Zoe loves her acro class. She is in Acro 3 this year and is really working on perfecting her cartwheels (including the 1 handed cartwheel), headstands, handstands and back rolls. She is so strong and it is always so fun to watch her work hard at mastering these skills. She does love to run too and is really quick. She also seems to have endless endurance. Maybe she will run cross country one day. 

Zoe still has such a big personality! She is still goofy and loves to make people laugh. She is also still a cuddle bug and still wants to be carried everywhere. I didn’t think I would still be able to carry her at 8 but I can, just not too far…and she may be the reason I go to the chiropractor. But she loves that touch and connection so we will continue as long as she needs it and as long as my back can hold out.  She loves big and we are grateful to receive that love daily.

As I always say, we are so honored that we were chosen to be this beautiful girl’s parents. We know that choice was not made lightly and we do not take it lightly. As we watch her grow, we know there is someone so special that is missing out on these moments and I cannot celebrate Zoe’s birthday without acknowledging her. Zoe’s birth mama holds such a special place in our family and we can never express how much she means to us. We are so grateful for her and Zoe in our lives! 

I still do not know how in the world Zoe is 8 years old. We cannot wait to see what all God has in store for her this next year! Happy 8th Birthday, Zoe girl! Mama, Daddy and Ava love you to the sun and back and the whole entire earth!!!

Happy 8th Birthday, Zoe!

Somehow, Zoe turned 8 on April 7th, 2025. It is crazy that she is 8 already (well, at the time I’m writing this she is almost 8 and a half). She is growing so fast! Her birthday fell on a school day this year but I picked her up early to get some ice cream for a special treat. Then we opened gifts at home and went out for dinner at Molina’s Mexican. It was a special day celebrating our big 8 year old!

Spring 2025 Fun

Here are some fun highlights from Spring 2025. Please excuse the fact that it’s all Zoe…Ava is not a fan of having her picture taken these days. I keep telling her one day she’ll love having the pictures that I’ve taken over the years but she still won’t agree to pictures.

Zoe is obsessed with makeup these days. I keep telling her she’s too young to wear it on a daily basis but sometimes she just likes to play with it at home.

The 2nd graders put on a play at school in March. It was really cute and Zoe did a great job with her class dance.

For Spring Break, Zoe and I took a trip up to Discovery Place in Charlotte again this year. She had so much fun exploring the science exhibits and creating in their mini maker’s space. This might become a regular Spring Break tradition for her!

Zoe and I had fun at the Panther Fun Fest (used to be called Spirit Fest) at her school. She met up with a couple friends and had a blast playing games, even in the rain!

Clemson Gymnastics

We had a special outing with just Zoe to see Clemson gymnastics. This was their second season and it was so fun to go support the Tigers in their newest sport. Zoe loved watching the girls and was inspired to do cartwheels all over the lawn outside Littlejohn.

Re-Craft Fun

One of Zoe’s favorite places to go in Greenville is Re-Craft. She loves to use all their recycled supplies to create all sorts of fun designs. We enjoyed a fun afternoon there after doing her hair and she had a blast creating. We love watching her mind work to come up with her designs!

Book Character Day 2025

Zoe got to celebrate Book Character Day at school again this year (for some reason they did not do it last year). She chose to dress as Zoey from Zoey and Sassafras. These are super fun books about a girl named Zoey and her cat Sassafras and how they use science to help magical creatures. It was the perfect choice for our fantasy and science loving girl!

Snow Again!

We were shocked in February to have another snow day. This one was more of a dusting but was still exciting after going so long without any snow.

Birthday at the Beach

DJ and I celebrated my 40th birthday with a little getaway to Charleston/Edisto. The crazy part of the trip is that a snow storm hit the area right before we left. We had updates from Eric and Jenn’s neighbors about the roads and safety getting there so we decided to go for it. The roads were definitely not great but we couldn’t pass up the chance to see Charleston and the beach with snow. It was beautiful and such a wonderful getaway for my birthday.

Redeemer’s Generosity Campaign

My friend, Jennifer, and I got to really use our event planning skills this winter/spring at church. In January, our church launched a Generosity campaign. The goal of the campaign was to retire our mortgage debt, start a seed fund to hire a pastor to lead a church plant, start a fund to deal with delayed maintenance on our current building and a fund to pay for an expansion on our children’s wing. Jennifer and I joined the steering committee as the events team and were in charge of the large Generosity dinner, two roundtable dinners for those who couldn’t make it to the Generosity dinner, and a dessert reception following the advanced commitment night. It was a ton of work but we loved every minute of it because we can’t get enough of planning events together. It was funny when our pastor texted us both about it, he said he knew we were both super busy so wondered if we knew of someone else who could take on the project. Jennifer and I both had the same conversations with our husbands that we’d be crazy to take on such a huge project but we also knew we couldn’t say no to planning these fun events. Nick was so excited when we said we’d do it. We all had such a great time planning for this huge endeavor at church and it has been amazing to see how God provided all the money that we had hoped to raise. We’ve already paid off the mortgage, funded the church plant and raised the funds for the delayed maintenance. Our church has been through so much in the past but God has been so faithful to sustain us!

The first, and biggest, event of the entire campaign was the Generosity Initiative Dinner. It was the kick off event for all adult members and active attendees. We set up 18 tables in the sanctuary and spent many hours setting up for this beautiful night for our church family. We enjoyed fellowship together, food from Lewis BBQ and desserts from Crust and Crumb bakery. It was such a wonderful event!

In February, we hosted two Roundtable dinners. These were much smaller dinners for the folks who couldn’t make it to the initial dinner. We recreated a smaller version of the dinner in the meeting rooms at church. They were much smaller but still very special evenings for our church family. Unfortunately, I had the flu and couldn’t attend the 2nd dinner but Jennifer and our team of helpers pulled it off beautifully.

Our final event was the Advanced Commitment Night. This was a night of worship and a chance for people to go ahead and make their commitment pledge before the official commitment Sunday. We planned a dessert reception following the worship service. It was incredible to hear the numbers committed after this first night. We’ve all been blown away at people’s generosity and the Lord’s provision for our church!