Spotlight on Eliza

I've promised Eliza that I'd do her spotlight for months now.  I'm finally sitting down to do it!  With her birthday last Saturday (the 13th), this seems like an extra good time to spotlight my wonderful little girl.

Eliza is everything I could ever ask for in a little girl - affectionate, beautiful (she's got such a unique beauty with her "platinum hair and violet eyes" - as my dad puts it and her freckles and dark eyebrows), graceful, smart as a whip (she writes whole essays on her own - because she feels like it - and can read chapter books already), musical (always singing some cute song in Spanish from school or something she heard once on the radio and already knows all the words to), artistic (she produces about 5 major works of art a day - collages, watercolors, sketches, artistic arrangements of items in a room, you name it...), kind (she gives me the sweetest notes almost every day and is almost always so kind to her brothers).  She's full of spunk and style and I love seeing the outfits she comes up with.  She's into everything girlish from nail painting to dolls to mothering everyone younger than her.  She's also highly dramatic and emotional - but that keeps things exciting!

 

While being "all girl," she's still tough and adventurous and athletic.  She's a great little hiker and can go for miles and miles (she complains when we say we're going hiking but she loves it once we're out there and we don't hear another complaint from her).  She's also a great biker (got 3rd in a mountain bike race) and rock climber.  She's my only child who'll do the Jillian Micheals 30-day Shred with me from beginning to end.  I love that Liza is such a great combination of so many things!

Here's Liza with freshly painted finger nails and one of her snazzy outfits.  Below are a couple of her lovely, colorful art pieces.  Lots of kids simply eat their Halloween candy but Eliza decided to celebrate all the candy she ate by creating a collage with all the wrappers.   

Sorry this one is sideways - I tried and tried to get it turned but had no luck.  When I was on the phone one time after promising to take Eliza and the twins on "a loop" around the neighborhood, Eliza got sick of waiting for me and rather than interrupt my phone conversation, she wrote me a very frustrated note.  Here's what it says in case it's hard to read sideways: "Cum! un!! now!  You !! sed! we!! wr! goin! to go! arawnd The lup!!"  I got off the phone pretty quick after this polite but firm reminder!

Here's the front and inside of a card Jared and I found on our bed:

And here's Eliza ready for her birthday tea party with her beloved Christmas doll, Tasha (in the new princess outfit the twins got for her for Eliza's birthday) and the tiara and sash she dug out of somewhere.  This is a girl who dearly loves dressing up!  Every year, Eliza has insisted upon a proper tea party (with cucumber and peanut butter and banana sandwiches as well as lots of fruits, veggies and treats - but just apple juice for tea) as well as sugar cookie decorating for her birthday.  She was so cute about helping to set the table and arranging the food nicely on trays.

 

 

These are Liza's best friends - with no sisters, friends become extra important - Olivia, Hattie and Grayce

 

Can you tell how much these boys love their sister?  They couldn't ask for a better one.  And she's so good to them (most of the time, anyway).  Liza's got a little tomato soup (we had her favorite grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup for dinner) on her face - even a princess can be a sloppy eater, I guess.

I love you Liza Loo!