Mary-Ellen

I wanted to title this "Mimi." But since this blog has been around since her birth SIX YEARS ago, I thought that title had been played out. And, since she solely still goes by Mary-Ellen at school, I need practice in calling her that. 

***

Mimi still L-O-V-E-S animals and she tells me that all of the time. Most days she says: "in my imaginary world I have 30 Guinea pigs, 10 chihuahuas, 50 cats..." and she lists them all off.

The other day I caught her like this, just out of surgery:

:)

She so sweet right now. She loves to do the right thing and loves getting recognized for it at school. They give out Dragon Links and she's racked up quite a few. I love her sweet heart.

Her and I worked on a gingerbread house and entered it into her school's contest. It's always fun to do creative stuff with Mimi because along with loving animals is also her "bag."

The theme of the contest was "Frozen." So we did Wandering Oaken's Trading Post...

Here's some of the other creations...(my camera ran out of space before I got to the really crazy stuff). Charter school gingerbread contest must be synonymous with "Food Network Bake Off." Yowzers. Imagine glass candy and a full replica of Elsa's castle. In our category we were beat out by an Up house with jelly beans for balloons. Impressive.

How cute is that little girl?!?!

xoxoxo

Mimi is also my trusty apprentice on many photo shoots:

She was such a trooper from 9 am in Thornton to 1:00 down C470 in the coooollld, that as we drove by Park Meadows, I HAD to surprise her with something. It also helps that both of us have the love language of "quality time." So I sneakily pulled into the mall parking lot and surprised her by walking up the American Girl Store. The look on her face was something out of a commercial. It was the best. We had no time constraint and no little brothers...so I just let her wander (and maybe I snuck in some Christmas shopping too). She picked out a little something and we went home. It was pretty sweet.

(this is how cold we were)

I couldn't love my Uno-loving, animal-caring, crafty-making partner in crime any more. 

(I've already cried for when she goes to college. Thanks again Parenthood season 4).

xoxoxoxo