Dear Clare,

Happy Birthday my darling!  Last week you turned seven years old.  In classic Clare fashion, you were the world’s most enthusiastic almost-seven-year-old in the world.  Unlike past year’s, you took an active role in planning your birthday party.  I can see in the next few years you will completely take it over.  This year you let me do the majority of the planning, but we discussed every single detail.

You spent your sixth year mastering first grade, which you did with flying colors. Your teacher loved you, you made great friends, and you excelled in reading and writing.  You were ready to finish the school year by the end of it, but you’re already starting to talk about second grade.

You are a voracious reader and are rarely without a book.  You like the Ramona series and books about princesses and fairies.  We just read the BFG together and we may get into the Roald Dahl books.

You’re still our girl with the big feelings, but you’ve worked really hard to work with them, communicate them and deal with them.  OK, maybe we all work on that 🙂

There’s been lots of negative and violent news in the world recently.  We’ve worked most of your life keeping you very sheltered from violence and hatred.  We’ve had lots of hard conversations this year and you’ve learned some of the worst things that people can do in the world.  It’s been very hard for Daddy and I to watch you learn that the world isn’t as kind and loving as you have thought, but we’re figuring it out together.

Through it all, you are a joyful rainbow in our lives.  I can’t wait to see what your next year brings.

Lots of love,

Mumslie