Hannah Stats- 9 years

Hannah is now 62 pounds and 4 feet 10 inches tall.  In the past year she gained 6 pounds and grew 2 inches.  Here are her stats from year one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight.

Hannah is in 3rd grade and continues to enjoy school.  Just like last year, she is still a girl scout and plays fall and spring soccer.  She was also elected to student council again.  As always her height and maturity make her seem older than her years, but she is still very young and innocent.  I like that she is in no hurry to grow up or act older.  She has always been interested in nature and animals and could spend all day outside.  She also likes mechanical things and building.  She made a system of pulleys and ziplines in her bedroom to shuttle stuffed animals around.  Her newest interests are piano, crochet, and typing.

I remember when we moved Hannah out of the nursery and into her new bedroom when she was almost two.  My friend Becky, a third grade teacher, said she loved the room and she could see Hannah as a third grader reading in the window seat.  It seemed so far off thinking about her being that old.  And now here we are and she does read in her window seat!  She has grown into the girl I imagined she would be: tall, long hair, loves reading, very responsible, and kind.  I couldn't love her more.

Here's what her teacher wrote on her most recent report card:  Hannah continues to make a lot of growth and progress this year.  Her curiosity for learning and desire to do her best every day is admirable and evident in everything she does.  This will serve her well throughout her school career and in life.

Hannah's favorites as a nine-year-old
restaurants: Fritz's, McDonalds, Hardees, Chick-fil-A
places: Johnson Shut-ins, Elephant Rocks
color: hot pink
animal: panda
food: ice cream
drink: Sprite
song: Can't Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake
book: The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak
TV show: Pokemon
movies: Moana, Emoji Movie
toys: "all engineering things," remote controlled toys, ripstick, Oregon Trail game, ipad, wii
activities: swimming, tennis, soccer, video games
game: Settlers of Catan
subjects in school: reading and science
special in school: pe
job when she grows up: engineer, teacher

dislikes: scary movies

Hannah's 9th Birthday Party

We went ice skating for Hannah's birthday party.  The girls had a great time and Olive figured out how to use the skate helper as a scooter.  Hannah went by so fast each time I barely got any pictures of her.  Steve and Uncle Casey got out on the ice too!

Backyard swinging.

St. Pat's Parade

We went to the Brookside St. Pat's Parade for the first time ever.  We stood on a little hill that had a great view, but it wasn't close enough to get candy.  Olive abandoned us to get right on the street.  She even scored us a Jimmy John's sandwich!

Olive with us.

Olive in the crowd.

Auction

 I volunteered to be in charge of donations for the school auction.  I started working on it in August and it consumed most of my free time in January/February.  We had over 300 items to bid on, including signed Royals items for the live auction!  We raised over $40,000 for the school to pay for all the field trips, assemblies, class parties, teacher stipends for classroom supplies, and community events like Science Night, Dads and Doughnuts, and Moms and Muffins.

Even though it was a ton of work, I definitely had fun.  Everyone on the auction committee was a friend so meetings were more like girls' nights.  And of course auction is always a blast.  Our theme was "Homegrown" and it was held in the new Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center. 

The bid paddles had our principal's and secretary's faces on the back.

Steve helped with set-up and put up this display with all the art.  He was so proud of it, he took a picture. :)

I'm working the balloon pop.  You paid $5 and got to pop a balloon that had a number inside.  Some numbers were gift cards and some were just school pencils/bumper stickers, but everyone was a winner!

The angel wings (in school colors) were a take on a famous KC mural.

Cards from Olive

I gave Olive some blank greeting cards for Christmas and she filled them up in no time.  She loves writing and creating and she is super sweet, too.  She made these for me and Steve "just because."

Hannah's Pinball Machine

Hannah studied forces of motion at school and they were assigned to make a cardboard pinball machine that demonstrated at least three forces.  I really prefer school projects that are done at school, but I suppose there is some learning that can happen with parent projects.  I say parent project because isn't that what it becomes if it is done at home?  What 3rd grader can make a pinball machine out of cardboard by herself??  Steve did most of the mechanical stuff and I helped with cutting and the hot glue gun, but the design was all Hannah.  It did turn out cool.  It was ocean themed complete with fish flippers, seaweed, a wave, a crab, and real shells.

If you landed it in the hole above the crab, the marble came out the side and Hannah gave the winners prizes.