So… my oldest daughter’s birthday was actually back toward the beginning of the year… but things were so hectic with returning to school and illness and me introducing my themes for the year here on the blog that, while I wrote her a birthday letter, I didn’t ever end up making it an “open letter” here and it’s actually one of my favorite traditions to share in these little ways about my kids, so the start of a new school year seemed like a good time to share away. So while this was originally written as a letter for her 5th birthday, I’ve actually updated it a bit and turned it into an open letter to her as she starts kindergarten…

My oldest daughter, middle kid, and “fairy child”,

It feels like your personality has blossomed and magnified over this past year. It has been so much fun to have a front row seat to all of that. Here are a few things I love about you right now and want to remember…

Your self portrait from earlier this spring…

You love rainbow everything. Your dad and I were not familiar with the Rolling Stones Song She’s a Rainbow before we watched Ted Lasso… but the second we heard the song we thought, “well that was written for our daughter.” because you come in colors everywhere- one of our close friends described you by saying “the color of her aura must be rainbow… unless auras can come in sparkles” When we asked you a few months ago at the end of the school year what you wanted to be when you grow up you said “a pollinator or Isabella from Encanto because she makes flowers” and your response from the beginning fo last school year was “A butterfly fairy or myself but with magic” which also does a really wonderful job of summing up your personality.

Your love of rainbows and all things magical shows up in your outfits but also in your art projects. You are extremely into coloring and crafting right now- which is why we think you are going to be so excited about the Kindergarten projects that await you. When your brother was around this age he was very into drawing and we couldn’t keep up with his need for pencils and art notebooks. You are similarly suddenly into drawing a ton, but we can’t keep up with how fast you go through crayons because you are not interested in drawing in pencil since it is not colorful enough.

You still love hiking but not when it is too hot as you are very concerned about snakes, you also prefer to wear a dress with your hiking boots whenever possible. You love telling stories and being a big sister and making people laugh. You are so silly which I never would have guessed from your very serious faces as a toddler.

Oh, another defining feature is that you are not afraid to stand out. At all. You love mismatching outfits. You would wear my high heels to school if I would let you. You don’t care if you are the only one in your classroom wearing a mask. If you have a question you ask it and won’t be distracted until you have an answer or are promised one in a timely fashion. I hope that persistence and that flair for being unapologetically you never leaves you.

A few other fun things about you: you are definitely a cat person and hate how dogs lick you. You are the swing queen and would be OK if the playground were only made up of swings. You love the fanciest of tea parties and you love playing in dirt and laughing at fart jokes. You would watch TV all day if we let you, but you laugh the most reading books with your siblings and playing games with your family. You give the sweetest snuggles but you only offer them when they are not asked for (maybe another reason you are a cat person?)

I am so excited to watch you grow and learn this year. I can’t believe you will be in “big kid school” with your brother and I look forward to hearing about your many adventures this year.

Keep sparkling my little rainbow,

Mom