Mary's 12th

Today is Mary's 12th birthday.

Mary was our 15th grandchild

 and 6th granddaughter (she's the baby on the left - her cousin Tessa was born about 2 1/2 weeks later).

Mary is a very important part of this very large family

and a very important part of this beautiful family!

I wrote about Mary last year on her birthday in this post

and visiting that link will take you to links to all her previous posts that tell a lot about Mary and show lots of pictures so I'll just post a few here showing how she's changed through the years.

and talk about what's been going on in Mary's life during the past year.

Last fall, she and Ethan were on the same soccer team for the first time and their dad was their coach!  They had a tough loss to end the year but came in second in their tournament!

And last fall  she transitioned from elementary to middle school - a big step for anyone!

But for Mary it was a fairly seamless progression for so many reasons.  Mary is a good and conscientious student.  She tackles projects with enthusiasm and without prodding.

She always does her best and it showed when she was awarded the Hilltopper Award in January which is awarded to model students who set excellent examples for their classmates.

And even more importantly, this spring she was inducted into Junior Beta Club which is a club for students who not only make the honor roll all year (which she did), but also show star behavior and leadership skills.

And this spring she made her middle school soccer team.  She's small but she's mighty and she's enthusiastic.  As a matter of fact at the end of the season she was awarded the 2018 Barrett Middle School Soccer Team Spirit Award.  I'm including the next picture, not just because it's blurry or even because it shows Mary's excitement, but because I love the happiness on the faces of her teammates when her name was announced.

So Mary had a wonderfully productive and fun school year but there's lots more going on in her life besides school.  For one thing, her neighbors had a beautiful baby girl named Quinn who Mary loves and for whom she often gets to babysit.

And that's not surprising because Mary loves and gets along well with all small children and babies.

 And she also loves and gets along well with animals.  Here she is with the family pet, Dash

and with the neighborhood stray cat, Brady, who often hangs out on their front porch.

And Mary just returned from a visit with her best friend cousin, Tessa, in Savannah, Georgia.

While she was there they slept in a wonderful tent upstairs in the bonus room,

had fun at the pool,

made slime,

and went shopping - among other things.

And there's lots more to say about Mary than what she's been doing in the past year.  She's artistic (even her snowmen faces are cute)

and creative (she actually did this in about third grade).

She's smart, helpful, thoughtful and loving. 

She and her mom have lots in common.  She loves what mom loves and they both love spending time together.

She loves her brothers and is almost always kind and loving to both of them.  LOL

and she's loving and supportive of her dad.

All in all Mary is a wonderful person, granddaughter, daughter, friend, niece, and cousin.  She's the granddaughter that remembers to take a picture with Grandma when Grandma is taking pictures of everyone else.  She's the daughter that pampers helps her mom when she's having a busy day.  And she's the sister that worries about her brothers any time she thinks they're down.

And she's cheerful and resilient with a wonderfully positive outlook on life. 

So Happy Birthday, Mary!  We're hoping the upcoming year is your best one yet but only half as awesome as the many more to come.  We love you very much and could not be more proud of you!