Violet at Age 7

Violet is the most delightful presence in our home. She is an absolute joy. Here are some things about our special girl at age 7: 

• She loves to play with friends. Monroe has been her closest friend and they play whenever they can. Most of last year when they were in kindergarten they would both come home from school and then play all afternoon. Gigi Turley moved in about a year ago and has become a really good friend too. She is constantly wanting to play with her and they're in the same class this year. She and Monroe are constantly asking me to print them out coloring sheets. They both love cute little details and delight in looking at cute things together.
• Her teacher last year in Kindergarten was Mrs. Hurst. Violet loved her! This year she has Mrs. Swalberg and she loves her so much too. She's actually in our ward and is such a great teacher. 
• Violet has really excelled at piano. She's been taking just over two years now and is doing so well! She has the best attitude when we practice. She always keeps trying, even when things are hard. I think it's her secret to success. She's working on the 3rd mvt of Bach's f minor concerto right now. She played a Clementi Sonatina (C Major, 3rd mvt) for the Keyboard Competition in the fall. She worked so hard and totally should have moved on, but there was a judging mishap. Such a bummer. Overall, I'm so proud of Violet and how hard she tries during our practice sessions. She's so good at looking for the positive. We practice about 30 min a day right now. 
• This is Violet's first year doing competitive dance! She's on a cute little team at Hi-light Dance in Alpine. Her team is called "Twinkle Light." She basically goes two days a week and does ballet one day and jazz on the other. She definitely prefers jazz. Her friends Josie and Gwen are on her dance team too. They're a cute little group!
• Violet's still our little tumble girl! She loves tumbling and oftentimes calls it her favorite. She definitely likes it more than dance. She nailed her back walkover this year and moved up from the bronze level to silver. She's been obsessed with doing headstands for most of the year and was constantly setting records for how long she could do them. Her favorite spot was on the stairs ha ha. She has a super strong core.
• Violet's ultimate favorite is Singer's Company, her singing and dancing group. She did it with Monroe last year and is doing it with her friends Venna, Avery, and Gigi this year. I love hearing her sing and the classic songs they learn. 
• In general she and Davis are good little buddies and she's always watching out for him. Davis told someone in school last week that if they weren't nice to him he'd "tell Violet." :) You can often find them playing little games together. But they definitely have their moments too. She really hates it when Davis ruins her stuff. 
• Andy and Max are pretty brutal to Violet. And she's definitely starting to push their buttons on purpose. She's so sweet in general that you can sometimes miss that she's stirring the pot. 
• Poor Violet really struggles at night. She gets really worried at night and has a hard time falling asleep without me. And definitely has an even harder time if both Cameron and I are gone. We've had incentive charts to stop her from coming out so much, which definitely helps. But I think night terrors are part of the problem, which is out of her control. She's definitely a creature of routine and has her set things she has to do every night: she has a "kiss shake" she created with me where we kiss each other's cheeks in a set pattern and she wants Cameron to tickle her arm pits every night. She also has to turn on "ocean and rain sounds" for 45 minutes on her Alexa. 
• Violet's developed a lot more opinions about clothing and hair this year and has set ways she wants to do her hair and gets very frustrated when I don't catch the vision. She decided she wanted to grow her hair out this year and never cut it again. 
• Overall our sweet girl has a lot of feelings and feels things hard. There's definitely a lot more of that with a girl! 
• She's very artistic and crafty and is always coloring or making something really cute. Her art is so good and so darling.
• Violet is an appreciater of details and beautiful things. She's constantly noticing fun little details everywhere and they bring her a lot of joy. 
• Violet became a "swiftie" this year and is a mega Taylor Swift fan. You'll catch her with the music full blast in her room singing along to every word. It's very very cute. 
• Violet is our best eater and has an impressive appetite! She's still our sauce girl consumes a very large amount of sauce with things, especially nuggets with Chick-fil-A sauce. 
• Violet loves plays and musical theater. She always wants to listen to Annie and Into the Woods. She can sing along to every word of "There are Giants in the Sky" and "I Know Things Now." It's very very cute. She's confused why none of her friends have heard of Into the Woods ha ha.
• Violet is an extremely good reader! She loves to read and started to read chapter books this year. She can read basically anything and everything. She's in the best reading group in her class and thinks all the reading they do in class is way too easy. She has a few letter and number reversals she's working on, but otherwise school is smooth sailing. 
• Violet had a surgery this year on Aug. 7! She was extremely nervous all summer. She had her adenoids removed so hopefully help her be able to breathe through her nose better. She'd basically had a runny nose for about a year. 
• We love our Violet girl so much and are so grateful she's our special girl. She's caring, compassionate, empathetic. A nurturer to her core. There was a day in the summer we had to go to the ER because of an incident with her eye (a plastic ball was sling shot into her eye and they were worried the bone under her eye was fractured). It was a really traumatic night for her and she was very scared. It broke my heart. We were there very late, and she turned to me about midnight and said, "Mom, I'm so sorry you have to stay up so late to be here with me. You must be so tired." I couldn't believe she was worried about me on such a tough night for her?! Such a sweetheart. 

School picture for 1st grade!

Violet loves games! Her favorites are Sleeping Queens and Cover Your Assets. I love her little giggle when she lays down a stinker card.

She loves to shop! We went to the outlets one afternoon and she wanted to take our picture.

Her tumbling showcase in the spring. This is when she finished up the bronze level.

She had a weekly playdate with Quinn and Josie during Kindergarten. We started inviting Gigi after she moved in too. It was so cute! And also a lot of drama, lol. Girl playdates are more dramatic. 

Cute piano girl sitting on her book.

A playdate with Gage and Trey Stanley! Monroe joined in too. Violet loves playing with Gage.

Violet absolutely adores Grace and they have the sweetest relationship. This is at Grace's baptism.

Lots of cute playdates with Gigi. These girls have so much fun together. Always a lot of laughter when they're together.

Violet still loves to match with me, so I'm trying to live it up while I can!

Violet and her Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Hurst.

Dance Pictures for the 2022-2023 season.

Violet and Josie loved being in the same class!

Violet became good friends with Doran in Kindergarten and loved to play with him too. There was definitely a crush going on there and she talked about marrying Doran. :)

Definitely our most adventurous eater. Jersey Mikes is still her favorite place to eat (she says she wants to work there when she grows up). She likes quality sandwiches overall and is a major guacamole fan.

A playdate with Harrison (while Davis and Reese played too). She would play with friends all day every day.

A cute friend birthday party.

Dance concert! Picture with Josie and Quinn.

And a picture with Gigi!

Violet with her teacher Miss Zoe.

Violet's terrible eye injury back in May.

A late night in the ER. She was terrified of the CT Scan. 

Her eye looked pretty bad for a while.

Love her silly personality.

Dentist appointment!

Violet made a new friend this summer, Evelyn, who was visiting from Saudi Arabia.

More matching! Love my favorite girl.

Can't handle her!

She's a pro swimmer and improved a lot this summer doing private lessons.

A cute shot of Violet and Monroe playing. They really had a magical summer together.

Surgery day!

Very, very scared as they wheeled her away. It broke my heart.

She's back and did great!

Birthday shot with Monroe! I'm so glad these two have each other.

Lots of playdates with Gigi. This is when they tried out the foam curlers from my my childhood. (Violet had me take them out in the middle of the night, ha ha.) 

This captures Violet's and Davis's relationship so well. They have so much fun together.

She loves to help in the kitchen.

I got to go on a field trip with her and her class to the Curiosity Museum.

Violet is obsessed with baby Anna (and babies in general). You can always find her at family gatherings just sitting with Anna, talking to her. She loves the babies at the gym daycare too and is always taking care of them.

Violet got to start activity days early and I get to be one of her leaders!

Cutest girl at a Zupas dinner date! She loves Zupas. And she loves when we get to do "dates."