Ella is FOURTEEN!

Ella turned 14 on May 5, 2020. For her birthday she has been asking to change up her room since it has been the same since she was 8. So, a couple weeks before her birthday she picked out some paint and away we went! She went from a light pink room to gray walls with a accent blue wall. 

Bye bye little girls room :( 

Painting is not my favorite thing, so it's a good thing I love her! 

The colors she picked go well together.  

She is an artist and really wanted to paint her own accent wall with a tree, so I finally decided to let her have at it! 

She did a great job on it! I was so impressed, and I love the bird! She was really happy with how it turned out.
On her actual birthday morning, we are still in quarantine, so it was nice and simple.

I put up a sign for her and we started the day! 

Have to start with donuts! 

We just hung out most of the day and then opened presents in the evening after drive thru dinner from Culvers. My parents and sister Natalie and John joined us.  

She has been asking for a phone for over 3 years, and as much as I still don't want to enter that phase of life, with the COVID and not seeing anyone and having no way to connect with friends, I felt like it was inevitable. So, here we go, she got her first phone!! We tried to wrap it in a big box, but I don't think she was that fooled.  

She also loves to kickbox/box. She is kind of random like that, so we found her this from a friend who was giving it away and bought her boxing gloves. She has been having a good time with it! 

She wanted pizookies, so we simplified with cookie bars and icecream! 

With the virus, we decided to have her blow out 14 candles on her own piece! haha

Ella is an intelligent, creative, artistic, imaginative girl. She comes up with so many interesting ideas, and I love her imagination. She is good at most things she tries and has been given many talents. I just hope that she will learn to have the drive to develop them all and utilize her gifts. She picked up the guitar this year and has been playing the cello and piano. She is very driven by music and always wants to be playing or listening to music. She is naturally very smart, and can pick up situations quickly. She still is always reading and has been writing a lot more lately. She has a lot of talent there as well. I keep telling her I expect to see her published book before I die! She has been obsessed with "The keeper of the Lost cities"series this year and has read them over and over. I am excited to see what the next year brings for her and am looking forward to her success in high school. We love you Ella!