I almost can't believe it. Our "baby girl" is turning 14! It's crazy just how fast 14 years can go by. I remember people telling us to savor the moments, not take time for granted, and to cherish even the "hard stuff'. They were right. We have officially had more time with our girl than we have left with her. I thought I'd share 14 things about Jesse and 14 of my favorite pics of her in celebrate. So with out further ado....
1. You are an amazing sister. You love your brothers not matter how crazy they make you.
2. You have found a sport you love and are good at. You have shown great dedication to your sport and it has paid off.
3. You are beautiful. Never doubt it!
4. You love Jesus. This is one of the best things about you. Your faith will get you through a lot cling to it.
5. You are super creative.
6. You have a servants heart. Your kind beyond your years.
7. You love to learn about neat places. I hope you get to travel to all the places you love reading about.
8. You rock at being a cousin!
9. You are not afraid of an adventure.
10. You are compassionate with a heart to give.
11. You are a good friend.
12. You made us parents and with you we started a family. Thanks by the way ;)
13. You're crazy sassy. It is one of the things we love about you.
14. You might have entered this world small but you have always been a fierce force to be reckoned with. I know as you grown into an adult this will be a wonderful trait! I know you'll learn to use it for lots of good.
My children aren't old enough to remember the events of 9-11, so we decided to spend some time learning about it on the anniversary. I will never forget the events of that day, the way our nation was gripped with fear, and I will never forget how was all rose hand in hand to support each other in the days following. I know this is a tragedy that had a huge impact on our nation and I wanted my children to understand that.
I thought it would be nice to share the tools we used. First I found these awesome notebook pages. We journal once a week at our house and the anniversary just so happened to fall on journal day. I printed a couple pages and pasted them inside the big kids journals.
We also read great articles from Scholastic News. These were great because all their content was kid friendly and didn't contain anything they couldn't handle emotionally. Scholastic is a fantastic resource.
Lastly we watched some wonderful videos using one of my favorite internet resources...Youtube. (To make sure all our "searches" are safe on this site I do all the searching and try to preview what we are going to watch.) I found the first video by searching "what happened on 9-11 for kids. The second was shared by a friend on facebook.
Both videos were wonderful resources in helping Jesse and Duece understand what happened on that day 13 years ago. I know they were moved by what happened to the people who lost their lives. I also know they were in awe of how people bonded together to help their neighbor.
We ended by writing about what we learned about this day in history and about how it makes us feel.
I hope the lessons we had today help the kids better understand the tragedy and the impact it had on our nation. I also wanted them to understand that their freedom is and was never free. I hope they have found a new respect for the country they call home.
