Dear Luke,
We officially have a preteen in the house! We celebrated your birthday early when Honey and Grandpa were here. You wanted to eat at home instead of going out, since we'd eaten out so much in Boone on our recent winter intercession vacation. You requested frozen pizza and wanted to bake a chocolate cake with me. I also got you some Orange Crush as a surprise. On your actual birthday, you wanted spaghetti and broccoli, to be followed by Blue Bell strawberry ice cream. Your new baseball team had their first practice that night and you brought homeade rice krispy treats for your teammates. We closed out the celebrations with a party at Air Adventure on Friday night. Whew, what fun!
At twelve years old,
You really love church. We missed it last weekend for a rugby tournament and you told me how you were really bummed to not be there. Sunday mornings find you either in a Cornerstone class, where you are learning basic tenets of the Christian faith, or helping out in the kids ministry. You go to Youth Tribe every Sunday night.
You've been on your first weekend retreat experience with Young Life last month and we have plans to send you to student camp in Charleston this summer. It was so sweet you called us from your Young Life retreat during free time to tell us how you were doing, and you sold a pack of sour patch kids someone had given you for $10 to buy each of us gifts in the gift shop!
You pick your clothes just about every day and are almost always wearing a hoodie. We'll see if you keep that up in the summer. You also wear Nike Dunks and got some new Crocs for Christmas, so you are a stylin 6th grader.
You are excelling at percussion and are also now playing drums for Youth Tribe after starting out with a Youth Sunday in the main service. It's so fun to listen to your beat!
You have adapted to middle school so very well. At times, you become overwhelmingly stressed out when a lot of assignments pile up, but overall I pay very little attention to what schoolwork you have. You just seem to take care of it and get it done, receiving lots of great feedback from your teachers.
You have a lot of freedom to play in the neighborhood. You love to play soccer with Landon, jump on the trampoline with Ethan, ride scooters with Luke, and I'm so incredibly thankful you have made such good friends so close by.
You love keeping up with current events through your new magazine subscription, The Week Jr., and frequently ask to check the mail to see if you have a new one.
You are a very sweet big brother. On our recent trip to Boone, Nora wasn't feeling very happy one afternoon and went back to the hotel with Daddy to take a nap. You and I walked around some shops and you decided you wanted to buy Nora some new earrings to help cheer her up. You walked straight to the jewelry section in each shop we visited and picked out a pair of cross earrings she had noticed the day before, without asking to buy a thing for yourself.
You've started wearing glasses and have gotten your braces off. You just keep growing and getting taller! I notice it every time we hug and you no longer fit under my chin.
You largely get yourself ready in the mornings. I leave to take Nora to school while you do what you need to do, then I get home just in time to give you your ipad and send you out to the bus stop. I hardly see you before school!
We love you so much and are so thankful you belong in our family.
Love,
Mommy
