Makayla turns 6

Makayla, the daughter of our friends Brian and Jenna Olson (parents also to little Jordan who I recently made things for seen here and and here and here) turned 6 today.  She's a recent kindergarten graduate, and quite the stylish and creative little girl.

 I've known her since around her first birthday, and I was thinking back to her birthday presents (at least from me and Robert).  The first birthday I didn't really know her or her parents, so I gave her a crocheted hat I found at the Edmonds Farmers Market.  I can't remember what we did for her 2nd birthday.  But for her 3rd I went a big with this teepee.  It was quite the project, and I really do like the way it turned out.  Her 4th birthday I was out of town for (at library camp - I made the tee-pee the year before BEFORE I left for camp) and we got her some store-bought, but cute, princessey dress up clothes.  Last year, for her 5th I wanted to address the artistic side of her and went with an artist roll.  I have to say I was a bit sad to have to give it up.

So this year she turned 6, and her party isn't for a week.  I really don't like doing the Toys R Us kind of presents.  They have their place, and I think some of our other friends kids may not appreciate the home-made kind of presents as much.  I grew up in a very different way from Robert, which is fine, but I have really started to appreciate my childhood recently having seen how the kids in my class are over-exposed (in my opinion) to electronics and mass media things.  I grew up in the woods.  TV was not a big part of our life, it was there, but it wasn't what everything was centered around. And when we got a computer, it wasn't either. We had 25 acres of woods and a big garden and my dad built a tree house and we had a sandbox.  I remember setting up the test in the "back yard" and just reading in there for hours.  Our window seat in the living room had storage underneath and there were maybe only a few things that even had batteries - there were lots of legos and blocks, stuffed animals, and trucks for my brother and dolls and dress up items for me, and crayons and coloring books and puzzles and educational games and marbles and puppet houses and whatnot.  Even after we had moved from this small town, years later I was back and in the library and the librarians remembered me because we were so frequent of visitors.  So, I don't really go for the new, modern,  hip kinds of things that most people go for on kid's birthdays.  I like the practical, hands-on, creative play type of birthday presents that stand the test of time and don't just break into little plastic pieces.

This year's present is yet to be revealed in person, so it won't make itself known here yet.  But you can bet it won't be a Barbie.  I just hope it's appreciated.