Ten Things About Kiki Aru: My Niece the Birthday Girl!

Today my niece Kiki Aru celebrates her twelfth birthday. One thing about Kiki Aru is she has always been creative. In the picture above we gave her crayons and paper at my wedding celebration when she was two to keep her entertained!
Kiki Aru always loves to laugh. She loves funny jokes and stories that make her laugh. She has also shown me things online that make me laugh! We love to laugh together.

She also loves to learn. The picture above was when she was in kindergarten. Since she was very young she has always liked to be challenged to learn new things.

Cards are a favorite game for Kiki Aru. When she was younger she loved to play FISH, but now we all love a rousing game of Spoons.

This is a picture a few years ago when we took her and her sisters camping. They loved climbing, building a fire, playing charades, and going swimming.

She also loves to play on the computer and when she would come to visit my house when she was young I would always grab some favorite computer discs from school and off she would go! Now she loves the fact I have high speed internet.

Kiki Aru is musically talented. She learned to play the ukulele and serenaded me at my fiftieth birthday party.

She also loves to sing at the Sixth Street Theater in Wallace, in family performances at holidays, and at her church.

A proud day for the whole family was when she was chosen to be one of the eighteen students from Idaho to ask the astronauts a question while they were at the international space station in August. Here she is practicing at the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise. Her question she asked loud and clear was, "How long had you wanted to be an astronaut?"
Here is JEJ's favorite picture of Kiki Aru that my friend Elinor caught at our wedding celebration. She has always loved being adventurous, whether is was going through this gate at two, learning to ski, or riding her bike down a steep hill.

Happy Birthday to You Kiki Aru! I wish I could be there to celebrate. To read more about the birthday girl go to her mother's blog here.