Bailey's Birthday...

Our sweet Bailey turned 13 years old. That's right. Officially a teenager.

We have a friend from our Maryland days that has gone to art school with the desire to work with children's books. Tara Soressi had incorporated corgis in her artwork and posted some of this on Facebook. Her family owned corgis. Our Bailey loves corgis but can't own one as they own two very large cats. Bailey would get a painting of her with corgis for her 13th birthday from Claude and me and it would be painted by Tara. I created this letter to Bailey so she would understand the story of her painting.

Dear Bailey,

On October 21, 2019, Gramma sent this request to Tara Soressi:

“Would you consider doing a drawing or painting of a corgi for me? Our youngest grandmonster loves corgis and it would make a beautiful birthday present for her. Her birthday is Feb 8th.”

Tara was very happy to do this project. This is Tara Soressi. We were very close to this family when we lived in Maryland. Tara is a beautiful person inside and out. Their family loved corgis and she used them in her studies at the Academy of Art University. She is working on a career in children’s books. This is Tara with their lab puppy the family got when their corgi died. You would love Tara. She used to raise Service Dogs to be trained to help people with special needs, like the dogs that help blind people.

Gramma was seeing these samples of Tara’s artwork for school on Facebook. These are for a book she was creating with a corgi as a main character and knew you would love them.

October 27, 2019, Tara requested some pictures of Bailey to use as she created a painting just for her. Sandi sent these pictures to Tara leaving it to Tara to figure the best way to have Bailey and a corgi in the painting.

Gramma also included this description to help Tara get a feel for your personality.

“Bailey is very active, literally. She also has a heart as big as all outdoors. Her father is Jewish so she has lovely features and dark hair from that part of her heritage. She plays trumpet in the band, runs cross country, is in the Beta Club, participates in 4-H, plans to throw the discus in track this spring. She wants to try everything. They have two very huge cats and for that reason she cannot have a dog. Her preference in dogs is Corgi. She has enjoyed participating in some theater in her community and loves to draw. She loves all animals. She wears braces now so they show up in the picture. I hope that gives you a feel for our bundle of joyful energy.”

On January 21, 2020, Tara sent this picture of her painting to Gramma to be sure it was okay. Grampa and Gramma pronounced it great and particularly loved the happiness this picture illustrates.

Bailey, we wish you a very Happy 13^th Birthday!! Welcome to official teenagerhood!!

Love Ya Bunches,

Grampa and Gramma Christensen (Pa & Ma)

Bailey read the letter about getting the painting. 

Then she looked at the painting. Her first words were how happy she was that Tara got her hair right. Bailey has curly fine hairs around her hairline. Tara painted her hair just like Bailey wants it to look without the curly little hairs. Bailey was very happy with her gift. 

Then Claude gave the kids their Valentine's card. It had money in it and a recipe to make a really fun Valentine's Day cookie. The kids were so fun to watch. The card played music and had all kinds of burping sounds with the music. They were very amused. I think Grampa hit this one out of the park!! 

So now we have a real teenager in Bailey. It was fun to celebrate a week before her actual birthday. This allows her to have fun with her friends on her birthday. Happy Birthday Miss B!!