Emily Rivera and her older sister, Allison, love to create chalk drawings in their driveway. The J.E. Fritz students have a goal of covering the driveway with chalk drawings. Before a recent rainstorm, they had drawn 73 figures on the driveway. "Every time it rains, we start over and try to do more than we did last time," explained Allison, who is going into fifth grade.

Emily, who will be a third-grader this year, recently won accolades for a more permanent type of drawing that she submitted to the Royer's Flowers & Gifts Kids Club birthday design contest. Emily's design of three flowers in a vase with the greeting "Have a beautiful birthday" was the winner of this year's competition. Her card will be sent electronically to all Kids Club members, who can then print it out and bring it to their nearest Royer's to receive a free balloon. Emily, who received a bouquet including yellow and white daisies, baby's breath, and red carnations, has followed in Allison's footsteps in winning the competition. Allison's design of white daisies on a pink background with the greeting "Have a flower-tastic birthday" won the 2022 competition.

Although Emily's favorite subject is math, she said having the opportunity to be creative in making the card was the best part of entering the competition. "I had to look at a vase because I had never drawn one like that before," said Emily, who examined one of her mom's Mother's Day cards to get a better idea. She chose flower shapes she was familiar with to put in the vase and created a background to resemble blobs of paint on a wall. She submitted her card on her birthday in mid-July. By July 27, the family had received a phone call letting them know that Emily had won. Usually, the winner has to wait until his or her next birthday to receive the flower delivery. When Allison won, she had to wait until October to receive her prize. But Royer's representatives did not want Emily to have to wait nearly a year, so her flowers were delivered at the end of July.

In addition to math, Emily enjoys reading "Critter Club" books and "The Adventures of Sophie Mouse." She is learning to play tennis and the piano.

Having won, both girls are glad they entered the competition, but their mom, Debbie, noted that winning was not the goal of entering. "We wanted them to enter to have the experience," said Debbie. "They had not entered contests before." Debbie and the girls' father, Angel, made it clear that there would only be one winner. "We let them know ... to just do their best and have fun with it," said Debbie.