Grow older gracefully....

As you know, last Thursday was L's 7th birthday.

When your daughter starts talking about her birthday months and months ahead of time, when it actually arrives...you are already spent.

Done.

Tired.

But I forged ahead, mustering up excitement as I went, and I think she bought it.

I woke her up Thursday morning singing "Happy Birthday" in her ear. It took only a few moments for her to realize that it was a very important day.

Important.

Not the most important, but important.

You see, for the last two weeks I have been privy to a countdown. It went like this:

"11daysuntilmybirthdayNotexactlymybirthday,butmybirthdayparty.
NinedaysuntilmyactualbirthdaybutIamreallycountinguntilmyparty.
Youknow.Mybirthdayisexcitingbutmyfriendscometo
myparty.
So.Howmanydayswasituntilmybirthday?Ohyeah.That'sright.11days.
Notmybirthday-butmyparty".

Tired yet?

Not five minutes after L woke up...the clock yet to reach 7 a.m., L received a phone call from her Aunt Sissy.

There was much singing and improvising going on the other end. L hung up and sang me Aunt Sissy's version of the song......something along the lines of "Happy Birrrthhhhddddaayyyy Dear Poopy Butt...Happy Birthday to you".

(I have that warm fuzzy feeling all over again just thinking about the love they share. Just precious.)

Ahem.

After that she informed me that I needed to just bring the phone to the bathroom with us so that she could take all the other calls that she was sure she would get while getting ready.

Um. Ok.

***********************

Before heading off to school with cupcakes made the night before, I made L pose for her first "official" 7 year old picture.

(The one with the messy hair on the cabinet didn't count.)

Bless her heart...she is so excited about this whole "growing older" thing.

She'll learn.

I surprised her at school with balloons and her favorite....a cheeseburger from Wendy's.

She looked at me, her face turned red, and she kept on walking past me until her teacher gave her "permission" to acknowledge me.

I think she was blown away by the surprise and was just meerly trying to contain her enthusiasm. At least that is what I tell myself.

That night we granted her birthday supper wish and headed to Aunt Sissy's and Uncle Jason's and got to take in the fascinating occurance of PIZZA HUT DELIVERY.

That is right, folks.

Pizza Hut actually BRINGS the pizza to your house.

You call them and they bring it.

AMAZING!

****************************

Friday was just bridge between the actual birthday on Thursday and the all important birthday party on Saturday.

Kind of a let down to a 7 year old who felt we should just party on through.

Bless her heart.

***********************

Saturday morning Mi Mi came and picked up L at 8:00 and they headed to the big town to go shopping.

Once there, apparently, L told Mi Mi that she didn't particularly enjoy shopping. Malls. Garage Sales. You name it.

Where did this child of mine come from?

So...since this was L's birthday trip she let L decide what to do.

Yep. They ate lunch at Wendy's.

(Such a high dollar culinary palette she has.)

She then met us at the hotel indoor pool at which we were having her party to "help us get ready".

(In case you were wondering, "help us get ready", translates into, "get into the pool first".)

I made her pause before jumping in so that I could grab a quick pic of her birthday cupcakes.

Don't look too closely or you will realize that the beach umbrella is firmly planted in a mud/sand mixture.

L and B counseled me on my OCD, but I am not sure that they were very effective.

L: Mom, they are just cupcakes...they don't HAVE to be perfect. Hhmmm. This beach one...uh...could you add blue icing around the edges for water?

B: Yeah...don't worry. (Looking at the shark fin cupcakes)...these should really have white on the blue icing because in the ocean the waves have white bubbles on the top.

(Do you see what I am working with here?)

So L "helped us get ready" as pictured below:

And B, put on his own goggles, ready to take on the masses.....

Then, in an apparent loss of my mind, I agreed to give some sweet faced boy his party favor during the party.

And, of course, everyone else wanted theirs too.

And then this transpired:

If I calmly (loudly) stated "Please do not shoot the water at the ceiling OR adults" once....

well....you know the rest.


I think the party was a (wet) success.

Even though the hotel the party was at was only 20 miles from our house, the fact that we had to rent a room to gain access to the pool resounded with my children and it was decided that we MUST.....again, we MUST stay the night.

So we did.

*************************

The next day we arrived back home and began getting everything in order for the "family party".

What?

You don't celebrate MULTIPLE times?

Really, you should. It shaves years off of your life.

We ate....we drank....we enjoyed being outside.

Then we all gathered around to sing "Happy Birthday" once again.

B led the masses as he started in singing.

(I think he was just ready to eat some cake.)

Speaking of cake...L has scaled down her cake expectations and gave Linda strict instructions that were as follows:

1. It is to be a chocolate cake.
2. It needs to have yellow stars.
3. It needs to have pink hearts.
4. It needs to say "Happy Birthday L" in different colors.

That was it. Simple, huh? I bet it was a welcome relief for Linda considering that two years ago she made this cake.

And that about sums up our weekend. It has taken me until today, Thursday, to find the energy to even post the pictures.

Considering B's birthday is in June, I imagine we will have to start counting down to his birthday any day now.

Oh joy.