Eight is Great

Eight years ago, this little one surprised us with her arrival a few weeks early. In the eight years since, she has continued to surprise us...and teach us...and humble us...and stretch us...and make our whole world simultaneously crumble to pieces and burst with joy. She is happiness and strength and courage and perseverance and love personified. Happiest of eighth birthdays to our little Leah-licious. 

Kate and I surprised her for lunch at school on Friday. We brought Wendy's (including TWO hamburgers for Leah, which she devoured in no time).  

She was spoiled with presents, but I think her favorites were her horse socks and the card from the Oakes family with 8 things they love about her. 

She loved her 8 cake - and blew out the candles all on her own. There are positives to her heavy breathing, I guess!?! We celebrated with cake and ice cream with our Iowa favorite - the Oakes family!

And one of my favorite things is on their birthdays, kids at Leah's school can pick a book to donate to the school library. Then, once it's all barcoded and in the system, the birthday girl or boy gets to be the very first person to check it out and they get their name in the front. Leah's was a perfect fit and it made us all so happy to read it! 

Pajama Party

Eight good friends filled our house today to celebrate our sweet eight year old. 

They wore their pajamas, made cereal necklaces, decorated pillow cases, tied simple fleece blankets, opened presents, played Pin the PJs on Leah, ate pancakes and donuts (little sister wasn't allowed at the big table) and doted upon Leah like you would not believe. These are good girls with good hearts and they're good for my heart. I'm so glad they could all come and celebrate our eight year old. 

Based on her giant grin we couldn't wipe off if we tried, I think the birthday girl had a great time.

Now I need a nap! 

Virthday? Balentine's day?

Valentine's Day is a big day in our house. And not because it's the day of love. But because it's dad's day! Ryan is the valentine of all three girls in our house AND it happens to be his birthday! 

We did do some different things to celebrate both of them. 

We frosted cookies (Leah obviously used her computer to tell us what color frosting and sprinkles should go on the used-to-be-monthly-but-recently-annual sugar cookies). 

The girls checked their envelopes for a daily surprise leading up to Valentine's Day. 

We had fun creating our own valentines to give to friends at home and church as well as classmates and teachers/helpers at school. 

This dynamic duo teamed up to create a seriously fabulous valentine box - a monster Leah! Leah was the brains, Ryan the brawn. 

The girls I work with at church gave a "heart attack" to Bishop Moose, the ecclesiastical leader of our congregation. 

Leah had a class party - that Kate was more than happy to attend. 

For Ryan's birthday, we started the day out with my first-ever attempt at eggs Benedict. It was deliciously successful, albeit time consuming. 

We gifted Ryan with a few small items - Kate was happy to open them all. 

The girls also gifted him with naps: the best gift of all. 

We made him his favorite pink cake...and then helped him eat it. 

 And then Ryan and I went out for a hot night on the town - to Village Inn - because when you only have a babysitter for 3 hours and the waits at every restaurant are 3+, you keep it classy.  

Happy 34th birthday and happy Valentine's day to our main squeeze!

a very happy unbirthday

Kate seems to have caught my enthusiasm for birthdays - most importantly, hers. After the celebrations from my birthday wore off, she started to get excited for her own. The only problem is, her birthday is in May. "May firteenf" to be precise. And May 13th is half a year away. 

The poor girl was so excited and so incessant with her outbursts of enthusiasm for her big day, that we decided to celebrate her half birthday. We grabbed a donut, lit a candle and sang the (un)birthday song to all in attendance and that was that. 

It curbed her enthusiasm, gave me a chance to tell her there were a few other birthdays and holidays before her big day, and gave us all an excuse to eat a donut. Win-win. 

A very happy unbirthday indeed. 

33

It's not a newsflash that I love my birthday. I mean, anyone who has spent any time with me in the last 33 years knows I love my birthday. I love all birthdays and I love celebrating them! And my birthday was perfect from beginning to end because of wonderful people the world over who took time out of their days to celebrate it with me. From friend dinners to Facebook, texts to treats, flowers to Facetime, candles to cards, (perfect) weather to well-wishes, lunch dates to long distance phone calls, mail to meals (cooked by my main man), it was wonderful. Thank you for making 33 magical from the beginning. 

21 days to make a habit...and a 33 year old

I feel like sometimes the daily doldrums in life are often the hardest to deal with - the stagnant, dull, inactive moments. I've found myself a little down and out as of late. I can't really pinpoint one exact reason. It's a handful of small, personal things all piled up that are bringing me down. Overall, things are fine; nothing big or unusual or overly stressful on my plate, so I don't know what my deal is. I do know that I don't want to feel like this for much longer, so something needs to change. 

They say it takes 21 days to make a habit. And in 21 days I will be 33. So, I have a convenient 21-day-marker to achieve some small goals that will hopefully make a difference in my attitude and overall outlook on life.

I've written them down for myself, with 21 boxes to check off next to each one (I love a good box to check off). Six goals in three categories - mental, physical, and spiritual - as I truly believe all three are intertwined. And together, I really feel those will impact my emotional well being. So, win-win-win-win. 

Here's to the next 21 days. May they be an active, uphill climb to a destination that is worth the view. 

cookies and milk

I had a low-key, relatively impromptu birthday party for Kate and some of her cute little friends. Since two of her loves in life are cookies and milk, we decided to run with the theme and decorate sugar cookies and drink milk.

When the guests arrived, we sang happy birthday and she immediately hid underneath the table, which was, of course, adorable. 

We then spent the next 2 hours shoveling hastily-frosted cookies in our faces and licking our sweet and sticky fingers. The day was chilly, but nice enough to run around outside and try out the new swing set. And as a bonus, only 2 children escaped to the front yard. (Um, yikes! Looks like we need to block that small slit in the fence??)

 

At this age, parties are just as much for the parents as the kids and I think we all, old and young, had a smashingly delicious time. 

As evidenced by the remains. 

All in all, a sweet and delicious celebration for my deliciously sweet (and apparently serious) Katers.