My oldest turned 9!  And, for some reason, hers always seems to get a little more spread out.  We've been celebrating for quite a while it seems.  The Saturday before Thanksgiving, my parents came over to celebrate.  My mom made cupcakes, we opened presents and sang Happy Birthday.

Then, on Tuesday, we went up to Northern California and got to visit with my sister.  Aunt Kelly had presents for her to open. 

Then, on the Friday after Thanksgiving, we celebrated Girl9 and her cousins' birthday complete with cake, presents and the singing of Happy Birthday.

Saturday was her actual birthday.  We were travelling back home that day, but she got to pick out where we stopped for lunch.  That night, with a lack of food in the house and the exhaustion of her parents, we had pancakes and put a candle on her pancake and sang Happy Birthday.

Then on Monday, we had her birthday party with her friends.  In honor of her first winter in a place that actually has winter, we had a Winter theme. We assumed, when we started planning a month ago, that by now there would be some colder weather, and possibly some snow to play in.  We were very wrong as it was about a 75 degree day as the girls were arriving.  But it was a very good time anyway.

 As the girls arrived, we played a game of how many words you could make from the word SNOWFLAKE.  Then we made snow themed beaded bracelets.  Unfortunately, I am a horrible knot tier so a few of the girls had to repeat their efforts.  Then we played Winter Charades.  The girls were divided into teams.  A player came and had one minute to pop a balloon, find the paper that was in the balloon and act it out.  It was fun to watch the different ways they tried to pop the balloons.  The winning team got to be first in line for our Snowball Hot Fudge Sundae bar.  We stuck a candle and we sang Happy Birthday.  They also got to have Hot Chocolate with marshmellows.   We opened presents and then played a few games of Telephone before parents started arriving. 

This was the first friend birthday party Girl9 has had for a few years as we were on "sabbatical" from birthday parties during much of seminary.  I had to hold back tears as I praised God in my heart for bringing us to this place and blessing my daughter with so many friends in just 8 months.  And at the same time, I also realized that my firstborn is growing up and we are halfway done in our raising of her.  We pray that she will continue to "grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and that the grace of God will be upon" her(Luke 2:42). 

Blessings!

-J