Well…we survived Colleen’s birthday weekend. Barely. We ended up with 7 out of 10 girls spending the night on Friday. The quote of the night came at precisely 8:24 p.m. when Beth turned to me and said “this is way crazier than I expected.” Ha!
I think that was right after Orca had been let out by one of the girls for the 2nd or 3rd time to freely roam the neighborhood.
It rained most of the evening and we had planned to do s’mores and a scavenger hunt. I still managed to light a fire with the wet wood and the girls had fun running through the muddy yard and trails, but we delayed the scavenger hunt until morning.
We tie-dyed in the garage – two days later my fingers are still not quite back to the color they should be – but the girls had a lot of fun making those – and they turned out awesome.
While we opened the presents Colleen had been prepped to thank people even if she already had what they gave her – but I guess we forgot to tell Megan the same thing. For a few presents Colleen would be saying “thank you” and then Megan would chime in, in a loud sing-songy voice “but we already have that.”
We handed out glow necklaces at some point, and as the girls were finally settling in to go to bed after their movie we heard some shrieks – one of them had ripped their necklace and it shot the glowy liquid stuff across several sleeping bags, pillows and pj’s. We soon found out the glow stuff doesn’t come out of anything that it touches no matter how hard you scrub – so thankfully it all loses its glow after a few hours.
We had the girls sleep on the main floor in the family room and we slept upstairs. At about 3:00 a.m. I heard some rustling in our bedroom, followed by a small hand brushing across the end of our bed and squeezing me toes đŸ™‚ I asked “who’s there?” and I got back a “me”, to which I asked (to Beth’s amusement) “me who?”. One of the girls was walking in her sleep and managed to get all the way upstairs and into our bedroom – what fun!
At any rate, we survived and Colleen had a great birthday!
Here’s what’s on Colleen’s mind this year on her birthday…
My favorite food is…chocolate ice cream and pasta
When I grow up I want to be an…artist (and doesn’t care what medium she works in)
My favorite restaurant is…Subway
My favorite toy is…my friendship bracelet kit
My favorite color is…green
My favorite song or band…(doesn’t have one)
My favorite holiday is…Christmas
My favorite season is…fall (because that’s when her birthday is)
If I could do anything tomorrow I would…not have school (and she would go swimming)
My favorite subject in school is…English (because she can talk in English)
If I could travel anywhere in the world…I would go to all of the Great Wolf Lodges all over the world
Third graders at our church get a Bible – that special day for Colleen was today. Here’s our big nine year old with her new Bible!
Happy Birthday Colleen! Sounds like the birthday party was a lot of fun. I think that’s so funny that one of Colleen’s friends was sleep walking and pinching your toes. They say you’re not supposed to wake someone up when they’re sleep walking. Can’t believe 9 years have passed! We need to start thinking about a family vacation in a few years. I would love to pick a date now, 2 or 3 years in the future when we can all meet at Disney World or somewhere like that. That will give us time to save $$ and plan it out.
Sounds like the girls had a great time at the birthday party and glad the parents survived. Those shirts are really wild and the models look even more wild. Becareful making faces like that. Great-grandma T. always told us when we made faces that our faces could freeze like that. It never happened to us in Indiana, but in Minnesota it might be more likely to happen.
Collen you are growing up so fast and becoming such a nice looking young lady. You have a pretty smile and look so happy in the pictures. I especially liked the picture of you holding your new Bible. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I received my Bible when I was in the third grade. Enjoy being nine. You have so much to learn and enjoy. I always like reading your favorites. It will be fun for you to read as you grow older and maybe see how some of your favorites have changed over the years.
We are so eager to see all of you and are looking forward to your arrival this Friday.
Love,
Dad and Grandpa T.