Day 1083: Eight Is Great

Sweet P turned eight today.

Eight years ago today, I became a mama.  And I was blessed beyond even my own comprehension by the gift of this sweet spirit being the first to join our family. 

This is her cute "thinking of a wish face".  She requested cinnamon rolls for her birthday breakfast.  I remembered having fun making them in muffin tins when I was a small girl, so I made few this way for her as well.

We had so much fun celebrating our oldest baby today.

After the cinnamon rolls we headed to the gym and went swimming.  So much fun!  Except that I got a little overzealous in my play with the kids and my foot seems to be suffering a bit.  But, it was still a lot of fun.

Then we headed to a local restaurant for lunch.  It's one of those buffet-style and not my favorite.  But, we were really wanting one where Sweet P could get some plain shrimp and HH discovered that the manager was willing to do some special, just for her.  The kids all had a great time.  She got her shrimp and was thrilled when we discovered that they actually made shrimp pizza.  Disgusting, if you ask me, but she liked it even better than the plain shrimp.

And then there was the do-it-yourself soft serve ice cream bar.  You can guess how much all of the kids loved that.

After lunch we came home and HH took the older two sledding while Darling A slept and Baby B and I did some laundry.  Super exciting, but the Birthday Girl had made a specific request to sled with her daddy, so she was happy.

Then we opened gifts.  She loved each of them (so did a sad and a little jealous Little M), but I think her current favorite was a journal from me.  It's one I've been keeping for her since she was about a year old, when I came across one my mother-in-law had kept for HH and fell in love with the idea.  I did much better when she was young and only had one sibling, so the entries have been pretty sparse the past few years, but she was pretty excited to get it and read all about her younger self.

Next, she and I headed to the church so she could meet with our bishop (ecclesiastical leader) to discuss her upcoming baptism.  It was fun just hanging out with her on the way there and back.  She's fun to talk with.  We had a pretty in depth discussion earlier in the day because I could tell she was a little nervous about this appointment, even though it was just a chat with the bishop and nothing scary at all. We talked all about what it means to get baptized and why it's important to me that she understand and make this decision for herself.

After we returned home, she got to stay up and read for an extra 30 minutes.  I love that that is something that is so exciting to her!

It was a great day.  I love my Sweet P.  I feel so blessed to have her.  And to have had her for our oldest.  She is a great help to me.  She's so good with her siblings and genuinely loves to care for them and make them happy (most of the time).  She is strong and independent and I love the great example she sets for them.  She's becoming quite the artist and I'm excited to see where she goes with that.  She's funny.  She loves stories, whether it's reading, or writing them.  She's so creative.  She is beautiful in every way inside and out and one of my main concerns in life is making sure she never forgets that!