Freshly Eight

My girl, all freshly eight, up before anyone else this morning (well, except me).Which is unusual for my sleeper, but it wasn't super early, just 7:45.

And normally this is a pj shot, but she was up AND dressed this morning. Which is also unusual. This girl could lounge in her pj's all day. And I honestly don't know where this comes from, because neither me or John are pj-loungers. But this super cute shirt was a birthday present from sweet friends, so she was excited to put it on this morning.

One year, mark my word, ONE YEAR I will get a non-blurry photo of one of my children running through streamers. Last year I had a Canon, this year a Nikon, so you may be tempted to think it's a user error, but you'd be wrong. I focus that red dot right on her, and still, STILL Nikon! The blurry shot. Very few things make me more irritable than a blurry photo. Well I might can possibly think of more than a few things that might make me more irritable - extreme heat, for example. A day of non-stop tapping on me, that'd send me straight to the irritable bin. Irritable bin? I don't know, it just came out, but if there's a looney bin, there should be an irritable bin, right?

But this is about Ansley's birthday. And blurry photos.

Birthday donuts! It just isn't a birthday around here without the Traditional Birthday Donuts. One year, perhaps many, many years from now, but one year, my goal is to have homemade birthday donuts. But this wasn't that year. Christian was still sleeping, but Ansley wanted him up, so I told her she could go wake him for Birthday Donuts. So we sang, and she blew out the candle, and hey the photo isn't blurry! And yummy donuts were eaten by all.

I would like to point out that Ansley brushed her hair, er, "brushed" her hair in her getting ready process, but I imagine it's a process, this learning hygiene stuff. I don't know, since an 8 year old is all I've experienced, but I'm guessing it takes a little while to learn how to fix your hair. She still has a little ways to go. But she tries, and that's what counts.

Have I told you Christian is one of the, if not THE, most thoughtful little boys I know? Everywhere we go he is pointing out stuff that other people would like. "Mom, that shirt is green, Mimi would love that." "Oooh, there's a train, we should get that for Hamilton." And on and on. So we were walking by these Pillow Pets (that I hadn't noticed) and Christian said "MOM! We have to get one for Ansley!" And it's true, she had been talking about one for several months. So Christian gave Ansley the Pillow Pet he had picked out for her, and she loved it. So sweet!

After John got home this evening, she opened the gift from us. (To re-cap, she has received a slumber party, a new sleeping bag that she requested, a Pillow Pet that she had been wanting). And, she had been talking about a new camera. So that was her final birthday gift, a brand new spiffy camera.

Christian came down the steps a little while ago and announced "I can't get to sleep because Ansley keeps taking pictures and the flash is hurting my eyes."

It's so hard to be a little brother.

And I love how Avery's little striped legs are helping in this photo.

At Ansley's request, we headed to Bonefish Grill this evening for her birthday dinner. It was yummy, and everyone had a fun time. Avery made us all laugh.

We gave her a green bean for the first time, and she was hilarious looking at it and trying to figure out what it was. It was very cute!

Then we returned home and sang happy birthday while Ansley blew out eight candles.

A fun day for our super sweet eight year old!

Comments

[Renee]

What a fun day celebrating with your beautiful birthday girl! You always make birthdays special at your house!