Alexandra's 9th Birthday

My baby is nine years old!!! How is that even possible? It does not seem like so long ago that my life changed drastically for the better. I could not have hand chosen a more perfect baby with whom to begin motherhood. She is one of my greatest blessings.

We started her day with a trip to McDonalds to use her free birthday happy meal coupon. Just her and mommy. It was nice to talk without the interruption of little ones. We visited a new McDonalds on the Vegas Strip that has been in the news for its swankiness, but it was no big deal. Just a McDonalds with higher ceilings and tv's hanging down. But we had fun together.



Then we visited the "World's Largest Souvenir Shop" - a place I've always wanted to look around at, but not a place you take small children! If you need personalized dice, overpriced leather moccasins, or any sort of Elvis paraphernalia, that was the place to go.

Alexandra tried on many hats:

Then home to open gifts. She wanted a Butterfly theme. A few birthdays ago, I hung streamers all around the room, and now everyone expects it! I'm not sure I would have started this tradition had I known how much work I was getting myself into!

This time, I read in a magazine to take cheap dollar store plastic tablecloths, write a birthday message on them, and then cut them into strips up to about six inches from one side, then hang it up as streamers. It worked beautifully! We added some butterflies on a string, found at Party City, scattered a few balloons, and it was a very festive room.

What do you get with an oatmeal container, two pizza boxes, construction paper, scissors, glue, tape, yarn, and a coat hanger?

You get a butterfly pinata! We had a lot of fun putting this together. I ran out of steam before some key modifications should have been made. His antennae fell off, the wings almost ripped away from the frame, and well, it was an awful lot of work for about 10 seconds of use. But we had fun, made memories, and didn't spend $15 for a store-bought pinata.

I always think that we will avoid candy the next birthday, but somehow, we always end up with sugar. I tried to come up with at least some non-sugar items. I found individually wrapped prunes. Yes! Individually wrapped prunes! I am amazed that somewhere out there is a machine that makes and produces individually wrapped prunes. My kids like prunes anyway, but wrapped up like a candy! They loved it. There were some boxes of yogurt covered raisins and small party favors too. But somehow, so was a lot of candy.

Then she opened her gifts. She received a jewelry/bead making set, a Slinky, some Strawberry Shortcake stuff, and some other little things. She received money from Grandma, and is going to order her own pink personalized KJV Bible tomorrow. She has been wanting one for a while, and it's long overdue. It makes a mother happy to hear her nine year old daughter ask for her own Bible for her birthday!

She asked for a baton, but I visited six stores and could not find one. She asked for a robe, and I did find that:

She picked a red velvet cake, and we decorated it with butterflies, flowers and sprinkles. I practiced writing "happy birthday Alexandra" in icing, but it looked like my four year old attacked the cake, so we ended up just putting a "9" on it!

Every mother knows that red plus blue equals purple. Apparently this rule does not apply in the world of frosting and food coloring. In this sugary world, red and blue make some vague resemblance of a metallic puke gray-purple (around the edges of the cake).

Then her Daddy took her to a buffet, for a nice dinner with daddy. I'm a little puzzled at how daddy ends up getting the buffet, and mommy gets McDonald's dollar menu?!?!!?? HHhmmmmm. I'm going to have to think about that.

All in all, it was a lovely day. Sure, Natalie dumped two buckets of water out of the bathtub that soaked through the floor and onto the table where the cake was. And sure, Max and Anastasia both spilled their milk all over them, the table and the floor while they had cake. And sure, tomorrow I must pull down streamers and butterflies, vacuum up silly string and cake crumbs, mop up sticky milk spots, and get caught up on laundry. It was still a lovely day. Fitting for a lovely girl.

I wanted to put a slideshow right on this post, but I am apparently too computer-dumb to do so. So go here for a nine year review of my sweet Alexandra: http://s203.photobucket.com/albums/aa143/hannah_75/?action=view&current=a8b13f9c.pbw