Baby Turns 8

Chronologically speaking, blogs don't have a very steady flow, so the fact that I am now writing about events before Christmas Eve followed by events after Christmas Eve is just going to have to be the way it is (Cory :) Besides, Caelan's 8th birthday comes with a lot of pictures because it was also Christmas with my mom and sister!

So I've been telling Caelan that she didn't get to turn eight, that she would just remain 7 and we might count up the days beyond that, but never years. "OH mom!" was her steady reply. Despite my best efforts our first baby is now half way to a drivers license--can you believe it?!

We began her special day with the traditional balloons in her room and off-key birthday song sung by her doting family :) Daddy made her some gluten free pancakes WITH chocolate chips--yummy! She opened a sparkly gift from us (the green shirt she's wearing in the picture) pre-breakfast, then after breakfast we opened gifts from Grandma J and our family. Girl was excited when she opened up a stack of books (Boxcar Children and Betsy) she's so like her mother :) Those were from Grandma. From us she unwrapped ballet clothes, just cuz she wanted some. She looks so tall in the picture we snapped of her showing off her new gear!

Snow was in the forecast, so we rounded up her birthday cake and the gifts heading for our Christmas/birthday party at my parents' house. First we needed to make a little stop or two. The first stop was at Kohls--don't you love Kohls? With Christmas money from Grandpa Perry, we stocked up on our kitchen needs--first order of business a four-waffle-making waffle iron! We've been using our single belgium waffler since it arrived as a wedding gift (thank you Ryan :) We also found a hashbrown maker, far superior to our knuckle grating grater, measuring cups that our dishwasher has yet to melt into unusual shapes, three sizes of funnels (which will come in handy for school as well as cooking), and a can opener that doesn't leave shredded labels in our food. On top of all that we got $10 in Kohls cash-whoo-hoo!

Our second stop was the busy, busy, busy shopping mall. Caelan asked weeks ago to visit the Santa there, so we surprised her with a trip to see Mr. Claus. We waited in line, and waited, and waited. Buck went to get his watch fixed while we waited. Eventually we made it to the front of the line and the kids enjoyed visiting with the snowy bearded fellow. We watched Miracle on 34th Street and so they were in the Santa mood.

Next objective: send dad to the car with the boys. The girls and I had a little bit of shopping to do :) Caelan really wanted to go into Claire's so we stopped their first. All their holiday earrings were buy one get one free, so practical Caelan picked out a set that had 8 pairs, fancy girl Gab got in on the deal and picked some flashy dangly snowflakes (I would wear them, they are super cute :)

We went up the escalator to the sports store to grab a gift I saw for Buck while I was in looking for something else. I found what I wanted online cheap enough that I could go back for the other thing. But, as Buck was with us, I had Gabby stick her arms through the handles on the shopping bag like a backpack and then put her coat over the top of this. I cannot believe mall security didn't stop and ask us questions, ha!

At the van, the girls showed off their earrings and wished daddy well at his 9th straight day of work. We climbed in the van, revved up the engine, and headed for Maga's house.