Charity's Birthday

Wednesday was Charity's 8th birthday. She had a really nice birthday if you ask me :).... Charity woke up to her sign and the crepe paper decor then came in and woke me up much earlier than she normally would because "it is time to get up! ...... Oh....... And....... Can I open some of my presents???" I thought it was funny..... But we do have a rule that you have to wait till Daddy's home and we're having the party, so I said no. Lucky for Charity Grandpa let her open 2 of the presents he had gotten her, and they were two really cute outfits so she was able to wear one of them to school. So that was really fun for her. As we were leaving to school we found a cute little note on the doorstep from the Activity Girls in the ward. We thought that was such a cute way to welcome her into the group. And a fun little surprise. We got her off to school, on time thankfully, and she was able to pass out her beloved Twinkies, and get spoiled by her teacher and friends.

The boys and I spent the day making her cake, and eating the frosting. They totally cheered me on the whole time, telling me how "awesome" it looked and what a "good 'dob'" I was doing. It was adorable. and very motivating. Charity wanted a Hannah Montana Guitar Cake..... I did my best :).... it was pretty fun to make I thought.

We got everything all ready to go out to the Bouncy Place!!! (Classic Skating has 2 dollar Tuesday where everything is only $2 to play.... we've taken advantage of this before, but really benefitted from it for her birthday. And while we are not doing friend parties this year, we needed a non-partisan location for our party and this one hit the spot) Brad was nagging me all day trying to get me to tell him where we were going to go (because up until then it was a secret) for the party. I finally gave in and not even half a second later he was all disappointed, telling me that he wanted it to be a surprise.... lose/lose for me. He decided he was going to pretend that he was surprised when we got there :) funny boy.

When we got there I realized I had forgotten Charity's rollerblades. Skating at Classic is something Charity has been longing to do ever since she first saw the place, so we thought we'd let her and Kelly do it for the first half of the party. But I did forget hers and she had to rent some. Kelly was a character during this part. She fell about 5 times in a matter of seconds before deciding she was just going to do one skate, and then skated around falling about every 3 minutes, all the while claiming that she was having fun, and didn't want to go to the bouncy part because she wanted to be with Charity. Even though Charity was long gone, skating on her own. They're so funny. Nate was with the boys bouncing, and I had Erika and sat with my Dad in the skating arena with the girls for about the first hour. Then more family started showing up. Nate's parents made it, then Meg and Chris. The place got really packed and our little area where we had reserved a table happened to be in the middle of a major traffic zone. I wish we had known that turning the tables could solve this problem before it was too late..... I mean it is a crazy fun kid place, so it's expected that it would be crowded, noisy, smelly, and full of chaos, but we could have minimized it just a little had we but known. I was telling my dad that I was disappointed with how crowded and loud it was because of comments I had heard during the party from the guests, and he said, "well what do they expect??!!!" So yeah, I agree. It was a fun place for Charity. She skated around and had a good time.

We all had pizza and then cake and ice cream before she FINALLY got to open her presents. She was DYING of anticipation.

She got lots of phone calls and texts from everyone all day.... this was when Becky texted her :) It's so fun that we have cell phones and can text now. I do like that form of communication. So much easier than waiting for a quiet/free moment to call and try to carry on a conversation with the kids' neediness.

Meg got Charity this "Sam's Remote" from iCarly. She loves it!!!! I think it's such a perfect gift for Charity.... she does it just like Sam and Carly too.... makes me laugh.

hugging Sierra

Brad and Kelly were very thrilled about their gifts for Charity. They both sat right next to her as she opened them and were almost more excited than she was. Brad told me later that he wished he had covered the WHOLE box with duct tape because then Charity would have a REALLY hard time opening it :) Funny boy.

I just love that my kids get so excited for each others' birthdays. I wonder how long that will last. It sure does make it fun to have birthday parties.

Brad got her a horse just like his so that they could have matching horsies. Kelly got her a puppy to "be friends with butterscotch"

Luke got her a frisbee. One that "throws weewy far!!!!" He even tested it out in the store to make sure it was a good one :)

Uncle Steve got her the beloved Password Journal that she has been obsessing over since Christmas. She was SOOOO happy to see that she got one :) way to go Uncle Steve.

And of course she got her very own set of scriptures. This was a tradition in my family when you turn eight, so we decided to carry it out. She got a really sweet look on her face when she opened it and realized what it was, "my OWN scriptures!!!! and it has my name on it!!!!" I loved that. I'm happy to see her so excited about the scriptures and her baptism. She's been reading her own scriptures at night without any help at all. What a cool little girl.

she got a cute shirt from Brent and Sarah along with some pens and candy. She sure got spoiled this year.

I just thought this was a funny one of Luke wearing the frisbee he got her :).... he's so random

It was a fun night for all of us. I hope it was memorable for Charity and I hope that she knows how much fun it is for me to watch her grow and do new things. I look SO forward to her baptism here in a couple weeks. I can't wait to see her make those covenants and do her best to keep them. It's just such a neat time.