I am three days away from the anniversary of the birth of the little girl who gave me the title “Mom” for the first time. Every year around this time, I have a wave of nostalgia – thinking about my life pre Miss C, the difficult pregnancy I never thought she would survive and all the moments in between. She is such a smart girl, always questioning the status quo, always trying to do things the “right” way. I am consistently amazed by how her mind works. She is funny, sweet and caring. I am four years richer for God having allowed me to be a part of her life and couldn’t be more in love. As Miss A shows her personality more and more, I realize I have one girl who chooses to follow the rules and another who chooses to follow her heart. The other day, C told me, “Mom, I’m just a little girl and sometimes little girls don’t know everything they are supposed to do.” Well, sweetheart, I am honored to be your mom when you are a little girl, when you become a young lady and for the rest of my life.

C has been talking about her “upcoming” birthday party for the past 8+ months and asked for a repeat of some of the details from her last party (like the octopus marshmallow pops).  After moving only three weeks ago, taking more than two days to work on the food and decorations wasn’t feasible.  Pinterest let me down in generating ideas for a Sophia the First party.  BUT, with the help of Mr. M and his mom, I think we pulled it off!

I hadn’t been able to nail Claire down on what she wanted to serve for dinner until the morning of the party.  Mr. M shared that he was feeling a bit anxious when he woke up that morning knowing we didn’t even have a menu planned for our 15 birthday guests.  In desperation, I told Claire I would be making coconut shrimp and mac and cheese and asked if she wanted anything else.  Her reply: waffles.  Of course!  Her favorite meal is breakfast!  Our menu became French Toast, Sausage and Blueberries.  Add apple juice and we had a big winner.    As a special birthday treat, I didn’t even make Claire eat the sausage.

The forecast was calling for rain and I wasn’t sure how to entertain 8 kids aged 20 months to 9 years old – both boys and girls.  I could figure out a group of all girls, or a group all around the ages of my kids, but what to do with older kids who are boys?  A co-worker suggested having them decorate cookies.  Perfect!  Sophia and her friends decorated tea cups in one episode so C and her grandma cut sugar cookies into tea pots, tea cups and circles (for the boys).  Unfortunately, I haven’t quite gotten the hang of my new oven so they all came out as lumpy circles, but that didn’t seem to bother the master decorators.  We had purple (Sophia), yellow (Amber) and green (James) frosting with an array of sprinkles.  Claire’s cookie ended up being about an inch thick once she frosted it and add sprinkles.  =)  The kids also played a hotter/colder with a hidden unicorn.  Though the older kids rolled their eyes when I brought it up, everyone seemed to be having a good time except the birthday girl who was a little obsessed with when she was going to get to open her presents.  Ah the manners of a four year old.  =)

Little sister was a bit overwhelmed by all the older kids and was happy to find a more quite spot to play alone.

Claire of course enjoyed the gift part of her party, and continues to enjoy her gifts today – having her dad read and re-read her card from her new friend, laying out her dresses admire them and test them for how much they twirl and confirming who gave her each gift.  Such a girl!  Happy birthday to my sweet, wonderful, amazing 4 year old!

empathetic – caring – amazing memory – dramatic – detail oriented – sentimental – happy – all girl