Happy Birthday Rachel!

Rachel is 9 today. Weird. I say it every time one of the kids has a birthday, but how did she get to be 9??

She had 10 friends over yesterday for a craft party. They made crafts from the moment they got here until the moment their parents disappointed them by picking them up when they weren't finished with something. It seems no matter what time you arrive to pick your kid up from a birthday party it is always too early.

It just occurred to me that we forgot to take her to Joe's BBQ for her free meal. Shhhh. Don't say anything, maybe she won't remember. Sam did take her out for a donut at Safeway this morning since we are still a Krispy Kreme-free state.

She spent most of the day commenting on how she couldn't wait to open her presents. And she thoroughly enjoyed that process to be sure. She went to bed planning out what she would play with when and in what order. She got a CD player and a pillow with speakers in it and so she went to sleep with a CD playing in her ear. I'm sure she's dreaming about what she will buy with the money her aunts sent her. The only thing she has said for sure she's going to buy is a Stoudemire Suns jersey. She is sooooo not a girly girl. Although she's not 100% tomboy either. She plays with the girls during the morning recess and then she plays basketball with the boys during the afternoon recess. She's got it all figured out. And the Stoudemire thing was funny too. She says that "everyone else has Nash, but I like to be different." That I can confirm wholeheartedly.

Her meal request was heavy on the carbs (they all seem to be). She wanted a tortellini/chicken/broccoli ready to make frozen meal that I get at Costco (it truly doesn't get much easier than that), white cheddar shell pasta, and broccoli. I convinced her to switch the broccoli to peas since there was already broccoli in the tortellini. But there was no point in mentioning that two kinds of pasta with sauces seemed like overkill. Those were her favorites. So, that was dinner. It was incredibly easy to make though. So, I was very thankful for that. For dessert we had a yummy oreo/pudding/cool whip dessert thing. Thankfully my kids have gotten away from wanting cake and so we get a nice variety of desserts for their birthday dinners.

One of her gifts was a Radio Disney CD that has dance songs on it. So we cranked it up and the kids were doing the Cha Cha Slide and the Macarena as well as jamming to Who Let the Dogs Out. Do we know how to throw a party or what? The neighbors probably thought we had lost our minds since we had to open the windows to cool the room off with 5 sweaty children jumping around.

Now all that's left for me is to clean up the wrapping paper, do the dishes, and get 24 ice cream sandwiches for her to have at school with her classmates tomorrow. Birthdays last much longer for moms than they do for kids. I just want to know one thing: when is my mom going to come and pick me up?????