9th Birthday Party

Today we finally had Miss Libby's 9th birthday party! What started out as what I thought was going to be just a few kids coming over to celebrate with Libby turned into 10 kids being at the party. But that's not too bad because they always seem to entertain themselves. Here are some (ok...a lot) of pictures from her party today.

Here is the birthday girl with the banner that I made for her in her party colors

On the front door we had a kitty sign (Libby wanted a kitty themed party) and a Wipe Your Paws mat
Here is the centerpiece that I made. It was time consuming and I have several burns on my fingertips from the hot glue but Libby aboslutely loved them so that made it all worth it!
Her friends started to arrive


Last year when it was time for Libby to open her presents everyone was jumping in her face at the same time and shoving gifts at her. So, this year I had them play Pass The Kitty (hot potato).
Everyone sat in a circle with their gifts in front of them. When the music stopped whoever had the kitty would then give Libby their present. That made it a little more calm for Libby opening her gifts and gave me an opportunity to take a picture of Libby, her friend, and the gift they were giving her. Here are Libby and Molly:
Libby and Gabby
Libby and Riley
Libby and Alexa
Libby and Avery
Libby and Maddy
Libby and Tommy
Libby and Camryn
Libby and Leighton
Libby and Aunt Debs
Libby and Aunt Karen
After the party was over Libby's friend Maddy stayed to spend the night and the two of them just finally fell asleep so I'm now headed there myself! It's been a long busy day for me and I only had 3 hours of sleep last night so I'm ready for bed!

9 Years Old!!

I watched my little girl fall asleep last night as an 8 year old and this morning I watched her wake up as a 9 year old! I can't believe it was NINE years ago when I first saw her beautiful face! I've enjoyed every minute of being her mommy!

Last night I made cupcakes for her to take in to her class today so they could all celebrate with her. Today I got off of work at noon and picked Libby up from school (and she told me that one of the boys in her class said to tell me that my cupcakes are epic) :-) and Libby and I quickly headed to the movies. She has been wanting to see Tangled for a few weeks so we finally made it there today to see it. She enjoyed the movie and once we were out of the movie we headed to Build-A-Bear for Libby to make a new friend. After she made her new bear we headed home to hang out for a while waiting for Ryan to get home.

After Ryan got home we had dinner - which the menu was Libby's choice so we had a gourmet dinner of chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, and mashed potatoes. :-) Once we were finished with dinner Libby opened up her presents and then we had cake and ice cream. We had a mini cake tonight for her birthday and her big cake will be at her party next weekend.
She finished off the night playing Mariokart Wii with Ryan in between getting several phone calls and reading all of the birthday texts and emails that came in today for her. She really enjoyed her special day and now she can't wait for her kitty cat party next Saturday!
Please excuse my pj's...I wasn't planning on being IN the pictures! :-)
I think from the size of her smile that this was her favorite present of the night!

Last Day of Being 8 Years Old & A Recap of the Last 8 Birthdays

I absolutely can't believe that today was Libby's last day of being 8 years old! When she wakes up in the morning she will be NINE YEARS OLD!!! Where does the time go? I have always taken pictures of her on the night before her birthday so that I have pictures of her on the last night that she was a certain age. Here are a couple of the pictures from tonight...her last night of being 8 years old!

Yes, she is wearing a clothes pin that she wrote "Birthday Girl" on...I think she's a little excited about her birthday! ;-)

Here is my little birthday girl over her last eight birthdays - and tomorrow I can add a picture from her 9th birthday!!
2002

2003...1st birthday

2004...2nd birthday
Libby and Aunt Cindy
2005...3rd birthday

And here I am with my little cutie at 9:37am...three years to the minute after she was born (how SWEET is that little face of hers???)
2006...4th birthday
Here we are at 9:37am - exactly four years to the minute after my little cutie was born Here she is later in the day hamming it up for the camera
2007...5th birthday

2008...6th birthday
Celebrating at Disney

See the Mickey Mouse shaped confetti still in her hair?
And here she is at her party Aren't the three of us just a cute little family? :-)
2009...7th birthday

2010...8th birthday
And even though you can't see Libby's face this is one of my favorite pictures...aren't they just too sweet?

Christmas

We have family movie night each night the week of Christmas but Thursday night Libby went to bed a little upset that we hadn't watched a movie. Well, little did she know that was because we had something a little different planned. She got into bed and we said goodnight and closed her door. About two minutes later we burst into her room and yelled, "SURPRISE! It's Christmas cruising time!!" During the two minutes that Libby was in her room alone thinking she was going to sleep Ryan and I had changed into our pj's and got some hot chocolate ready. After we ran into her room we quickly scooped her up from her bed and ran out to the car. She had no idea what was going on. :-) We drove around looking at Christmas lights and listening to Christmas music. Once we got back home and she got back into bed she said that having the surprise Christmas lights viewing was worth skipping our nightly movie. :-)

I was off for Christmas Eve so Libby and I spent the day at home in our pj's watching Christmas movies and making Christmas crafts. Ryan got home at 2:30pm from work and we left at 4:30pm to head to his parents' house for an early dinner followed by the Christmas Eve church service. After church we went back to their house to open presents and have lots of baked goodies that Ryan's mom made. We got home Christmas Eve night and Ryan and Libby each opened a present (pj's) and we put out cookies for Santa and Libby got into bed at about 10:00pm. At about 10:15 she heard Santa's sleigh bells and knew that he had entered the area so she tried to go to sleep as fast as she could. Santa's sleigh bells rang a few more times faintly outside of her window and each time she'd close her eyes even tigher and giggle.

Christmas morning she was up at 6:30 ready to tear into her presents. She was very happy with everything and said that everything was perfect. :-) I hope that everyone had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did!

Last Sunday we had a relaxed day spent at home so Libby and I did our holiday baking - for several hours! We made lots of different yummy treats. We made so much that I made a tray for Ryan's friend who was over to take home with him and I also made a big tray for Ryan to take to his office Monday morning.

Wednesday night Libby and I baked some ornaments and Thursday night she watched a personalized video that Santa sent to her. Thursday night I remembered at about 11:00pm that Libby's class was having their holiday party Friday! So, at 11:00pm I started baking a cake. I finally finished decorating it at 1:00am but it was pretty cute and Libby said that the whole class LOVED it. Well then, that made it all worth the lack of sleep! :-) Since I was baking, anyway, I decided to make two identical cakes...one for Libby's class party and one for Ryan's office. Ryan said they loved it, too.

Saturday Libby and I met Karen, Debs, and Jan for our Christmas get together. We had lunch at The Great Outdoors Restaraunt in High Springs and then browsed an antique shop before heading home.

Busy weekend

Yesterday Libby's class had a field trip to a dairy farm. I'm always up for a field trip...even one where we have to stand out in 40 degree weather and smell cow manure for three hours. :-) They learned some interesting things about the cows and how milk gets from the cow to the store.
Libby, her best friend, Maddy, and their teacher, Ms. Hinds

After the field trip Libby left with me and we went to see Santa since it was in the middle of the day on a Friday and there wouldn't be crowds. After seeing Santa Libby went back to my office with me which she always enjoys.

This afternoon Libby and I did our annual tradition of going to see the Cinderella ballet. It was pretty - as always.

Tomorrow we'll be baking some more goodies and also baking some ornaments for the tree!

Happy 1st birthday, Denali!

Today is Denali's 1st birthday! I think Ryan was more excited about Denali's birthday today than he is when it is his own birthday! I went to the pet store today and got Denali and Bella pup-cakes and Ryan got Denali a birthday banner, a birthday card, birthday hat, and a birthday medal. :-) Hopefully Denali enjoyed it today. Miss Bella got the same treats so that they could celebrate together and we'll do it all again in two and a half months when Baby Bella turns 1 year old!