Her Last Year in Single Digits

We had such a big time celebrating Ashley's 9th birthday. For her birthday meal at home she requested macaroni and cheese and banana pudding?!? I had no idea she even liked banana pudding!!! I added some grilled chicken to her birthday meal . . . although I didn't make her eat it.

On Saturday she celebrated her birthday with our family and friends. My mom did a fantastic job with her soccer birthday cake. . . .

Let me tell you . . . when these kiddos were running upstairs, it sounded like a herd of elephants. It was so much fun!!!!

On Ash's birthday list was a new bike with gears. Jon has really gotten into biking and has bought himself a new bike that has a gazillion-jillion gears. . . so Ash wanted one too.

We called all the kids outside to tell them they were going to have to get some trash up . . .

She was so excited. The bike is so big Ash actually thought Jon had bought me a new bike . . .

In fact, the bike is so big she kind of has to hop to get on it.

There she goes . . . she loves it!!

Her birthday party actually turned into a slumber party. This was so unplanned, but I'm really working on just going with the flow . . . we had 5 little girls spending the night with us.

They all had a wonderful time.

Sunday morning I was quite concerned about how I was going to get myself, my 2 girls, and the 5 other girls all ready for church. And of all Sundays . . . this Sunday we had to be there a little earlier than normal . . .

Ask anybody who remotely knows me and they will tell you very rarely am I ever on time. Somewhere along the way I made up this rule in my head that as long as I am no longer than 15 minutes late . . . then I'm still on time . . . that's the definition of fashionably late in my book.

Jon was not here to help. He went out and did my Sunday morning paper run for me.

Guess what? We got to church and on time!!! The girls were all so pleasant. They actually all helped one another get ready. They would help fix one another's hair. One of the girls helped me ice the cinnamon rolls. It was really a lot of fun!

Alec spent the night with a friend . . . and for that I know he was grateful that he did not have to be in a house full of squealing girls.

I will say the difference between boy sleepovers and girl sleepovers is when boys come over . . . I just know to have plenty of food. Very rarely will I ever hear from them. They hang out and play . . . rarely is there ever any drama.

Now with girl sleepovers . . . I had to leave watching the GA game with Jon several times to go upstairs and mend hurt feelings, settle things in a calm and rationale way, tell everyone to include everyone else and no telling of secrets, to remind them to treat one another just like they want to be treated. . .

One time I headed back downstairs and all of the girls were upstairs watching the Hannah Montana movie. Jon and I heard the sweetest sound of their little voices singing . . . we snuck up the stairs so we could watch them. . . so sweet.

One minute they all are fighting like cats and dogs and the next minute they are kumbaya-ing with one another:) That's girls for you . . . both little girls and big girls.