Eight is Pretty Darn Great

Whoa, this past week has been BUSY--kind of a blur, really. My little girl turned EIGHT YEARS OLD on Thursday! How in the world did that happen? Where has the time gone? It seems such a short time ago that she was getting stuck under chairs and wobbling around with an object in each hand. Man, time flies.

We spent her birthday doing things that Kira wanted to do--for the most part. She started the day off with a berry smoothie (ala our Magic Bullet, which we have rediscovered now that fresh fruit is in season). She decided to "work out" with Wii Fit while I showered and dressed. (She's bound and determined to beat my hula hoop record!) Kira was delighted to see that the animated Wii Balance Board knew it was her birthday and was even wearing a party hat! Adam headed to work, and Kira and I went out to breakfast at Helser's on Alberta. While we waited for our grub, I taught Kira how to play Othello. After breakfast, we headed downtown under the guise that we were going to drop off our leftovers to Daddy, since we had ordered way too much food. As a surprise, he arranged to take off from work for the rest of the day and play with us!

Before playtime could commence, we needed to pick up the cake we'd ordered for Kira's "friend" party at Costco. After a quick stop at home to let Adam change into his play clothes, we made a stop at Best Buy to pick up a present for K. We had planned to buy her a camera, which was the number one item on her wish list. (This is actually her second digital camera--her uncle & aunt gave her her first when she was three!) Unfortunately, we hadn't done a ton of homework. The one we had picked out online seemed just a little too fragile (and too expensive) for an eight year old, so we went with the Argus Bean instead. We read lots of reviews on my iPhone while we were shopping, and they were mostly very positive. Kira absolutely LOVES it, and so far it seems like a great purchase for our little shutterbug.

We finally headed to Kira's destination of choice: Oaks Amusement Park. We splurged on ride bracelets (hooray for the Safeway Club Card deal!) and went on rides until we were literally SICK. We were sad to see that the tea cups are gone, but Kira and I managed to make Daddy pretty dizzy on the hot air balloon ride. Adam hit a few other rides, but he'd had it after one go on The Scrambler (which Kira and I went on twice in a row!). I'd had it after the Rock n' Roll ride went backwards. After that K & I were good for one go on the "Fairest Wheel" (as Kira calls it) and one more trip down "Big Pink" (the giant slide). It was hot, so we were all a little relieved when it was time to leave and head to piano lessons.

Yes, I know, we should have let her skip her lesson, but they aren't exactly cheap and there's no lesson this coming week. After that, it was time for dinner at one of Kira's favorite restaurants--because it's SO fancy--The Old Spaghetti Factory. After dinner and a scoop of birthday ice cream, we headed home for presents. It was quite a busy day, and we were all whooped. Adam put our big girl to bed while I finished sewing the waistband on her strawberry skirt. (See below and also note the strawberry tank top, head band, earrings, and Jibbitz on her Crocs!) I also did some late night grocery shopping in preparation for the next day's party with friends....


Friday we picked up two of Kira's girlfriends and met up with the rest at Kruger's Farm on Sauvie Island for a Strawberry Picking Party. We had a very nice group of girls, even though several of Kira's friends we'd invited were out of town. This location worked out great, despite the fact that it was 20 minutes out of town. While we waited for everyone to arrive, the girls climbed trees and picked cherries until Adam and I nearly had heart attacks. We had a picnic lunch in the shade, and played some games including a 3-legged race and Blind Man's Buff.


Farmer Don took us on a hayride to the strawberry fields where the girls really enjoyed hunting mutant strawberries (and there were a lot of them!) There were WAY more ripe berries than there had been a week earlier. (Kira and I went to the Strawberry Festival the Saturday before to scope the place out, and there were hardly any ripe berries!) It was pretty hot, and those girls literally drank gallons of lemonade and ice water, and ate 1 1/2 watermelons! It was over all too soon, and we were all exhausted afterward. We're still undoing the damage here at home with all the picnic gear, etc.


We've one more family party at a local restaurant tomorrow night with my family. Then that's it until the 4th of July weekend, when we'll celebrate with Adam's family. (His dad's in Europe right now.) Kira will be baptized on July 5th, and is getting pretty excited. We just wish that all of her aunties, uncles & cousins could come. We'll get to see everyone over the course of the summer, just not all at once. I've got to get crackin' this week and get some work stuff done and start summer home schooling for real. We've been pretty lax so far, but have also been crazy busy. Kira has lots of friends with birthdays close to hers, and we've one more party to attend tomorrow, and swim lessons starting up. June is flying by for sure, and I know it'll be September before I know it! Happy summer, y'all.