Double digits

Today is my first daughter's tenth birthday. She lucked out to have her birthday fall on parent teacher conference week. It was a present in its own right. The school district gave her 5 days off for her birthday. Awesome. When I was a little kid, my Catholic school used to give me a similar present. November 1st is All Saints Day, a holy day of obligation. So my friends and I would trick or treat late (past 8 PM) and be able to sleep in the following day. When I got older, the school decided to have kids go to school instead, and they (maliciously) took that day away from me. I ended up not only having to go to school, but having to go to mass during the day and again with my parents at night. Where is the fairness in that?

Daddy got up early to make heart shaped waffles, strawberries and whipped cream, hash browns & turkey bacon for breakfast. (Yes, I know it is Friday, but this is her birthday!) Luckily, Lil'T gets Fridays off from preschool. When Princess announced that she wanted to have a real piggy bank for her birthday, I had the idea of going to one of those paint your pottery places in the next town over. We made a full day of it. 'Cess picked out the largest pig they had and Lil'T picked out a dog. I made a spoon rest that looks like the title of my blog. I used the same color scheme and a hibiscus too. I'll post pictures next week. The pottery place messed with us a little psychologically. There definitely is a time shrink aspect to being in there. We noticed that they had one song on continuous loop, probably for an entire hour while we were there. Maybe they want to make you forget that you're spending so much time working on a piece. We were there for about 2.5 hours but only heard 3 songs. I wonder if it drives their staff loopy. Then again, it could just be that the staff really liked those 3 songs. Don't know.

After painting, we went to a bakery and the girls got to pick out cookies. 'Cess picked out one that was as big as her head -- cinnamon swirl. Lil'T got a 4 pack of yellow frosted smiley faced cookies. And just in case they didn't have enough sugar on board, we stopped by Dairy Queen to pick up the birthday cake. Both girls opted to get some kids meals with a slushy and an ice cream cone for dessert. Maybe I should have them do some push ups before we leave for dinner. 'Cess wants to to go Red Robin for burgers and shakes. She's bringing her vegetarian best friend with us. Hoo boy, maybe they have grilled eggplant burgers. Certainly they'll have grilled cheese. That should work.

I love birthdays with my kids. My husband is really freaked out that we don't have a big wowzer of a present planned for her birthday, but I don't really think it is necessary. I think having a full day of just fun time, of more yes than no's from us, strawberry heart shaped waffles and turkey bacon (favorites of hers both)... these are experiences that are gifts. Who really needs a new shiny? What is important is the gift of time, laughter, and memories.

Yup, today, I'm feeling like a pretty good mom.