London's Birthday!

My sweet London turned 9.

I never in my life thought my kids would ever get old, but they do.  London and I have become such good friends this last year, we have had some of the best conversations, and I have grown to love her even more!

Just the other night, she came into my room at about 10:30-this is not like London so I knew something was bugging her.  I invited her to sit on the bed and talk with me, and she had a whole heap of things to talk about!  And I loved it!  I could listen to that sweet girl jabber on forever!  

Her main concern that night was that she couldn't believe how girls dressed in mascara commercials. She is very distressed with how immodest women are these days.  Her question to me, which I will never forget, was "Why do they gotta show all their ...stuff?!"

I laughed and hugged that little girl and we had ourselves a good talk about modesty, and how important it is.  We talked about how important women are, and how important moms and daughters are.

Some things about London:

Her favorite show right now is Dr. Oakley Yukon Vet.  She wants me and her to be veterinarians, and drive all over like Dr. Oakley and help sick animals....in Alaska!

AND Bill Nye the Science Guy

Her favorite food is Swedish Pancakes, she could eat those things all day.

Her favorite animal is still a dragon, can't break it to her that they are not real.

Her favorite thing to do is run and play with her friends

Here is  the funny side note/story about that statement.

She came in the other night after playing with our neighbor Anika, and told me that she wanted to talk to Anika about what she wants to be when she grows up.  She said, "I told Anika I want to be a scientist when I grow up, what do you want to be? And Anika told me, she wants to be one of those mascara girls!!!"  

London couldn't believe it.

I fall more and more in love with this girl every day!

I was so excited to decorate the house for her birthday!  I made her a viking ship and a huge dragon puppet, and tried to make a whole scene for her.  It's sort of a China meets Viking dragon, and she LOVED it, so it didn't matter how ridiculous it was!

 I knew she would dig this, I put the viking ship on the mantle and made waves and "water" crepe paper, and hung the dragon puppet underneath, he is a sea dragon because those are her favorite.

Here she is!  The morning of her big day!  She is wearing the cutest outfit Grammy sent to her!  Thank you so much Grammy!  she could not get over this owl shirt!!!

 After she left for school, I had to get started on her cake!  

She wanted it to be dragon-y, and that meant the frosting should be....purple, and the cake should be green.  These are her thoughts not mine!  I loved making it though, it was so fun, Aubrey was quite a helper too!

 I found all these miniature dragons at Target and got them for her cake, I think they are just about perfect!  And I learned how to do frosting "scales" and I think they look pretty dang awesome too!

But it didn't matter what I thought, I was just hoping London would approve.

 That night, when she got home, we waited until Daddy was up before she opened all her presents.  Darn it!  Daddy had to work that night and miss all the fun, but we wanted to make sure he got to see the presents!

She wanted sloppy joe's and french fries for dinner and a big fruit salad.  I was relieved, talk about an easy peasy dinner!

She couldn't wait until after dinner to open at least one present, so I let her open a Littlest Pet Shop crab.  It was nostalgic, because that used to be her absolute favorite toy of all time.  She was just a ball of giggles when she opened it!  It's a crab, so it passed and was an acceptable toy.

 Here we go with the presents!  I had to get a picture of her with them!

 She got a dragon book from How to Train your Dragon.  It's the Book of Dragons, so it tells about all the features of the dragons and then it has punch out/paper airplane dragons!

We were busy that night!

 We just HAD to get her a couple Playmobile dragons.  She was oohing and aahing over them that time at Toys R Us.

 And a snorkel.

I think her face says it all.

 Hatch your own dragon.

 This was immediately ripped open and put into water, we absolutely had to see which dragon we would hatch!

 While the egg was working away, we decided to open birthday cards.

Thank you so much Nana and Grandpa and Great Nana!!!

She was so excited to get birthday dollars!

 And back to the egg, which was fizzing red stuff at this point, and the shell was getting mushy!

Look at the concern on her face.

 And it's a baby Toothless!

That HUGE egg, and here is this teeny tiny dragon, but London couldn't be more thrilled!

 After dinner, and Daddy leaving, Grandma and Grandpa Edwards came over!

They had the greatest surprise for Miss London!

A full size Toothless that flaps it's wings AND Hookfang!

 Does this girl look happy or what?

 Even Aubrey was celebrating!

Time to blow out the candles and have us some cake!

 London was right, it was pretty cool looking to cut into it!

We spent the night eating our scaly cake, and making dragons.

I love my sweet 9 year old London, and I hope she is always this curious and amazing!

LONDON'S PARTY!

Here are her cute invites!

We sort of loved this Maleficent looking dragon, and had to use them on her invitations.

She invited her good friends, Reagyn, Matti, and Edyn.

And I took more pictures of the decorations because I couldn't believe how cute it was with the balloons!!!

 I love balloons and I should always remember how amazing they make every occasion.

 The girls came over and we made green popcorn, and headed upstairs to watch Pete's Dragon until it got dark enough outside.

As you can imagine, it did not take 4 3rd grade girls too long before they wanted to stop the movie and open presents.

They were so sweet.

 Edyn gave London some paints and paint brushes and a wooden bird house and a wooden letter L for London to paint.

 Here they are all watching London open her presents.  I love that I caught 2 of them wiping their noses!

 Matti gave her nail polish, and some Halloween socks!

Which was not weird at all, it completely rocked because 3rd graders can give each other Halloween socks in May, especially in this house!

 And Reagyn gave her a poster book.  London has loved it!  Her and Aubrey have been busy coloring their hearts out.

 Complete silliness.

 They just could not wait for it to get completely dark to go roast marshmallows.

 They were completely giggly, and no one felt left out, and they were all well behaved.  I like this small party stuff, there's way less drama!

Aubrey was quite the photo bomber though.

 I hope these girls stay good friends, they were just giggling and talking all night long, and there was only one boy crazy one in the bunch, but I think I broke her of it when I told her that boys are gross and eat the boogers even the ones in their ears and that every boy has his very own fart box.  

She was so funny, she said, "So THAT'S what that box is in my brother's closet!"

I told them they could like boys when they turn 16 because that's when boys start trying not be so gross.

Good birthday party, and educational.

Win win.