Celebration Week

The last week of August is a busy one at our house. I turned 32 on August 23; Nora turned 7 on August 29; and Kevin and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on August 30.

I feel I am a bit old to require a party, but we did celebrate at Sunday barbecue. Nora got an actual party, because 7 is plenty young for that.

She selected this funny panda cake. I baked the cake the night before her birthday, and when I woke up in the morning, I found it had broken into six pieces as it cooled. So I had to run to the grocery store for more supplies so I could bake her a new one. At least I hadn't frosted it yet!

She had her party at a gymnastics studio. Of course, I was too busy running around to take photos. Mother of the year! Mother of the year!

On Friday night, we had dinner with Kevin's parents as well as Jan and Ross, our cousins. Grandma Bev and Grandpa Jerry got Nora an American Girl doll named Elizabeth.

Can you tell how thrilled this little girl is? As soon as we got home, she found a tote full of other doll clothes. She emptied them into a cardboard box and turned it into Elizabeth's dresser. Never mind that she only has the dress she came in and a dress we bought her. Each night, she carefully undresses the doll, folds her clothes, puts them in the tote, and returns Elizabeth to the box she came in. I have never seen her treat anything with such care.

Grandma Inese and Grandpa Don got her a really sweet fleece pea coat to match Daddy's. She really loves to match Daddy, but it's getting trick to match 7 year-old girl clothes to grown man clothes. The coat is hot pink, but it still looks like Daddy's black wool coat. They also got her a couple of outfits for her doll, a messenger bag for school, a bug house... all sorts of good fun. And I won't begin to discuss everything she got from our friends. Nora is one lucky little girl!

Except...she's not. Remember how I said Sophie was here last week? At one point, I was sitting somewhere with Jessica, and Sophie came up and asked her mom, "Where is that really big girl I was playing with?" And she was, of course, referring to Nora, who is really big compared to her. So bittersweet, this growing up business. I can't believe my tiny girl is actually a really big girl.