Always Behind - Special Birthday

I'm always behind these days - Christmas cards went out late, haven't blogged in ages. Not sure I'll ever catch up but thought I'd add these few things.

On November 23rd Piper turned 3 years old. I don't think I've ever seen someone so excited about their birthday. I soaked in every minute of her excitement. First, she received a box from her Grandma in Utah earlier in the week. She carried that box around for days. She'd show anyone who came to house, "See MY box?" she'd say. She also carried it around all day on her birthday wanting to know exactly when she could open it.

We started off the day with an emergency call from a friend who needed me to watch her 9 month old. Before I had gotten that call, I had called MacGregor's homeroom mom to see if they needed anything extra for their Thanksgiving feast they were having that day. She said yes - so a trip to the grocery was on the list.

So I took Piper and our little friend and we ran to the store picked up two big bag of grapes. Then we ran home and washed them all and cut them and put them in a big box with a lid. We then piled into the car again and ran to the school where we attended MacGregor's Thankgiving feast/skits. The little girl I was babysitting fell asleep in the car and then when I strapped her into the stroller she woke up and began screaming. She screamed for quite a while - as I signed us into the office, as I purchased the movie tickets for the evening, and as I walked down the hall to MacGregor's room. Meanwhile, Piper was standing on chairs in the office reaching into the fish tank. All of this chaos reminded me of why Piper is the baby and will remain so.

Chief Soaring Arrow

MacGregor's group did a very entertaining skit on Indians and their food. Hunting, fishing, gathering - you name it. Piper crashed the skit though because she saw a prop that they forgot to pick up and in the middle of the skit, ran to MacGregor and returned it. Since I was holding the baby we were watching, I didn't have as tight of a reign on Piper and she used that to her advantage.

We ran home after the feast and shortly thereafter got in the car and headed out again. We dropped off our little friend and headed to a different grocery where we had a coupon for a free birthday cake. Piper was ecstatic to choose a birthday cake with balloons on it. Incidently, there were two helium balloons floating in her room when she woke up in the morning, left for her by her father. Her father enjoyed this birthday too since this was only the second out 4 he has been here for.

The school had a special movie night on the 23rd and Piper said she'd love to see a movie, the last movie night they had sold out before we could buy our tickets much to our children's disappointment. We were supposed to see Planet 51, a funny little alien movie, but 2 of the 3 theaters were having technical difficulties so we got sent to see A Christmas Carol instead. I was secretly happy because I didn't think Planet 51 looked that good but later I felt bad for Piper because the Christmas Carol movie was REALLY scary for little ones. I thought Jim Carrey did an awsome job and for Chase and Gregor it was fantastic but there were some very frightening scenes for little ones.

So poor Piper had to wait until nearly 9 pm to eat her cake and open her presents. She loved everyone one of them and hugged each of them to her and said, "This is what I always wanted!!" It was an awesome birthday and I hope she will continue her enthusiasm for birthdays because it was a wonderful feeling.