Another Year

Life keeps happening, days keep changing, weeks grow shorter, months zoom by, and all of a sudden, it is another year.  Somehow my sweet little first born is half way to her driver's license, and will soon be half way to graduation and college.

Yesterday we celebrated Nicole's 8th birthday.  It wasn't with all the pomp and circumstance she hoped for and planned for year (yes, the day after her birthday last year, she wrote up a list of who she wanted at her birthday party this year).  However, I think it was a sweet day for her nonetheless.

We started the day with our traditional bedroom decoration so when she woke up, she knew we were excited to celebrate with her.  We went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and came back home to wait for her friend Carly to arrive.

Carly has been a sweet friend to Nicole this year.  Their meeting was clearly ordained by God, which makes their little friendship special.  I met Carly's mom last July when I was going to buy two books from her.  We met in a parking lot, outside a local store.  I noticed that she was a homeschooling mama, so we struck up a conversation, which quickly turned to co-ops.  I was just trying to get our CC group together and handed her a bit of information.  A couple of weeks later, she joined our group and Carly and Nicole because instant friends.  Carly is almost 2 years older than Nicole, but neither seem to mind.  I love that my children get to interact with children who are not only the same age as they are, but also children who are older and younger as well.

Carly and the kids went swimming for a while, and truly enjoy their time together.

After Carly left, we laid on the couch and watched a movie.  I fell asleep because I'm completely exhausted from being on the run, but again...that's for a different post ;)

This was the only thing she asked for.  

After our movie, we started to make dinner for our sweet friends who are moving away next away.  Nicole chose to take them dinner on her birthday because she wanted to spend time with them...isn't that precious?
Pastor Andrew and Melinda made her little birthday dinner special by decorating their table with "Happy Birthday" signs and decor.

We enjoyed spending some time with our friends, and always have fun watching the children play together.  We will greatly miss our Pastor and his family.

Nicole even got to do something she's never done!  She got to stay and spend the night.  She has never spent the night at a friend's house.

All in all, I think Nicole had a nice little birthday.  I'm sure this ninth year will fly by just as quickly as last year did.  I am grateful for the honor of being her mother.