Family Party

Our extended family came over to help celebrate some more with us on the evening of Rachel's birthday.

Miriam had changed her clothes for the millionth time that day and thought she looked superb.

Auntie Sarah came over early and snuggled with sweet Benjamin.

Uncle David was able to surprise the girls. We had forgotten to tell them that he was coming home from England. Mostly because he had neglected to tell the family that he was coming home from England and I didn't even find out until the day before he came home. They warmed up to him right away.

We enjoyed some pizza together before digging into the cake.

This time I got a picture of Rachel blowing out the candles. It took her a couple of tries (both times) because the castle towers sheltered the candles from her huffing and puffing.

We returned to the patio to enjoy cake, present-opening, Benjamin, and each other's company.

Benjamin was making some silly faces.

Auntie Sarah gave Rachel her American Girl Doll, Kit, and another doll, Rose. Kit is about as big as Benjamin.

Rachel also got an authentic Hermione wand from Auntie Katharine, Uncle Todd and Kayl, as well as a Lego Harry Potter book. She got a game from Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Frank.

She got a book from Uncle Patrick, a Mickey Mouse bath set from Grandpa Bruce (that she just could not get over—"You mean I can draw on myself!? And then wash it off!?"), a couple of stuffed animals from Naanii and Uncle David, a fairy book from me and Andrew (we'd given her The Tales of Beedle the Bard earlier in the day), some Littlest Pet Shops from Miriam, and a beautiful needlepoint dollhouse from Grandma.

We repeated a few of our party games with Kayl. They could have played them over and over again, I'm sure, but it was nearing bedtime so we had to limit ourselves to one turn each...except for Rachel who got two turns at Knock Out the Mountain Troll because she'd pinned her club to the fence the first go round.

Potions class was a success the second time around, too, except that Rachel and Miriam both got yellow. When they had done it earlier in the day Rachel had gotten pink and Miriam had gotten blue. I told them that they could make up their own spell to say while they stirred their potions and Rachel simply couldn't understand why her potion had turned yellow when she had said the same magic words she had used in the morning.

She kept stirring her potion, chanting, "Turn pink! Turn pink! Turn pink!"

It was a wonderful end to Rachel's birthday. She was sad when she realized that her birthday was over until next year. Miriam was overjoyed to learn that her birthday was next to be celebrated—she knows that her birthday will be celebrated after we move to North Carolina and believes that we'll be celebrating her birthday always. 

"I'm havin' a birthday in Norf Carowina," she says, "And another one. And another one. And another one."

That's kind of how birthdays are. They just keep coming.