Monday March 16th we got to celebrate Rylee's 8th birthday. This kid has been so excited to turn 8 because it meant she is one year older and more importantly it is the year she gets to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. When she came down this morning she came in with a big smile and when I told her Happy Birthday she lit up even more and came over to give me some snuggles. Goodness this girl lights up with happiness. She was pretty excited to open presents and so we let her open her present from Grandma Alison in the morning. I also made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and she got to eat off the special plate.
Rylee and Avynlea are on track break and got to go with me to all of my dance classes. After the other two got home from school we packed up into the car to take her to Claires for another special 8th year happening. Ear Piercing!! I let my girls get their ears pierced when they turn 8 and this was super exciting to Rylee. I almost caved and let her get her ears done when Avynlea got hers pierced but I am glad I had her wait because it was so much more exciting for her to have the anticipation and finally have this time she has waited so long for. She chose some cute earrings and did really good with the piercing. No tears or cries!
My kids get birthday parties only on certain years and year 8 is one of them. Rylee and I had been talking about her party for a while deciding what to do and who to invite. Since the new Cinderella movie was coming out a week before her birthday we decided to take her and her friends to see it. About two or three weeks before her birthday Rylee came to me and told me she did not want a party any more. It perplexed me but upon talking about it further with her I understood. She said it makes her too nervous and she would rather just do things with her family. I was completely ok with it but really made sure this was what she wanted because I did not want any regrets or last minute mind changing.
I signed up to have the missionaries over for dinner the night before but they had to reschedule and Kefford rescheduled for Rylee's birthday which he did not thinking. No big deal we could let them come over. We had Rylee open her presents before they arrived and she was pretty happy with everything she got.
Dinner was Rylee's favorite spaghetti and meatballs. We tried waiting for the missionaries to arrive before we started dinner but they were late and after an hour of waiting we had to start.
When they arrived they were super apologetic and explained that a Sister missionary got hurt and they were waiting with her to help her out. They were forgiven :). When they found out it was Rylee's birthday they did an impromptu singing of Happy Birthday complete with parmesan cheese maracas!
Missionaries had to leave pretty quick and could not stay to eat cake so Rylee cut them a couple of pieces to take with them and then we sang to the birthday girl with the rest of the cake.
Rylee put two skittles on the cake to mark the part she wanted for herself.
5 Things I love about Rylee:
1) I love her enthusiasm for life. She gets excited about everything! She is excited to go to the dentist or well child check ups she was excited to go to the Bishop for her baptism interview. She just loves life and I love how happy she is and willing to experience life.
2) She is really sweet to her siblings. Of course like with all siblings there are disagreements and such but if anyone were to give up something for a brother or sister it would be Rylee. She will share her birthday candy or let a new toy be played with by a sister. She is caring and loving and likes for others to be happy.
3) Being baptized is a big deal to her and she has been excited about it for a long time. Turning 8 meant she finally got her very own scriptures with her name engraved on them. She has always loved carrying around her "cheap" scriptures and being able to read from them with the family. Having her own scriptures that are really nice ones is huge and being baptized is beyond great. She loves going to church and I see how she thinks and asks questions and I know she is working on her testimony.
4) I love Rylee's personality! She is funny and makes me laugh all the time with the things she says and the faces she makes. She finds laughter in a lot of things and that is a great trait to have.
5) She is and will always be my baby. She does not want to take the time from playing to cuddle so much anymore so when she does I will take it and love it. She always has kisses to give and "I Love You's" to say. Rylee is our sassy sweetie pie and we all love her a lot!
Rylee's Favorites:
Dinner: Spaghetti and Meatballs
Dessert: Chocolate Cake
Candy: Skittles
Toy: American Girl Doll Caroline
Friend: Mom :)
Book: The Magic TreeHouse
Movie: Donald Duck
TV Show: Peppa Pig
Color: Purple and Yellow
Place To Go: DisneyLand
Thing To Do: Play Outside
Radio Song: When I See Your Face by Bruno Mars
Primary Song: Love is Spoken Here
Scripture Story: Jesus Dying for us.
Disney Princess: Jasmine