Thursday, January 15, 2009

Tara turns 7

We celebrated Tara's 7th birthday last night at Chuck-E-Cheese pizza place. We ordered 4 large pizzas, 14 cokes and 5 large salads. We went through more than 200 tokens and got enough little prizes to keep the kids happy all the way home. Tara blew out seven striped candles, and just as I shut off the video camera, she called out to her siblings, "Who wants to suck a candle???" It seems that the best part of any birthday cake is the tiny bit of frosting on the end of each candle. : )

It was her glamorous birthday year. She got nail polish, perfume, fancy hair clips and lip glosses. She was so impressed with the cotton candy scented body spray that she ran across the restaurant after opening it to show her older sister. It was all about glam this year. Although a couple of stuffed puppies in the mix didn't disappoint her at all!!

I learned something this year. Mere turned five right after christmas, so her birthday was a simple affair of going to the "Stuff a Dog" store at the mall, dumping nearly $70 on "I just have to have this" items, ate lunch out at the mall, and even had our picture taken together at a pricey kiosk there. The picture, other than being adorable because Mere is in it, is dark, poor quality and not worth the paper it was printed on really. But the idea thrilled Mere, and it was her day. I thought because Mere had not enjoyed all the gift wrap on Christmas day, her birthday two days later was just going to be miserable if she had to open any other gift. Wrong. I should have known. At the end of her day, I said, "Mere, have you had a good birthday this year?" She innocently looked up at me from her bed, and replied, "Not really." So much for the plan I had. Maybe a few wrapped gifts would have been ok after all.

Tara's last thoughts last night were more like it. "It's been a great birthday, mom." But then again, when she got up, realizing today was her "real" birthday, she wondered when the party was going to start today. All day we heard, "It's my birthday today. I get to go first/read that book/do what I want," etc. She carried around the plastic bag of hair ties and beauty products all day today. The day is almost over, and tomorrow we go back to just a regular day. Whatever that means...

Birthdays for kids are so fun. We will celebrate Bella's next. She'll be 2 and her most exciting part will be the cake, I am sure. But then again, maybe it will be opening the presents. Or maybe she will like the candles and the singing. Either way, for Bella, it will not be another regular day. And for the rest of us, it's another reminder of just how quickly the time flies.

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