Monday, August 08, 2011

Happy Birthday, Danielle!

Today is Danielle's "golden" birthday - she's 8 years old on the 8th. I wanted to make it special. I had good intentions of having a party when I first started thinking about her birthday several months ago. When the months whittled down to weeks, those intentions turned into thoughts of just inviting a couple friends over. Then, with vacation right before her birthday, I settled on hoping we could just do something nice together as a family. Well, vacations are expensive and tiring, so when I asked her what she wanted to do (and didn't have anything to suggest) she said she just wanted to stay home and stay in her pjs all day. I can appreciate that.




She stayed in her pjs until dinner time and only changed because she wanted to ride bikes with her friend. I honored her meal requests: Krispie Kreme for breakfast, quesadillas for lunch, grilled pizza for dinner, birthday brownies instead of birthday cake. We colored together, played cards together, watched a little tv together, and just hung out. It was a rather boring day, and I struggled with feeling badly about that all day. I felt like we should be doing something but nothing was what she wanted.

Tyler gave Danielle some small horses for her birthday. We got her some American Girl stuff, including a horse that happened to be 1/2 off when I was looking for gift ideas a few weeks ago! Hopefully it wasn't as dull a day for her as I felt like it was.




I can't believe she's 8. Both kids are growing up so quickly. I am proud of both kids, but since it's Danielle's birthday, I will brag about her for a minute. She is such a sweet, thoughtful girl who genuinely cares for others and tries to put their needs and feelings first. She is a good friend and very forgiving of those who don't always treat her the way she treats them. She has a kind heart. She is smart and creative and sensitive and fun to be around. She's strong willed and determined. She loves Jesus and wants to do what's right. She's beautiful inside and out, and we are so lucky to have her for our daughter.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

She sounds a lot like her mommy.

Lori said...

You're right! If given the chance, I'd happily pick to stay in my pjs all day and just hang out at home.