Seven!

Seven!

4:04 a.m.  That was when Caroline woke up to start celebrating her birthday.  4:04 a.m. when she turned the light on in Josiah's bedroom.  The bedroom all three kids have been camping out in for the past few weeks.  The light she not only turned on, but refused to turn off so the boys were not just woken up but kept awake.  All I can say is, I'm glad she waited til 6:00 to come to my side of the bed.

Caroline wanted her presents hidden this year.  In years past, the kids have asked for clues to go from present to present.  She didn't ask for that this year.  So we just hid them and wished her good luck.  I did take a picture the night before so I had an idea if we were missing one, but she found them all.  She received many wonderful gifts again from Grandparents and Aunts/Uncles and cousins, even her brothers.  She really liked everything.  She played with her new dancer doll.  She put her doll in her new desk, set up the new biology kit and said she was homeschooled.  She played with her Polly Pocket house all day long.  She flipped her Flip-zee-girl back and forth and back and forth.

For breakfast, she had trouble deciding between the Reese's Puff cereal (candy cereal) or doughnuts.  She chose the Reese's cereal.  She took a few bites and didn't like it.  She has never been a fan of cereal in general, and I don't think she has liked a single sugary cereal.  She wants to like them, but she just doesn't (yay for that!).  Next year she'll go back to her old trusty doughnuts.

For lunch, she wanted McDonald's.  (She asked to go every day in San Antonio, but there was no way I was stepping foot in that particular McDonald's.  It did not look like it had passed any recent health inspections.) As we were driving there, Todd asked her why she didn't pick Smashburger which has much, much, much better hamburgers.  She said it was because she cannot finish her food at Smashburger and she didn't want to waste food.  So to McDonald's we went.  She finished her whole Happy Meal.

She spent her whole birthday playing with all her new things.  The boys play "Ja'Neesa" with her, which is the Our Generation dolls.  Now that there are three, they each play one.  They actually play really nicely together and Caroline's whole bed is set up as a doll's house - there's a book area, sleeping area, school area, art area.  This is why she has to sleep in Josiah's bottom bunk.

She also helped me make her cake.  She really wanted a rainbow birthday cake.  She wanted a layered cake with all the colors of the rainbow and rainbow sprinkles up on top. Since I couldn't figure out any other (easy) way to do it, we used three boxes of cake mix to get the six colors of the rainbow.  That didn't stop Todd from asking where the indigo layer was.  Not here.  Since we had so many layers, I thought it would be best to make our own frosting since we would potentially need a lot.  She helped to whisk the buttercream frosting, took some licks and said she liked it.  She decorated the top of her cake with sprinkles and the side with a party hat.  The boys were also able to put a frosting heart/balloon on the side.  Then, after a very Southern dinner of crispy chicken, lima beans, and cornbread (the birthday girl's favorite foods), we had our cake.  It looked like a rainbow on the inside.  I was pretty happy with the way the colors turned out.  But halfway through eating her slice of cake, Caroline said she was done.  Then she said, "Mommy, I'm not saying you're a bad cook....  But next year I'm going to get my cake from Kroger."  And Happy Birthday.

Since they were all up at 4:00 a.m., we had an early bedtime and they all went soundly to sleep.  Todd and I are happy to close another birthday season.  Now we are in the year of the odds.  11, 9, 7.