A Day in Our Lives: Rachel is 8!!!

Today was Rachel's 8th birthday! She started out her day by Katelyn waking her up with a birthday hug and song! It was really sweet! Next, Robert & Katelyn made Rachel pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast, she opened presents. She hadn't asked for anything - until Saturday. She went to a friend's sleepover birthday party that had an American Girl theme. Rachel has never even remotely acted like she wanted an American Girl doll, but after the sleepover, she said she wanted one for her birthday. I tried to explain to her that I thought her "want" was more of a power of suggestion and I tried to explain to her how expensive those dolls were and that she very rarely played with her own dolls. She seemed to be okay with it, even though she kind of still wanted one. Well, I was at Target yesterday and just happened to see that they have their own version of an American Girl type doll for a fraction of the cost. I called Robert and told him about it, and he said to go ahead and get it for her. We saved that for her last present to open this morning and she was so excited when she opened it!!! She actually thought it was an American Girl doll! I told her it wasn't, but that it was comparable and I thought it was a good compromise. She agreed!!! She also got some books (including 3 American Girl books), some clothes, a card game, and a Doodle Pro for the car (her current one is just about ready for the trash, but she loves to draw in the car). Katelyn bought Rachel a Disney Mulan Barbie with her own money! Rachel seemed to really like it, and I thought it was super sweet that Katelyn was adamant about spending her own money for the gift.

At school, the principal always announces the birthdays for the day, so Rachel got to hear her birthday announced this morning at school. Then, Robert & I went and had lunch with her and she took cookies for all of her classmates. For supper she decided she wanted breakfast - bacon, eggs, biscuits, and syrup. After supper she wanted to go to the high school girls' soccer game. We know a couple of the girls on the team (including Peanut, who was part of my Gladiator Games team). Anyway, at the soccer game Robert had them announce her birthday over the loudspeaker! She was surprised and grinned the entire time!!! The announcer really played it up too! He said something like "we have a special guest with us tonight who has decided to spend her 8th birthday here with us. Let's all wish a happy birthday to Rachel Scheffer!" It was really sweet of him to do that. After the game it was time to come home and get ready for bed. I think Rachel had a great birthday! And the celebrating doesn't stop! We have 3 more celebrations planned for the week-end!!!

Rachel with her new Doodle Pro