It is hard to believe but our Jillian turned 8 on the 18th. We celebrated for the whole weekend including Monday which was President's day so there was no school. On Saturday our early riser was in our room before 6 asking to open some packages from Grandma & Grandpa. We knew there would be no more rest until we agreed!!
At a more reasonable hour Jillian & I spent the morning together doing something I have waited years to do. I finally passed along all my American Girl doll things to Jill. I wanted to make sure she was old enough to appreciate them & take care of them. I loved my doll & collection when I was her age & it was so fun to see her reaction as I pulled out more & more things. I have never showed her any of it so it was a big surprise. This was her big present this year.
We spent time reorganizing her room to make space for the collection & she now has a great play area in her closet for all her new doll supplies! We moved some of the little kid toys out of her room to make it a more mature space & hopefully encourage the little boys to play in other rooms instead so she could have more privacy & security for all her doll things. Apparently Jillian takes after her Aunt Kelsy a bit & has a hard time with change. She came down stairs later that night crying because she liked the way her room used to be. I told her to give it a few days & she hasn't mentioned it again.
She had asked for a jump rope & a magic 8 ball so we gave her those later that evening for a couple small gifts. It is a little silly that we now have to refer to the almighty magic 8 ball for the answers to all our questions.
On Sunday evening Shaleen & family came over for dinner & cake. Abi & Natie spent the night & on Monday Christian took the 4 older kids to McDonald's, the park & to see a movie. They love being with their cousins so they all had a great time.
Jillian enjoyed her birthday celebrations & loves all her gifts (Grandma & Grandpa Parke).
We are now looking forward to March 3rd when Jillian & Abi will be baptised together.
These two get to spend lot's of time together while Jill is at school. Luckily the have a good time. They both had a few firsts recently. Carter lost his first tooth (with the second following only a week behind) & Bennett got his first hair cut. It ended up being a much shorter buzz than we wanted. But after a few days of being our little baldy, we got used to it.
