HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY TO MADDIE!

Today is Maddie's 9th birthday and I just find that so hard to believe. Where does the time go? She is really growing up fast. She has reached the age where she is VERY concerned about what others think of her. Trying to make plans for her birthday was a challenge. She decided that she did not want to have a birthday party at our house. She told me that she did not want me to bake her a cake either. I asked her if we could go out for supper tonight and she was okay with that. I got her to agree that Grandpa and Grandma could join us. We bought her a small cake at Hy-Vee and will take it with us for supper. I will put candles and matches in my purse just in case she lets me do that part. I doubt that she will let us sing Happy Birthday to her. This morning she had a 2 hour late start at school due to the snow we received. She was pretty happy that school was not cancelled. She wanted to be with her friends. And speaking of friends, planning her party with friends was not an easy task either. Another girl whose birthday is the same day as Maddie's wanted to do a pool party at the AmericInn and split the cost. We asked Maddie about it and she had other ideas in mind. She wanted to do a party and invite only boys. I told her that we could not do that but suggested that maybe we could invite the 19 students that are in her classroom so that there would be both boys and girls there. She was okay with that idea. We decided to check into what the YMCA offered for birthday parties and ended up deciding that she would have her party at the YMCA and the theme of the party would be basketball. Even though the weather was really crappy yesterday she had 16 of the 19 kids in her class come to her party. The YMCA took care of everything for us. They got cupcakes, punch, plates, napkins, decorations, goody bags, and most important they entertained and played games with the kids for 2 hours. They did all of the set up and the clean up. All we had to do was show up! They split up in teams for basketball and it was boys versus girls. The boys wanted Maddie on their team and of course she thought that was GREAT! When it was time to open gifts and have treats they boys all wanted to sit next to her. She started opening her gifts and she got to one that she did not want to take out of the bag and show it to us. She finally took it out and it was a Strawberry Shortcake duffle bag. She said "I won't use this". I was so embarrassed and wanted to crawl under the table and hide. If you know Maddie that is the last thing she would want. On the way home from the party she told us that she did not want the boys thinking that she was a "girly girl". She was going to apologize to her friend at school today. CRAZY STUFF! Other than birthday excitement there is not much new here. Have a super week everyone!