Sweetheart birthdays.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

I’ve been taking a lot of heat lately, with many fingers pointing at me for not blogging about our youngest daughter’s recent birthday. Jeepers!

Happy Birthday to you!

Perhaps my audience is growing to appreciate the special celebrations I’ve so often written about before and there are many just awaiting the recognition. In a nutshell, our baby turned eight this month! Instead of eagerly awaiting her special day and opening up a few gifts from her family, this daughter rejoiced as she was now old enough to exit from the mandatory law of buckling up in a car seat. The law states a child must be over the age of eight years old not to have one as a mandatory fixture within the family vehicle. The car seat is now stored for future visits of the grandchildren.

The biggest thrill; finally out of a car seat.

As usual, the birthday gal woke up on her special day, and was happily granted the family’s traditional birthday breakfast out alone with mom and dad. One of the deals of this day is allowing them to anything on the menu, so usually their eyes are bigger than their stomachs. She feasted on pancakes and bacon, asking for an ice cream sundae afterwards to match her brother, who had gobbled one on his own birthday.

On the way home we all talked this birthday gal into an ice cream cake this year, which she had asked for anyway. We found an old-fashioned ice cream parlor conveniently right next door to the local diner we had our breakfast at. The lovely selection of ice cream cakes were in the glass display case all ready to choose from. Oh, she chose such a colorful one too!

What a girl wants, a horse of course!

The “horse fever” in our home has now been equated to the “hockey fever” we’ve experienced over the years, accelerating beyond mine and hubby’s understanding to the point where barns are mucked out happily (!) next door for fun (?), often for pay, and other offers are trickling in for the girls to watch young horses being trained this spring, or the neighbor has offered to possibly have her brother bring his horse up for the summer for the girls to ride everyday over there. Both girls are still grooming horses, the friendly beasts the older daughter enjoys kibitzing with, and the entire barn full of them actually and taking riding lessons also. Well, only one is currently in a weekly lesson, the other though, our birthday gal was given her own lesson as a gift from her big sister last week, happily tagging along every week now to groom her own two to three horse pals, residents of the barn. These days the girls carry “treats” for their pals, usually carrots and apples, but a good tip came in, so we had to stop to purchase a few peppermints this time for a few of their pals.

Looking forward to later spring when her own riding lessons begin once more, our birthday gal happily delighted in her new “horse camp package”, items including a whip, gloves, equestrian pants, lace up boots, chaps for over the boots, helmet and a helmet cover, the latest fashion accessory around the barns, changing as often as the weeks for some of the girls there. It was time to purchase the new helmet as she had been borrowing one from the riding club stash at the barn, now banned we are told for the chinstrap was causing serious trouble when gals were falling. The entire package cost was an incredible buy, only a few more dollars than the helmet itself, so she’s all set now.

My new horse camp set.

This little gal’s claim to fame is the fact she holds the record for being the latest to greet her family in this big new world. She threatened to arrive five weeks before her due date, several trips were made to the hospital when we weren’t sure but wanted to take precautions. Overall, she fooled us well when she ended up being fifteen days later than anticipated; once again I had to be induced (boohoo) for her to finally decide to come out from her cozy warm hiding place.

Both grandmothers adoring you the day of your birth.

Lucky for us she’s truly such a sweet daughter with a super peaceful disposition, happily living her role as baby of the family ever so sweetly, but also having to learn much in the way of sharing and caring for younger nieces and nephews in close age proximity.

Being the baby...

Rather than being the spoiled baby, there are times when she has to accept the fact there are many other babies in the family as well surrounding her and takes her position well.

Happy Birthday dear daughter,
born in the month of love and hearts.

You are our little sweetheart!