Gorgeous Grace

A week ago I noticed a banner announcing a rock show that we went to last year, and it flashed back memories of that time in our lives, having just gotten to Utah, living in the temporary housing, driving kids to/from school, waiting to move into a home. It was weird to think it's been a year since we celebrated Grace's birthday with a family celebration that I think just served to point out how lonely and unsettled we all were. It wasn't her best birthday.
So this year couldn't help but be better :)
She woke up rather early for some waffles with ice cream and sprinkles.

When breakfast ended there were a bunch of waffle scraps leftover on plates;  seems the kids ate mostly ice cream for breakfast.
We spent the morning doing regular Saturday chores, and Reese did her bathroom chores for her! We  ran an errand, and then she opened her presents. She was most excited about getting her own Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone, since our rule is they can read the first one when they're 9.

After lunch we got ready for her party, and the girls started to arrive. A few of her friends we hadn't met yet, and it was fun to interact with them. They all seemed to be great girls, and it was a fun time with them.

After a loud couple rounds of "don't eat pete!" the girls painted a monogram canvas I'd made for each of them. A couple of them were detailed artists filling in the design, but Grace plied a thick layer of paint over all my carefully drawn art. But she made it her own, and she rocked it.

 While some finished their painting, the rest made creations from marshmallows and toothpicks. Some made intricate models, and some stuffed as many marshmallows (into mouths) and onto sticks to eat later.
Grace decided against a cake and wanted to decorate cookies. In theme with the marshmallows, the frosting and sprinkles got emptied as girls loaded up their cookies, especially one girl, having some cookie with their frosting. I told them it wasn't my fault if they got sick, but I still got a look from one mom as she picked up her daughter and half-eaten 4 inch tall mound of sugar.

We played the spot-the-leader game till their parents came, and we weren't even beat afterwards! A bit sugar-sick maybe, but it was a fun and easy party. I'm totally a fan of decorating cookies at the party instead of me making a cake.
The kids played their electronic time for a couple hours, then we herded them into the car for dinner. Grace requested Red Robin, but when we got there we were told for larger parties (apparently us) it was a 2 hour wait! No way we were doing that, but it was bummer. Grace rolled with it graciously, and quickly suggested Panda Express instead. There were 3 other cars in the parking lot waiting for spots when we got there, so I jumped out with Grace and Cameron to wait in the long line for RD and the others. We got our order, mostly orange chicken and 18 cream cheese rangoons, which shocked the employees. "18 rangoons! really?!" There was a whole conversation with two employees about our order, and checking with a manager; not sure why it was so unusual, that's just what our kids will eat. To be honest, it's shocking they'd even all eat two things from there.
After dinner, we popped some popcorn and watched The tale of Desperaux.
It was a much better birthday than last year! Happy birthday to our kind, creative, irrepressible Grace.