Today Mary turned 9. Mary wanted to have a pig themed birthday, and I think that wish came true! We celebrated Mary’s birthday at Color-Me-Mine. Lily ordered her a pig cake from the Sweet-Tooth-Fairy.
We had 14 friends come help Mary celebrate her birthday. Everyone picked out the statuette they wanted and started painting.
When people started to finish painting, we had yummy Jimmy John’s subs, carrots, jicama, figs, chips and drinks. Mary didn’t want to have pizza, and I think dinner turned out fantastic (thank you Lily!).
After dinner, Mary blew out her candles on her pig cake.
After cake, Mary opened presents from her friends. They gave her such wonderful gifts!
At home Mary opened presents that Lily picked out for her and she got more pig themed things like a pig pillow, and a pig-shaped glasses holder.
Mary, we adore you and we are so profoundly grateful you are our daughter. My favorite thing about you is your deep desire to be good. You are helpful, kind, loving, creative, artistic, sweet, smart, forgiving, thoughtful and hard-working. Even if you weren’t all those things, we would still love to the ends of the earth because you are ours, and always will be. But thank you thank you thank you for being such a wonderful child. You, Lydia, Ammon and Clarissa all make us so so so proud!
One more sweet thing to note about Mary is how much she loves Lydia. I started a practice within our family that starting on our kids 9th birthday, the pick one value per year that they want to proclaim as their own, so that they will have ten self-proclaimed values by the age of 18, when they are ready to go off into the real world. For example, Lydia chose determination on her 8th birthday and fun on her 9th birthday (incredible values Lydia!). Mary revealed today that her value is…..(drumroll)……Lydia! I thought that was so cute, and sweet, and also very deep. Mary is very connected to Lydia, and loves her immensely, loves her to the point of it being one of her core values. Those sisters truly have a bond.
In other news today, Basil got shaved, and now looks like a beagle, pointer, dalmatian mix. He was also incredibly hyper today and chased his tail more than I think I’ve ever seen him do. I love that dog!
