Callie turns EIGHT!

On August 26, my baby, my very first baby, turned eight. Eight is kinda like Seven and Six, in that it's not all that special of a birthday.  It's not a double digit birthday, it's not My Baby Is ONE or The Big Five birthday.  She's still two years away from Ten, when she can get her very own military ID.  She's still one year away from Nine, when I can leave her at the youth center with friends.  But for this newly-turned Eight Year Old, it means walking around the loop with a friend and Third Grade is WAY cooler than Second Grade and Mama is still okay to hug and kiss but please don't hang around outside while I'm playing with my friends.  Eight is learning to ride a bike without training wheels (she's been a little slower than most on accomplishing this goal, but she is doing so well with her balancing, she's almost got it!).  It means more sleepovers and telling jokes with a best friend.  It's getting stronger and laughing louder and standing up for what she wants (even if she doesn't get it).  Eight has learned to like sushi and trying new things, within reason, of course (Octopus? Uh, no thanks.).  It's still being messy and still learning to focus on the task at hand.  It's still needing Mama and Daddy and loving learning about the Lord and playing with a little sister and brother who adore her. I think Eight is good so far.

Callie's choice for breakfast: Dunkin Donuts!

Eli loves donut holes.  Especially being able to eat them by himself.

Birthday presents first thing in the morning!

We got her two of the three DS games she wanted.  She's played this game 

over and over and over so it was worth the price.

The second of the two games we got Callie.

She's been able to read her own birthday cards for a long time.  YAY! 

I love that she wants to read all of her birthday cards.

Adventures in Odyssey on CD!  These are our favorite things to listen to 

during any downtime.  She got another CD set from Grammy 

and Grandpa.  She is beyond happy she has new stories to listen to!

Callie picked McDonald's for lunch.  Oh...yay.  I'm not so big on eating here 

but I enjoyed it for my girl.  There is ZERO sarcasm intended in that last sentence.  Really. 

Eli apparently was very interested in something on the ceiling.

Callie's Nana and Poppy came all the way out to Japan to help us celebrate her birthday!  Okay, not really, but they were very happy they could be with us for her birthday.  One thing Callie wanted to do was get a pedicure at CocoK's.  We didn't have to do much convincing for Nana to join us.  

We all still have such pretty toes, a week later.

We usually make the kids' birthday cakes.  A couple of times I've had to buy a cake from a grocery store, but I never considered ordering a custom cake, until I saw this one.  It was the Barbie head that got me.  Callie chose the colors and Ms. Annette made it just for her.  It was DELICIOUS and Callie was so happy.

She did NOT eat that huge piece of cake.  But being the birthday girl, she got the

first piece and wanted the section that said "Callie".  Of course.

A couple of weeks before Callie's birthday, I asked her to start thinking about what she wanted to do for her birthday lunch.  After thinking for a minute, she said, "I wish we could fly back to the States and get Quiznos."  Enter the power of Facebook.  I posted her comment, cousin Donna commented that I should get a Quiznos wrapper and bag and make a sandwich and wrap it like it came from Quiznos.  Then I asked Grammy if she could get a wrapper and the day before Callie's birthday, a package containing a Quiznos wrapper, plastic bag, and napkins arrived in the mail.  We bought Subway (I know, not anywhere near as good as Quiznos, but it's the best I could do) and I wrapped up her sandwich.  She thought it was so cool that she had "Quiznos" for lunch.  So glad Donna thought of that and Grammy was able to mail it in time!

We had such a great day celebrating Callie's birthday and she went to bed a very happy girl.  One thing I didn't post a picture of  is Callie's new bike.  We surprised her with a new bike without training wheels, to encourage her to learn to ride without them.  Hopefully soon I'll be able to post a short video of her riding by herself.

Happy birthday to my sweet girl.  How we love you so much!