About Yesterday

Because my girls are so active and do so many varied activities with the church and girlscouts, etc, they each have a cell phone on my plan.

I know some people think it's excessive. They're young. But it's for *my* convenience. They are only allowed a scant few minutes a month on it. And they've both showed incredible responsibility with both keeping up with it and with the usage.

Julia had mentioned earlier that she would really like to upgrade her cell phone to a picture phone for her birthday. Her friend got one for her birthday and thought it was cool beans. For about a day. Then the new wore off. Well, Julia changed her mind about wanting one. About a week before her birthday. Luckily, we had not gotten her a new one at that point.

She's at that hard age, where she's too old for "toys" but too young to have much interest in "grown-up" stuff.

So I was as stumped as she was at what to get her.

I talked to her younger sister and she suggested a video game. But we really couldn't think of anything else. And since both girls had elected to NOT have parties this year in order to get a bigger gift (it's the first time they've done this and I'm not sure they'll do it again) I wanted to make it something special.

When our oldest daughter turned 13, her daddy bought her a ring. A birthstone ring. With little diamonds. It was a *huge* hit. And we'd thought to do this with each girl when she turned into a teenager.

Well, DH and I decided that it might be the time to do it now, instead of 13, for a couple of reasons. Julia is much more mature at 12 than Jessica was even at 13. I suppose each subsequent child grows up a little faster due to the older influences in their lives. That's been our observation anyway. And Julia has super sensitive skin (notice the red hair) and can't wear much "fake" jewelry.

So DH and I went shopping and found *exactly* what we wanted. But the price was more than we could justify paying. We were discussing it when the sales lady said, "You know we're having a huge sale and these are both 40% off, right?" And she pointed to a huge sign that said just that.

We got them both. A birthstone ring AND earrings. I suppose we'll have to get "little bit" a ring, earrings and necklace when her time comes to get the special daddy gift?


Julia wanted a "Doody Plop" cake. Doody Plops are our name for no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies. So we made up a batch and just poured it into our cake pan. Then used colored frosting to decorate.


Birthday girl, blowing out her candle. She then got her video game. And we told her we would go out to eat as well for her birthday. She thought the gifts were over.


We rarely go out to eat. But we decided to go out to http://www.macaronigrill.com/ It's one of the girls favorite places to eat. Notice the video game at the table.


Love the face when she finds out there is another gift.


She really liked the earrings.


At the second gift, she was a little overwhelmed I think. Her face started to turn red.


She loved the ring. As a matter of fact, I don't think she's talked about *anything* else since she got it. Should I sleep in it? How did you know the size? I Love It! Etc.


And then there was cake. And it was so special. This girl came out to sing Happy Birthday to her but sang it in Italian! And her voice was absolutely beautiful. It was definitely something we'll all remember.

We came home and told a walk with the dogs through the neighborhood. Which was a great way to end the day. Julia immediately got on the phone when we got back to dish to all of her friends.

What a blessed day in so many ways.