Liv Turns 8!

In October, our Livvy Lou celebrated her 8th birthday!  She is a dream...brimming with ideas and always tinkering and never short on love for her sisters, oh and my helper around the house.  She is amazing and I am so blessed to have her as a daughter!

For her birthday, she wanted to invite the whole world to go to Powell's candy store with her.  I had to decline, bringing up her college fund and her parent's retirement and asked if she wanted to eat dinner this week and all that.  In the end, I did tell her that she could, in lieu of a big birthday party, invite 2 friends to go to Powell's with her.  That is what she chose (and then proceeded to wrangle a slumber party out of the deal ;o).  Boy was it a fun day!

It started with our traditional family crepe birthday breakfast. (The above picture shows Liv trying to give Holland a thank-you hug with syrup-y hands :o). I was able to make a poster for her at Brian's place of work, commemorating the entire year.  Little gifts and balloons surrounded her seat, and a stack of delicious crepes proudly displayed the 8-year-old candle.  8 years ago, we became parents for the first time!  Felt overwhelming parental love for the first time.  And it brings a little of that to the surface, when we celebrate her life.

We then cleaned up and headed out for a Nature Walk (yes, homeschoolers are fierce...trudging on through birthdays! :o) with our Nature class (ie Mary and Chelsea) and explored the Fall-ness of Boise.  We then ran home, had lunch, and then we took off to go to Powell's.

Powell's is a sweet, nostalgic, and surreal experience where every candy under the sun can be found.  I'm pretty sure they sell packaged happiness, too.  It's an amazing little shop.  I made some origami rings made from $5 bills for the girls to use for their purchases.

Then the choosing and hemming and hahing and big eyes and filling of baskets began.  Then, those who were more decisive, sat with their bags of candies in front of the screen showing of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. (Notice it's the adults and the teenager having trouble deciding? :o)

Afterwards, we went home to play and rest up for the birthday dinner and slumber party.

Liv's dream dinner consisted of Mizithra Pasta, Caesar salad (ok, so that was her mom's dream, not hers), and french bread.  And what 8-year-old girls wouldn't choose Tiramisu for her birthday cake?  :o)

I saw this awesome project on the Family Fun website.  You save large tin cans (such as those that house V-8 or Apple Juice) and open it using a safety can-opener. Then peel the paper off to reveal the perfect robot body.  Glue strong magnets to the back of the huge pile of doodads...light switches, wires, hooks, screws, etc.-- your husband has in the garage (and being the inventor he is, has stored these doodads for years for that light-bulb project he has up his sleeve) and allow the kids to make robots, by placing the magnet doodads on the robot body.  It's a wonderful party project!  Imagine....an hour of play switching out robot parts--no glue--no scissors--no mess--but an instant and complete art form to take home!  Oh, and have I mentioned that Liv has always wanted to make robots?  Isn't she awesome?

After Robots, came opening presents,

And then saying goodnight,

and waking up to choose your own mini cereal with your sweet friends.

Liv loved her birthday!  She is such a wonderful daughter to me!!!