1.) Your first born child gets to choose where you eat for dinner…what would they pick and why?
My girl turned nine last week.
Our tradition is that if your birthday falls on a weekday then the birthday kid gets to choose a restaurant for the family that night and the party will happen the following weekend.
This year I was relieved we were able to dodge The Old Country Buffet even if it meant sitting in a very loud Rainforest Cafe for Maile’s birthday dinner. At least it was pretty. And they served margaritas. After listening to Maile tell me about a book she “fell in love with” for nearly TEN minutes, that margarita really was necessary.
The reason Maile chose the Rainforest Cafe has nothing to do with the indoor waterfall, the moving elephants, the giant fish tank, or the impromptu faux rainstorms. It has everything to do with this:
Smart girl.
And I wasn’t kidding about the margarita…you can see it in the bottom right hand corner of that photo.
Her Saturday party was fashioned by the amazing trio at Party On Purpose, cutest site ever! And I’m not just saying that because my sister is one of the trio. Maile chose a horse theme for her party since she’s kind of into those lately and I just cherry picked from their Etsy shop. Since I didn’t need an entire birthday package, they actually let you customize your birthday by selling a la carte. So a birthday banner and cupcake toppers was perfect for Maile’s Saturday skate party. The best part? Party On Purpose donates a portion of all their sales to a custom party package for a child in need. Love.
My girl has gone from loving Care Bears and cupcakes to loving horses and…giant chocolate brownie cakes with ice cream and sparklers apparently.
These days it seems every time I turn on the news there is a girl her age being swiped on her way to school. I’d be lying if I said sometimes I don’t wonder what on earth I was thinking when I decided to bring kids into this mess of a world. I am constantly forcing myself to STOP worrying about all the things that could go wrong and instead take a moment to recognize we’ve survived another day.
Or in this case, another year.
I look at this girl now, nine years old and I know how lucky I am.
Happy Ninth Birthday Maile and cheers to many many-many-many-bajillion-infinity-oh-my-gosh-don’t-ever-leave-me more days together!
(video here)
For Maile:
Happy Fourth Birthday
Happy Fifth Birthday
Happy Sixth Birthday
Happy Seventh Birthday
Happy Eighth Birthday
Azara says
Great age collage! And the birthday banner is beautiful, much nicer than the ones I’ve seen at most party planning stores.
I remember not wanting to leave the house right after I had my daughter, because I was suddenly so aware of what a bad place the world could be. I don’t agree with helicopter parenting in theory, but I have to fight that tendency all the time. It will be hard when she goes to school, but I’ve realized I’ll probably worry about her for the rest of my life. Maybe it’s just a natural part of motherhood as long as the fear doesn’t get out of control and you start stifling your kids.
Tracy P. says
She’s so beautiful! I love the collage too–pretty sure I remember back to her turning 5. Funny how that makes me realize we are among the blogging survivors. You have actually survived with an audience intact. Congratulations on some wonderful years of both parenting AND blogging!
Kim says
That was some Margarita glass…more like your own carafe. No wonder you survived the party.
I hate to break it to you, but there may come a day when you’ll both be ready for her to pack her stuff and move out.
Darcy says
Oh my goodness, I did not know about their birthday volcano cake! I wish there was a Rainforest Cafe closer to me.. I sooo want that now for my bday.
Tina says
What a beautiful child! You can just see the joy in her smile. May she have a great ninth year ahead!
Kim@Co-Pilot Mom says
The Rainforest Cafe looks like a great choice to go out to dinner – the cake is spectacular! Dinner and the party looked like great fun. Happy Birthday to Maile!
Emily Cullen says
Happy Birthday to Maile! I love the Rain Forest Cafe! Am I too cheesy?
Angel says
Happy Birthday Maile. She is turning into a real beauty and I hope daddy is ready with weapons. Before you know it young boys will be coming knocking..
Lisa@Pocketfuls says
Happy Birthday to your beautiful girl! I love the fact that there are still places where you can have rollerskating parties — that’s crazy-fun! I hope Maile has a wonderful year.
Dana @ This Silly Girl's Life says
Great post! Love seeing the pics of her growing up each year, so precious!!
Natalie says
Roller skating sure brings back memories ;)
I love the last sentence of your post!
Kate says
Um yes–that’s the only reason I’d go there too!
Jennifer @ Mommy Y says
Great choices Maile! Happy Birthday!
Mindi says
That birthday cake looks pretty amazing. Smart girl for sure! BTW I really love her name. It is very unique. Loving the birthday collage. Happy 9 years to your baby girl.
Nan says
I just turn back to blog again and found many interest on your blog, Thank you so much for great idea it help me a lot.
have a nice day.
Nan
Emily @ My Pajama Days says
I’m not sure what I was more impressed with – the size of that Margarita or that amazing chocolate dessert! I LOVED the pictures of your daughter through out the years. It made me search for years of Halloween pictures. I forget how little they used to be.
Marta says
We always go to the rainforest cafe for my son’s birthday (I say always because he’s 5 and we’ve gone twice). And the volcano brownie? It is sooo worth it, if only the bill didn’t come afterwords.
mryjhnsn says
Such sweet pictures and such a beautiful smile!
Jen says
Nine?! Holy crap. How did she get that old?
And I kinda love that we share a birthday. :-)
Jennifer says
Beautiful, beautiful girl. And I LOVE that she was able to talk about a book for 10 minutes.
NatteringNic says
Love the post! Hate the giant cupcake that now has me craving chocolate. *must. not. raid. son’s. trick-or-treat. bag.*
Mimi says
Isn’t crazy how fast our kids grow up? I can barely remember my daughter when she was 9! That video was pretty amusing too. She love it when she’s older. *wink*
Chris Carter says
http://themomcafe.com/darkness-and-light/
Happy birthday to your nine year old baby! Mine just turned nine this year too… crazy! I totally get what you said, every last word of it. I wrote about this world and my feelings right after some shooting- can’t remember which one now, lost track. Oh- I know, the the movie theater psycho. (Sharp pains in my gut right now…)
Carolina says
Oh how sweet. They took down the rainforest cafe that was close to here. I never even got to visit it once :(
Also, I agree with you on the wondering why I brought kids into this world! Just recently there was a girl kidnapped and killed fairly close to where I live. I was literally terrified until they caught the guy. He was a 17 year old for heaven’s sake!
Happy Birthday Maile
Christina Allred says
Such a sweet post. :) Happy birthday, Maile!
Shell says
That girl of yours has the best smile! So cute! I love the birthday collage. Great idea to see how they’ve grown. The Rainforest cafe is torture for me but the kids love it. I’ll remember to order a margarita next time.
AnnMarie says
Great post! Happy Birthday to your beautiful daughter! This makes me wish I was more organized in my picture taking. Gia will luck out because now I’ll make the conscious effort to do this.