Terah's 8th Birthday (the fake one!)

Terah's birthday was partially covered in the last post BUT it also deserves a spot of its own. So I've picked out 8 more pictures to share about her fake 8th birthday. I didn't realize until this year how much she valued the aspect of her birthday where she has the full attention of the four other members of her family and gets to be the designer of her day and ours! 

While she was excited for our family visitors, there was a sense of loss if that meant there was no day just the 5 of us focused on celebrating her. So we remedied that and made October 15th her fake birthday with just us. The wonderful thing about birthdays in our home is that they often feel like a gift of a day to all of us - we are usually all fans of the birthday persons chosen menus and the activities they choose are (mostly) fun and sweet moments of connecting with each other in ways we just don't get to do on a daily basis. So this particular day of celebrating included:

1. A delicious pancake breakfast!

2. The remainder of her birthday presents, wrapped by her sisters using every bow we own.

3. Time with just Mommy, time with just Daddy and time with just Mommy and Daddy while her older sisters went for Smiley's Ice Cream. She had both her parents playing soccer with her when her sisters returned.

4. Ice cream cones on the deck!

5. Time with just her sisters while her parents took a nap (so that they wouldn't be too tired to hang out in the evening - smart kid!!). When we woke she had make herself a little birthday cake which she shared with all of us.

6. A birthday dinner of fried chicken breasts and pesto pasta. Another good choice!

7. Other activities not pictured here included helping me process persimmon pulp, our speed collection of black walnuts formerly mentioned, and a butter shaking competition/dance party. 

8. And most of all, I believe the day was chock full of reminders to her of how deeply she is loved, how grateful we are to have her as part of our family, and how much sweeter and more beautiful the world is with her in it!!