it's true, time flies

It's so cliche, but I really do feel like it was just yesterday I was holding this bundle in my arms. Since when did time start going THIS fast? Has it always done this? Or does it just feel faster because I'm getting older? Either way, I don't like it. Slow down, time.

And now she's this bundle.

She's still all joy, though.

A helpful little bundle - she even helped me make one of her birthday cakes. Her original request - a cake that included chocolate, mandarin oranges and ice cream. It took a while to convince her that chocolate and mandarin oranges don't mix too well, so it turned into two cakes. One chocolate and chocolate malted crunch ice cream cake, and one vanilla and mandarin orange cake with cream cheese frosting. 

My Alyssa Mae turned 8 yesterday. She is delightful and sweet and full of girly sugary fun. I adore her. Because she chose to come early, she missed my dad's 50th birthday by a day, but even though their birthdays are just a day apart, we still celebrate them together a lot. We used to do it a lot more when she was a baby and toddler - yup, he was there when she burned her widdle baby finger by touching the candle on her birthday cake.

Thankfully this year no one got burned.

(hey why's everyone lookin' naked in this picture? Don't worry - they were just outside on the slipnslide before cake time....no time for shirts when it's cake time...it's like the cake bell rang, and all the half naked youngin's ran in for some chow!)

But my heart felt a little sad. It's just not a kid's birthday without mom crying, around here. About an hour into the day, I cried. We were watching the video I made for her 5th birthday. Oh man. Tear-city.

Anyway, it as a great day - a nice low-key birthday which included a trip to the mall with Grandma for a new birthday outfit:

(I loved doing this as a kid with my grandma, when she'd take me school-clothes shopping, so I KNOW how fun this is for my girls) and lunch at the food court (because kids love food courts!) and then a small non-party here - just cake and ice cream, I called it. But with 11 total kids, it didn't seem like a non-party, it felt like a party. I have to stop planning non-parties. They just always turn out to be real actual parties - we can't help it!

The kids spent the first hour of the non-party on the slip n slide Alyssa got for her birthday.

They spent the rest of the next few hours eating cake, ice cream cake, playing in her dark room with the disco ball on, dancing, running around the house with nerf guns, screaming a lot, making most of the floors wet, and being cute and funny. It was a great non-party - and I'm so glad to have big family on both sides. We are definitely blessed with lots of family to love and love us!

Oh, and Alyssa says, come by for a snow cone!

And one more time, TIME, please.....slow down a bit, at least in the area of kids growing up. Please. This is getting a little crazy. I'm gonna turn around and that red snow cone maker will be a shiny red prom dress, or a shiny red car.