Nine is divine

It seems that we have been "preparing" for this 9th birthday for 364 days, and by "we" I mean Ava.  Merciful heavens she is a planner....to the extreme.  Nevertheless, it was a wonderful weekend of celebrating nine interesting and exciting years!

We started Saturday, with piercing her ears...again.  We did this exact thing last year on her birthday...but either her ears didn't do well with the cheaper earrings we selected, or when we changed them out, we used an earring we shouldn't have...either way we are going to be much more cautious and careful this time around and hopefully in about 6 months, she can start trying to wear something new.  She was VERY excited about getting her ears pierced again.  She picked her birthstone for her earrings and they are sapphire and beautiful!

Then we headed directly to Target because when Ava has 2 pennies to rub together, it burns a hole right through her pocket.  I don't know that she'll be a "saver."  We let all the kids go up and down every single toy aisle, and that in and of itself is a big treat for our kids.

She's still not too old to look at the dolls.  :)

When we had been planning her birthday we asked her what she wanted to do.  Her reply: "Go out to Craig's house and have a picnic and shoot guns, and arrows and go fishing."  HALLELUJAH! Shawn and I were both standing there when she said it and we looked at each other with excitement in our eyes! It just so happened that Friday night a cool front came through and we had the most glorious weather that we've had in months, on Saturday.  It.Was.Perfect.  We swung by Little Caesars and also the gas station and let each kid pick whatever drink they wanted....they all picked Big Blue. It was such a luxury to them to have a drink that has caffeine.

We fished, shot at fish, shot at frogs, shot at dragonflies, caught perch that looked like minnows, shot bow and arrow, played with worms, shot army men and generally just had a wonderful time.

There is a tiny fish somewhere on the end of this line.

This has never happened before but I actually fell asleep in a hammock.  It was rejuvinating and that just doesn't happen for me ever.

On Sunday, her actual birthday, she picked Mama Fu's for her birthday lunch.  (thankgoodness it wasn't Cici's or McDonalds.)

After lunch we headed home for a Minions inspired birthday (her request again. lol)

She wanted a Closed/Open sign for her birthday.  It's funny how simple things to adults are a kids dream come true gift.

She couldn't believe that we bought this shirt at Spring Break and had it this whole time...she's not the only one that can plan ahead....where do you think she got it from. 

A cheetah print makes her happy.

Then it was time to make a wish.  She requested Hot Fudge Pie and Breyers Chocolate icecream as her birthday dessert.  

This girl doesn't need to wish...she has lots of determination and planning abilities.  She can do just about anything she sets her mind to...including planning an amazing 9th birthday.

Spontaneous+Labor Day=24 hours of fun

We decided sort of last minute to go to Tyler for Labor Day.  We left as soon as church was over Sunday afternoon!

We made it to Tyler just in time to go worship with Paul and Carolyn and their new building.  It had such a wonderful "new" smell and has lots of potential!  Then we headed to Dairy Queen and most of us learned that we can't handle anything more than a mini blizzard after dinner.  :)

Monday morning, Shawn and I headed to The Foundry for a breakfast date.  We were the only ones in there and the staff had on XM radio and it was supposed to be jazz but kept having Christmas songs pop up.  They kept changing the song until I went up to them and asked them why they weren't leaving the Christmas music on.  They said they were turning it off of them, for our sake.  We informed them that Christmas music in September was A Okay with us :)  

  

While we were having coffee, Barbara made muffins for breakfast for the kids and let Ava blow out a candle for her upcoming birthday.

And then it was round two of icecream treats!

Ava opened her cards from Gramme and Grandma.

After breakfast we headed to my parents house.  Then we caravaned to a hidden trail and tromped off into the woods with my parents and sister and her family.  Our goal was to get lost in the woods and have a picnic.

Well we didn't exactly get lost, but we were out in the middle of no where.  Weirdly enough, the trail we took started in a cemetery.  We then were taken to another MUCH older cemetery on the back property of the newer one.  It was such a calm and soothing place to be, that we decided to have our picnic here.  Some of the tombstones were dated in the early 1800's.  It was a great place to relax and eat.

After our hike and picnic we headed back to my parents house for a double celebration.  Haydon's birthday was actually on labor day this year and Ava's is one week later so we had cupcakes and .....round THREE of icecream (and homemade at that!!)

Then it was time to head home....with Papaw on the side of our car.  The kids said they wanted his face on a magnet so he obliged!  It was quite funny to have his face on our car. 

We got a wild hair on the way home and stopped to eat Mexican food in a small town...this is unlike me because Mexican food places can be tricky....but this one was great!  Everyone ate plenty of chips and I'm happy to report, we didn't give them any icecream.