It's tough being the little brother...

Kayci had a birthday slumber party, and Noble was in little boy heaven. All those cute girls...he quickly attached himself to his 2 favorites and ate only what they ate, drank only what they drank...cute. Annoying, I'm sure, but cute. :) This morning the girls wanted a girls-only breakfast in the tree house. To avoid hurting Bubby's feelings, we came up with a plan and told him they needed privacy to plan a surprise for him.


Sucker.

Kayci's 9th Birthday

Yesterday was Kayci's 9th birthday, and I think it was a pretty good day.

The day started off at 5:50 when Kayci came strolling into my office where I was working.  It's not uncommon for Noble to come in early in the morning to say good morning, but it's really rare that Kayci is the first kid up. In fact, she even woke up before Mommy.  I think she was pretty excited.

We woke MommyGirl up and then woke up Noble so the birthday festivities could begin.  Noble woke up really well and was really excited about Kayci's birthday.  MommyGirl was, too.  In typical Kristi fashion, she had decorated the house for the occasion - she's so great at making us all feel so important on our special days.  I did the bathroom while Kristi decorated the rest of the house.

Kayci got down to the business of opening her presents and cards.  Noble gave her a handheld fan from Justice that lights up (or "glows up in the dark") and her present from us was to get her ears pierced and a pair of earrings of her choice.  She's been wanting to get her ears pierced for a couple of years, but we didn't think she was responsible enough yet to take care of them at the time. But Kayci has grown quite a bit in the last year, and now we have no doubt that she'll do what she needs to do with them.



Next was the traditional birthday donuts.  It started as a Kristi and Lynn tradition when they were roommates in college and has just lived on.  Don't judge.

I went to work for a half day and Kristi took the kids to an early movie - the new(ish) Snow White movie, "Mirror Mirror."  They all said it was pretty good.  Then we met up with Amy and the Clarkson kids for lunch as they traveled back to Pflugerville from Houston.  We had a good lunch of pizza and ice cream at Mobius and headed to College Station to get Kayci's ears pierced at the mall.

We went to Claire's in the mall (is there even anywhere else that pierces ears?).  Kayci said her hands were sweating.  She was excited, but not really nervous - until it came time to sit in the Piercing Chair®. The girl who worked at Claire's that would be piercing her ears had blue streaks in her hair and several piercing of her own in her lips and nose.  You should've seen Kayci's face- it was priceless.  We had joked about just taking her down to the tattoo place in town to get pierced, so it was kind of funny. But the girl who helped us was really sweet and did a great job.

Kayci did get a little nervous, but she was a trooper.  She was so brave!  Kayci didn't flinch - she didn't even blink - when the girl pierced her ears. Mommy got it all on video.  And before we knew it, it was over!  Kayci chose as her starter earring some neon peace sign earrings that couldn't be more perfect for Kayci!



We went to James Avery to pick out Kayci's real earrings for when the starters can come out, but we didn't find exactly what she was looking for, so we decided to wait and look around in the next few weeks.  And then we headed home.  Noble had swim lessons, so we needed to get back to Brenham. Kayci requested tortellini for dinner, so we cooked that, ate a quick meal outside on the deck and went off to watch Noble swim.

Kayci was born at 9:43pm, so we told her she could stay up for her birth minute.  I went to the store to get some Drano for a clogged drain and picked up (at Kristi's request) a piece of birthday cake for her to celebrate her birth minute. Kristi and the kids piled up in our bed while I worked on the computer, and went I went in a few minutes before Kayci's birth minute, I found all of them asleep.

I took Noble to his bed and woke up Kristi and Kayci so we could celebrate together. Kayci was groggy, but she woke up quickly when she saw the light from the candle on her piece of birthday cake. We sang happy birthday to her and she blew out the candle - then pushed her own face into cake. What a funny girl. She got frosting on her nose, but she was happy.  She ate her cake and headed off to bed.

It was a very Pharaon birthday (lots of traditions and pampering and sweets), and I think it was special.  I know Mommy and I had a great, fun day. Happy nine years old, Kayci!


[edit from Kristi]: You captured it well, DaddyBoy! My only correction for posterity's sake is that Noble's gift was actually a shirt that says, "My brother has the best sister ever" and a bunch of hair elastics in a cupcake thing (her birthday party is cupcake-themed). 

And so you guys don't think I picked a random print for her banner, etc., that's wrapping paper that Kayci chose to build her Nancy Drew birthday party around...then she switched to cupcakes...and went and bought all premade party stuff at Target. 

Happy Birthday, Beauty

Today is Kayci's 9th birthday.  It's a little hard to fathom that it's been nine years since she came into our lives and changed everything (for the better.)  It seems - literally - like another lifetime ago.  We still lived in Houston, I was doing freelance work out of the house, Kristi was still in the classroom teaching and, upon looking back at some of the photos of when she was born, both Kristi and I both look so much like kids.

Since then, we've moved to a new town, gotten new jobs, family members have passed away and we've been blessed with others.  In fact, it's tough for us to remember much about our lives - what we did with our time - before Kayci came along.

And it's been a great nine years.  We've watched our little Bitty grow and blossom into a Beauty - a young lady who is smart and determined and just simply amazing.  It hurts the heart how big she is. We find ourselves trying not to think about how old she's getting and what that means. We just want to savor every moment with her and relish her youth and, as the words to the song say, "let her be little."


So Happy Birthday, Beauty.  Somehow, that just doesn't say what's in our hearts.  Mommy and I love you more than you can possibly imagine and we're so proud of who you are and who you're becoming.  Somehow, you find new ways to amaze us and to make us more proud every day.