Haley & Doug: Happy Birthday Monkey Girl

My kids have perfected the art of stretching birthdays into a month-long celebration. Apparently, I keep falling for it, so I guess I can't blame them. By the time Kaiya had actually turned 12, I had been suckered into taking or making treats to school, gym, her birthday party, her family party and her church class. Yes, that's 5 rounds of treats.

Her birthday was on a day off school, so that was a treat in and of itself. She also was surprised to see an iPad in her one and only gift box. The next day, she had a meet and we celebrated with family on the 18th. The meet was a funny story--all day long, she was telling me that her stomach was 'off' and she just couldn't eat. I guess I just figured it was nerves, but it persisted. Finally, I gave her some Rx nausea medicine and she seemed a little better. We got to the meet and I pulled her coach aside to tell him to consider himself warned. During march in, I see a panicked coach running toward me with a girl who had gone from her usual pale self to translucent. We made it to the bathroom just in time for her to toss her cookies. She had a pretty big cheering section that night, so she wiped her mouth off, gave me a hug and competed anyway and even did well (2nd place on bars, no less). To coin my brother, who's tougher than Kaiya? A former teammate of hers had invited her to come to her house after the meet, so I let her go (and thankfully, she didn't puke on her friend).

We had a really nice family gathering on Sunday and then a week to prepare for her party.

This was an 'on' year for Kaiya meaning she got to have a party. After much debate, she decided to invite just her gym friends. She spends more time with them than she does her own family, so it seemed only fitting. I have to say, however, that this was the most amazing group of girls I have ever hosted. NO drama. Zero. Nada. Zip. They are all self-confident and fun and kind. With the help of a good friend, we turned the house into Lindhardt Nightclub complete with lights, a disco ball and a concession stand. They spent 2.5 hours choreographing a video to the song, Call Me Maybe, which can be seen HERE. It's a little hard to see, but man they worked hard on it. Too cute. They also did skits, painted nails, played a hilarious game with a giant chocolate bar and enjoyed an Italian Soda bar.

By the time they settled down and started watching a movie, I lost about half of them and within 30 minutes, the rest were out cold. Too cute.

She is now loving being 12 and with the Young Women at church and no longer with the little kids. She is really growing up. Sure love our Monkey Girl!