Brooke Turns 9 and Breaks Her Mother's Heart

Brooke had her 9th birthday a week ago. Daniel and I can't get over how big she's getting. It's completely destroying me. But on the other hand, I love watching her grow up and become her own person with her own likes and dislikes and dreams and interests. She is such a delight to be with and is becoming more delightful every day. I decided this last year that I love 8-year-olds, and it seems I'll be loving 9-year-olds just as much. 

Some things I love about Brooke: 

• She is kind. She helps her siblings when they need help and she's conscious of helping her friends feel loved and included. When her brothers and sister feel sad, she helps them to feel better. She plays with them and makes them laugh. 
• She is helpful. When I ask the kids for help, it's almost NEVER Brooke who complains about having to do stuff. She's very willing to help me with something. 
• She is developing a sense of humor. I love this part of her growing up. I can make jokes or funny comments, and she oftentimes understands and laughs with me. It's truly delightful. 
• She loves to read. This has always been her thing. She loves books. Even the books that I read the girls that Camille and I aren't too keen on, she still loves them. I think she just loves books. Reading Harry Potter to her this last year (we've read the first 3 books, and are taking a long break before reading the 4th one ... because it's more intense) has been so fun. She LOVES the Harry Potter story and she's read those first 3 books a handful of times already.
• She loves to craft. This year for her birthday, all she asked for was crafting supplies: yarn and crochet hook, bracelet making kits, a paint set. So, literally, crafting stuff was all she got! We got her a bracelet weaving book, an origami book (she's been so into origami the last few months, watching videos on YouTube and even memorizing how to fold a few things), a few skeins of yarn and a couple of crochet hooks. Camille bought her little bands to make those bands bracelets. Mom bought her a "design your own water bottle" kit and a birdhouse wind chime kit. Mom Holbrook got her some other crafting kit, I can't remember what it was. She was beyond thrilled with all of it. It's just her thing right now, creating things. She's very much into the bracelet thing. 
• She's a happy girl. But for the few exceptions when she gets frustrated with something or hasn't had enough sleep, she's a very happy little lady. She's hardly ever a "Debbie downer", and she just loves life and gets enthusiastic about just about everything. It's not hard to please Brooke. 

Her birthday fell on a Sunday this year, so we couldn't do too much with it. I got up early and decorated the house a little bit, putting up her picture banner and streamers. And I wrapped presents. We did our usual Sunday things, but let her open up presents all throughout the day, so she just played with the stuff she got all day. 

For her birthday dinner, she wanted noodles with cheese, mixed veggies and pickles. 🤷🏽‍♀️ I added pesto for anyone who wanted sauce, and made brownies for her birthday dessert. Just boxed brownies, because those are really good. She was the easiest ever to please this year for her birthday. Just with these little things I did, what presents I bought her, and her birthday dinner, I basically made all her birthday wishes come true. 

We had her friend birthday party yesterday. We did her party in 2 parts, so that we could do everything we wanted. For the first part, we invited a few girls (Swayze, Denon, Morgan and Claire) to come do some service activities. We made up some busy books to take to the children's hospital for kids to use while they wait. And then we decorated posters with "free ice cream" written in the top, and went around the neighborhood delivering free ice cream to people who happened to be outside. We played loud music in the car and rode slowly down the streets looking for people to give ice cream to. It was actually so fun! The girls yelled out the windows, "Free ice cream! Free ice cream!" And people came up to the car and chose what kind of ice cream they wanted. Everyone loved it. 

The little girls that came first helped Brooke decorate her cake. 😂😍 That's an oreo flower on top of the cake. 

The second part of our party included more people (Lily, Harvey, Luke and Jack, Brooklyn and Bailey, Anna, Lydia, Maggie), and we had pizza and cake, watched "Spirit: Untamed", and opened presents. Brooke got at least 3 more bracelet making kits from her friends, which I found hilarious. It must be the 8-9 year old girl thing to do. 😂 I think everyone had fun. It was a super long party, and my intention with the 2 parts was to be able to do the service party (which I wanted to try), but also be able to include more friends and avoid people feeling left out. (As a side note, this did not prevent people from feeling left out and sad, as I'd hoped. 🤷🏽‍♀️ I did my best.) I don't think I would do it this way again. It was too long for me and the girls who stayed for the whole thing. But it was still fun. I enjoyed it as well. It was a good, if rowdy, group of kids. Brooke was so excited to see some of the friends she hasn't seen for a while.