Partying like I'm nine years old

Corey's home. Well, he's actually at work. I was going to pick him up at 5:15, drop him off here to recover from his flight, then head over to my niece's sleepover that she called and invited me to this week. Not that I was going to sleep over, but I've been holding onto her present for nearly a month, so it was a chance to see them all and give Rachel her present. Corey's flight was late and so he took a taxi home and then went into the office while I went to party with the nine year olds.

Ahhh, the nine year old girl. They weren't too bad, but there were some tears and minor meltdowns when sand-in-a-bottle sculptures got shaken up or knocked about and the layers got slightly mixed (oh, the horror!). But problems were solved and fun was had by all and it wasn't too much of a mess. I didn't get a very good photo of Rachel when she stopped long enough to pose for me because Abigail was leaning back on her about to roll her over. Brenda will have to send me a link to the photos she took of us together. I did get a few good photos of Abigail, who has mastered the art of ham.

But the real porker of the evening was Peter, who, to my pleasure, has apparently overcome his camera-shyness and become a complete camera hog. While Brenda was taking photos of Rachel with each of her guests, I had to take photos of Peter to keep him out of the other lens. My favorite photo tonight? The one with Peter and my brother Gary.

And I really need to get over and spend some time with that boy. Maybe he didn't recognize me at first because my hair was pulled back, but when I first got there, he proceeded to introduce me to his whole family, including my own brother, LOL! I need to get over there and take him somewhere. I tried a little over a year ago, but he wouldn't go with me....I spent his earliest years in Holland, so he isn't as attached to me as Rachel, and they live farther away from me now.

What did I get Rachel? Well, there's the two hats and scarves I knitted for her... one set out of fancy fur, a nine-year-old's dream yarn. Then there was the set of four Cherry Ames books, my favorites when I was her age. Then there were the tickets I bought today to take her to see the Rockettes Christmas show here in Dallas in November. It'll just be the two of us, and I know she'll love that. Hopefully she will love the show, too. We are going to a 1:30 show on a Sunday, so maybe I'll take her to the Magic Time machine afterwards for a late lunch.