Ellie Turns Eight

The first thing Ainsley excitedly told her teacher when she met her was, "My first day of school is my sister's birthday!" After dropping Ainsley off at kindergarten, I headed out to buy Ellie's requested treat for her class—cupcakes. In case you're wondering, no, Costco does not sell cupcakes. Well, they have some gourmet cupcakes that are over a dollar each, but I couldn't see that for a class of 3rd graders. I finally found some mini cupcakes, and opted to buy popsicles too, and made it to the school to serve them just before the end of the day.

Ellie didn't get a special breakfast, since it would have been to hard to fix and serve before Robbie left, so she picked crepes for her birthday dinner.

Ralph and Judy came by at just the right time to join us, even more fun.

Ellie asked for, and got, a lot of new clothes. And a fashion design coloring book.

And...a pink iPod shuffle, loaded with a playlist of her favorites

She's growing up way too fast.

I couldn't see eating birthday cake after crepes, so we stuck a candle in a leftover cupcake for our special Marsh-family-tradition version of happy birthday. If you're not familiar with this tradition, be grateful. It's pretty much a contest to see who can be most off-key and off-tune.

At eight, Ellie:

• loves music, cute clothes, shoes & accessories, just like a teenager
• luckily still plays with Barbies, dolls and dress-ups
• goes to ballet twice a week
• turned down an invitation to play on a soccer team
• has beautiful handwriting
• won't eat five fruits and veggies at all, let alone every day—she'll eat bananas, raw carrots, potatoes and (sometimes) watermelon
• is usually the peacemaker in sibling squabbles
• wants to get her ears pierced
• still loves playing the piano, and practices without complaining
• does her homework quickly and well
• thinks of ways to serve others
• tells me that she misses Jesus
• makes us very, very happy

Ellie, we love you!