Niner

Birthday time again in the Cazier household, with another following close on its heels. Ivory is just shy of double digits. She turned 9!

She is such a fun, energetic girl. I love being around her, and if I can get her energy moving in the right direction and with the right motivation, there is nothing she can't do.

She dearly loves breakfast in bed, so I decided I would do that for her. And this year, I told her I was bringing it up, so she wouldn't come down and miss it. (Ahem...like last year.) Weirdly, I made her the exact same thing as last year. (Not planned at all.)

Ivory opted for a friend party this year and all the rules have changed. Before, I got gifts for the birthday girl from the family and allowed a friend party as well, every other year. I realized it was stretching the coffers a bit much, so now, one must chose between family gifts or a friend party. (Friend parties still involve gifts after all.) Ivory was very excited to open a card from Grandma, because she knew she wouldn't be getting many presents until her party in the evening.

And there was gift from mom and dad, mainly because I bought it back in December and it was likely that she would grow out of it if I saved it for a year.

We chatted with Ivory and took pictures of her enjoying her breakfast.

As soon as she finished eating, on went her new item of clothing. (I'm not even sure what you call that thing. I just thought she would like it.)

We threw her out the door for school, but it wasn't long before Tyler picked her up for lunch. He has a tradition of taking the girls out for lunch on their birthdays. (I think they really look forward to it.) Ivory chose Golden Corral, and Tyler peppered my phone with pictures while they were there. Here is Ivory with a huge plate of melted cheese. (I guess there were chips there earlier proclaiming to be nachos. All I see is a BUCKET load of cheese.)

Selfie with Dad!!

I think Ivory went through three or four desserts, but this one was my favorite.

Back at school, it wasn't too long before Mom showed up. (I always bring the balloons. Not as cool as lunch, but still graciously accepted.) I brought along toffee, because that was Ivory's treat of request. I told her that the school frowns upon homemade treats, but she had her heart set on toffee. I left the nuts off (just in case) and no one threw me out the door. (Whew.) And the kids got to enjoy something without a mound of preservatives.

Ivory liked her balloons. She still has a soft spot for elephants.

In the evening, we took a carload of loud, crazy girls over to the ice rink. (Wow! LOUD!! The kids, not the ice rink.) I didn't take pictures of everyone on the ice. You get the idea. We skated, some fell. There weren't too many tears.

I did grab everyone for a group picture at one point.

Front row (left to right): Anabelle, Reagan. Back row (left to right): Sierra, Bailey, Danielle, Megan, Robyn, June, Daisy, Pearl, Tyler, Ivory, Brielle (It is possible those two in the front had no idea I was taking a group picture.) :)

We skated to our hearts content and stopped briefly for brownies and ice cream.

Ivory wasn't even close to blowing those candles out in one shot. Maybe she was out of breath from skating?

She opened gifts and loved everything. (Honestly, she got more stuff from her friends than I would have gotten her anyway. Good choice on the friend party toots.)

We all rushed off to get in fifteen more minutes of skating. I was proudly holding my record of not having fallen even once, until...

Robyn talked me into going to the other rink to play hockey with her. Robyn is fairly sure footed on the ice. (Sure skated??) But when you add in a hockey stick and a small ball, it is a different game. Even for me. We were all over the place trying to get that ball. Both of us collided with walls and each other multiple times. I thought I had it all under control until suddenly I tripped and fell flat on my face. Well, I caught myself, so no actual face damage, but I was sprawled out on the ice as if I belly flopped from the sky.

The only real damage I sustained was a bruise on my thigh. In my pocket was a die I had picked up from home. (One of the kids left it out, so I slipped it in my pocket until I could return it to my dice stash.) When I fell, the die came between my leg and the ice and left a pretty nasty bruise. Not very big...just about die sized. Tyler says that is what happens when you play games of chance. (I think he was referring to dice...not hockey.)

I would call the evening a success. Ivory was happy, everyone was tuckered out, and Tyler headed out to Idaho. (Pictures of Idaho trips soon.)

Speaking of Tyler, I told you I would put the end of his birthday on here. Seems fitting since this is a birthday post.

Brownies again.

We finally got around to making his birthday brownies. We had another rousing chorus of Happy Birthday and Tyler enjoyed the spotlight as always.

No worries. He blew every candle out the first time.

Happy Birthday to my winter babies. One more coming up soon!!