Rachel turns 9

Rachel's birthday this year was an exciting one. She's been asking for her own room for a while now. She's doesn't like having to pick up Annie's messes when they have to clean their room, and Annie is a much slower cleaner than she is, which bugs her, and Rachel gets to stay up a half hour past Annie's bedtime, so her reading light sometimes keeps Annie awake. We had told her that when Megan was sleeping well, not waking up too early, Annie and Megan could share a room and Rachel could take Megan's room. A few months ago Rachel pointed out that Megan was sleeping well and maybe they could switch rooms at Christmas time. I had already decided that Rachel should get her own room for her birthday, so I just said, "That sounds like it might work."

With Rachel's birthday on a Sunday, we decided to surprise her with it the Friday before her birthday. One of my visiting teachers came over that morning to help me move the big furniture around, then we went to the school for a Thanksgiving feast in Annie's class for a while before coming back to really buckle down and get to work. My mom came out to help, and Annie helped a lot, too and we got everything done with time to spare. Annie was having fun helping until she started to get a little jealous of Rachel, so I asked her if she wanted her name painted on her door, which she jumped at. She also chose to have hearts painted around her and Megan's name. We pained Rachel's and Ryan's names on their doors as well, and finished just in time for Rachel's bus to be pulling up, dropping her off.

She came up the stairs, paused when she saw the doors with the names painted on them, and when it clicked she ran over to her new room, opened the door, and Ryan and Annie jumped out from under the bed saying, "Surprise!" And she was surprised and so excited. 

 

 The shelf over her bed that holds her stuffed animals is one we made at a Relief Society activity recently from a pallet that Annie and I painted. She got a couple more wall decorations for her actual birthday a couple days later, as well.

That night Rachel had some friends over for a movie night to celebrate her birthday. She wanted an emoji birthday cake, so I suggested cupcakes so we could do multiple designs instead of just one. It was kind of fun and they mostly turned out cute.

 We did pizza, presents, cake, then the movie.

 Those girls were crazy for the short time we had unstructured. I'm glad it was movie night and not a regular party because harnessing the crazy to play games or do crafts would have driven me crazy. :)

We do love our projector and screen. It sure makes for an easy and fun night for everyone.

Sunday we did our family party at Grandma and Grandpa's house since everyone would be at our house for Thanksgiving a few days later.

We're happy to have Rachel around. It is fun to have her be maturing and becoming like a "real person" sometimes. :) She's got a good sense of humor and is doing better at taking responsibility and getting her stuff done. She is super helpful with Megan, and Megan totally loves her and is so excited when she gets home from school. Rachel is a great student. She is doing great in advanced math, is loving ELP (the once a week gifted pull-out program at school), and is a great friend and student all around. She's a great piano player, though practicing is not her favorite thing. She likes crafts, especially involving yarn lately, though she prefers to do it her own way, rather than use a crochet hook or a loom. She likes to do a lot of things her own way. Luckily she's creative and can make her own way work most of the time. We're happy to have her in our family.