Angel-Leah's birthday!

Five years and five months ago, a toddler walked into my living room in the middle of the night and stole my heart forever.  Almost four years ago, we adopted her.

And yesterday, she turned eight years old!

Long ago, my children decided to forgo birthday surprises and either go for money, or they would tell me exactly what to buy.  That does make things easier, and it ensures they are not disappointed, but at the same time, it does take away a little bit of the fun of birthdays presents for me. 
Well, if I'm going to be honest, I've been a bit tired for the past six years.  I've had babies almost all the time, and anything that made life easier was very welcomed, so I went with that.
But with my youngest being four years old now, things have eased up a LOT, and I'm getting some of my energy and spirit back.

And I KNEW what to get Angel-Leah for her birthday, and I wanted to surprise her.   It was something she has begged for for three years, but I wouldn't buy her because I didn't think she was old enough for such expensive things yet.  I told her she could not have this particular thing until she was ten years old.
The last year has seen her mature a lot, though.  While her room is still a mess most of the time, she does take care of the glass dolls she is so fond of buying at Antique Alley.  She usually keeps her Polly Pockets near her dollhouse instead of strung all over the house and out in the yard.
And since we are likely going to make a major change in another six weeks or so, and rock her world by giving her both another big sister and a new little sister, I decided to move up the date a couple of years, and take her....

HERE!

 

 

Okay, Mary Susannah only got the side of the store, but this is the American Girl store in Dallas, Texas!

I wouldn't tell her where we were going.  I just said it was going to be a surprise, and she was going to like it.  She wasn't sure she trusted me to know what she wanted.  She insisted she wanted a kitten.  When I reminded her she already has FOUR kittens, she said she wanted more!  I said she would like this better.  She was sure she wouldn't. 
She worried all the way to Dallas.  Which took a LONG time to get too, because we stopped at Walmart to buy a memory card for the camera since Gage accidentally took ours all the way to Japan, and it is too far to run over and pick it up (BIG SIGH...I'm not going to see him for a full year...) and we made another stop at Starbucks.
She kept reminding me what she really wanted was a kitten.  Or money.  And that she should have the right to CHOOSE what she got for her birthday.  And was I taking her to Canton?  She remembered this was the way we went a couple of weeks ago...
Trust me, I kept telling her.  This is going to be great.
She wasn't so sure, until we drove up in front of the store.  But when she saw where we were, her face told it all:

"You are going to buy me Kaya!"  She screamed out.
Big sister Mary Susannah had to keep reminding her to be a lady as we tried to park and get out of the car.

It was a great surprise!

The American Girl Store is quite a place.  They certainly have more employees than customers, and they just fell all over themselves to wait on us.  It's a sparkling, glittery place, as you can see from this picture that I tried to take of Tommy and Mary Susannah, which Mary Susannah says is the world's worst picture!  (but I think she was just giving me a hard time.

Okay, it's blurry, but you can still see the glitters, and the gorgeous kids, right?

We soon found Kaya, and Angel-Leah was one happy little eight year old girl!

We even bought her an extra dress, because she didn't come with Angel-Leah's favorite one.

They have a very small book store there, too, and I can never resist them.

I found a book for our homeschool, and got that for myself.

I mean, if it teaches the kids to get along better, that can only benefit me, right?

We explored the store, but we were soon on our way out, Kaya doll already out of the box and in Angel-Leah's arms.

She did get to pick where we ate, which was at a BJ's very close to the American Girls Store.  Angel-Leah got a special dessert for free since it was her birthday.

Angel-Leah has started a poem about her birthday.  So far, it goes like this:

"I love you.
To think you would have thought I wouldn't like it.
Oh, the joy in my voice,
the glee on my face."

She is writing it down, but that's all she has so far.

She says it's the best birthday of her whole life.

Which, so far, is eight whole years.

Happy birthday, Angel-Leah.  I love you, too!