The McAuley Chronicles: Nine? Are you sure?

Yes, Madison is nine years old! I can't believe it.

Monday (18th) was her birthday but we started the celebrations last weekend.

Around the McAuley household, we LOVE birthdays. In fact, we each get a "Birthday Week." Oh yeah sista. You know I've tried for the "Birthday Month" but it just hasn't caught on yet with Daddy! He'll learn though.

The long and short of her actually birth date goes a little like this: went in for normal check up at 39 weeks . . . felt a little crummy . . . upon exam from doctor, he says, "honey, you're in labor." I said, "Oh" thinking to myself, "heck, maybe I'll have six or seven if its this easy." . . . went to the hospital, got the epidural (of course! Didn't have anything to prove to anybody. Been through my share of pain!) . . . and Voila! . . . out comes a beautiful baby girl 8 pounds 13 ounces. . . and I still had on every stitch of makeup and my hair looked great! To the gals out there that didn't have it quite so easy . . . I'm sorry!

But on to the parties that have followed for nine years. They're always a lot of fun, full of girly stuff, girly colors, girly games, and now . . . usually a sleepover!

Here's a little gift given to the girls who came. It's a terry toiletry bag that we filled with toothbrush, toothpaste, toothbrush carry case, etc. How cute are these? My friend, Lisa, has her own website on etsy. If you want to check it out, email me and I'll give it to you.

David says this is our last run with giving a gift away at their parties. He cannot for the life of him understand when this trend started and quite frankly I have nothing to come back with. He reached his threshhold this past February at Morgan's sleepover when we gave the girls custom embroidered pillowcases and one little girl's response was a little less than thankful. We'll leave it at that. But that's when it happened. Daddy said "No More!"

Madison specifically asked to NOT have a cake at her sleepover. She wanted her Daddy to make his very famous homemade peanut butter cookies. Rock on! Cause I don't have to do anything with that one! But I couldn't resist stuffing some of them with cream cheese frosting!