Marica’s 9th birthday

My oldest turned 9 last month. Where did the time go? I know all mothers always say that, but my oh my, they grow up fast. Gone is the little girl who liked her hair braided all pretty, and who would wear whatever her mother put out for her. Now she’s in the short-hair-for-life camp and has some very particular tastes in clothes. But, despite those unavoidable aspects of growing up, she has continued to grow up into a lovely young girl, whose mother I’m proud to be.

This year Marica’s birthday celebrations stretched over 2 days — her actual birthday, and the following Saturday when she had her birthday party.

On her birthday, there were presents from us and her sisters, a playdate, and her own choice of dinner (spaghetti and meatballs).

For her party, she wanted “fire colours”, so I tried decorating with red, orange and yellow for the most part.

Of course we had good old fashioned party games like Pin the Tail, The Sock Game, The Candy Game, The Chocolate Game, Pass the Parcel, and some other ones I forget now.

The cake was probably my best birthday cake attempt yet. I used this recipe (everything from SmittenKitchen is wonderful!), but doubled it to make a layer cake and stuck a whole can of dulce de leche in the middle. Mmmm.

And because I can anticipate questions: Yes, it takes a really long time to separate 4 packets of M’nM’s into different colours. And yes, here in the States you get different sized M’nM’s. You might not get them at every grocery store, but I usually find the mini ones and the mega ones at Target.

And now I have a 9 year old. Her last year in the single digits… forever. I’m sad to see her growing up, but also excited to see her become more of her own person. Ah, the bittersweetness of parenthood.

We love you Marica!