Happy 11th Birthday to Becky!

I can not believe my youngest child is 11 years old today!  I remember being so very overwhelmed when all five children were home and Becky was younger.  Ah, it is best not to think about it too much.  I think I have a lot of regrets.  I wish I'd been a better mother.  More patient, less cranky, more creative, stricter about TV and computer time.  I definitely used those last two as babysitters.  Sigh.

Let me shake myself out of that funk!

 We got home from Spain late Saturday afternoon. We were exhausted. After checking on all the pets and getting laundry started, Rick went out and got subs from Subway and we watched the beginning of the first Lord of the Rings movie. We all went to bed at 7 p.m!

 Sunday we got up at 5 a.m. Still on Spain time! We all went to 10:00 mass. Then Rick and Sean went off to see The Amazing Spiderman movie and Becky and I did something special. We picked up a friend of hers and we went and had lunch at the American Girl store near us. It was really fun. The food was good and that place really knows little girls! Everything was perfect. Becky got a Julie minidoll and a new doll hairbrush.

 Becky proceeded to spend the next two days brushing her dolls' hair. I'm not kidding. She LOVES to do her dolls hair. I think she should go to beauty school. That way she'll always have hairdressing to fall back on if no other career pans out. She got to play over at another friend's house Wednesday afternoon, so both girls spent most of their time playing with their dolls. Last night, we went back to the American Girl store and I let Becky buy the rest of her gifts (keep in mind she's our youngest! We spoil her rotten!). She got one of those Just Like Me Dolls (number 44), a new outfit for a doll, a doll hat, the McKenna movie and Licorice the cat.

 Today, her actual birthday, she is having one or two friends over from her art class for lunch. Then they are going to watch the new McKenna movie. I told her she HAS to clean her room up before then, so we made lunch a little later (1:00 p.m.) So today will be a busy day cleaning, making brownies and lunch and then making dinner. Becky requested Shepherds Pie for her birthday dinner.

 So I guess I'd better get busy!