It's great to be 8

Happy Birthday to Miss RVC.  We celebrated with a birthday party with school friends on a beautiful, sunny Friday afternoon and then woke up to a snow-covered Sunday morning (without power, even) on her actual birthday--crazy April weather.

It's our year for birthday parties.  Once again, RVC shared her day with General Conference weekend, so we opted to move festivities to Friday, April 1st.  It made for a great "April Fools"-themed party.  The girls all came dressed in crazy/backwards/mismatched outfits and had a silly time playing, eating strange things like jello "punch," "corn-on-the-cob" cake, and [gummy] wormy apples, and enjoying the fabulous weather.

I am not a natural party-planner (or hostess, for that manner), but somehow made it through...maybe only because both grandmas and my niece came by to lend helping hands.

Just a sampling of some of the outfits the girls came up with (and a few of the silly decorations seen in the background)

RVC was old enough to attend a session of General Conference live at the conference center this year.  Papa (TEC's dad) picked her up early on Sunday morning and the two of them watched the morning session and then met up with Grams for a [snowy] picnic lunch.  She wrote a sweet entry about her experience in her new journal (she shared it with us).


The rest of us listened at home and did our best to take in the wonderful messages while reverently cleaning up lovingly-made kid messes. (Didn't I just make that sound nice?)


TEC and TLC did use the time during Conference to cover some ground in the instruction booklet for his block set.  Here is the cool train they made, complete with a passenger compartment.

The afternoon and evening brought more birthday celebration.  Grandma and Grandpa came over with birthday greetings for RVC, along with Sammy and Jake (whose poor parents are stuck in Paris for a week).  Then Grams and Papa came over in the evening and shared some cake and ice cream.  She even received a call from her Olsen cousins in Vernal.

This is a big year for RVC.  She will be baptized later this month, so a lot of her birthday presents had to do with getting ready for her baptism.

First set of scriptures

SCC drew this picture for RVC...all things special about turning 8: getting baptized, getting a "blessing" [confirmation] afterwards, 8 candles on the cake, getting your ears pierced (we've talked about it--hasn't happened yet).

I'm so proud of RVC--what a good girl.  She works hard at school and does very well, particularly with her writing.  She loves to play--jumping on the trampoline, riding her bike and scooter, and playing jumprope are favorite activities.  She also loves any and all crafts--her school friends stocked her up well in that department.  She gives very good Family Night lessons.  Although I can't say she always loves to, she does help around the house and she often can be found making her brothers and sisters happy--she has a strong desire to do what is right.

We love you, RVC.  Hope your birthday was a special as you are.