A Birthday Surprise!

This past Monday was my girl's 8th birthday! I have been so busy with VBS and other things that I have not had a chance to blog about my special girl. She is growing SOO much and I am so proud of the progress she is making!

She is on some meds that have really seemed to help her calm down some and she is just maturing right now... as a matter of fact she is in her room reading to herself as I type! Just growing and settling down is such a praise because it has been a long time coming.

Well, she did turn 8 on June 1st so we met my family for lunch on Sunday the day before the big day.

Here she is with my brother, Tommy....

He really doesn't know what to do with her...it's hilarious! We give him assignments like walking her to the women's bathroom and standing outside to wait on her. He just looks at us like "really!?"  Hee hee! Oh! It's good for him. He's so shy and he's single and he needs a challenge.

Here she is with my dad... telling secrets....

Dad is loving every minute of it!!

AND here she is with Mimi... possibly her favorite person on earth...

Why is Mimi her favorite? Well, she gives her every stinkin' thing the kids wants that's why! And she protects her from me! That mommy that, you know, makes her behave and such!! Yes, it can be quite the battle.

SOOOOO as we were approaching the big day Caroline started saying that she wanted a kitty or a puppy for her birthday. That's no big surprise because she has been saying that for a loooong time. But we have no fence and we didn't want a little dog and my husband wasn't real keen on the cat idea... until....

One afternoon we were doing yard work and the neighbor up the street came walking towards us with this precious little kitten. They said that they had found it and that they were looking for a home for it. My husband did the typical "husband rolling his eyes at the cute kitten" thing but then I reminded him that this kitten would be FREE and it was so totally sweet and cute as a button. I also reminded him that my dad manages a pet store and that we could probably get the things that we needed from him for CHEAP (like FREE!).

Wouldn't you know it? My dad was thrilled to help us and we were to see them the next day for lunch! PERFECT!

My husband thought and thought and decided that it might be good for our girl to learn to love and care for something other than herself so we decided to take it!!

We walked to the house on the afternoon of her birthday and brought this sweet baby home...

At the time we thought she was a girl, but after a visit to the vet today we found out that HE is a boy!! HA! Good thing we named him Pepper!! :)

Here he is after his first bath! He was so smelly and dirty that I didn't have a choice but to bathe him and he did pretty well. He hid from us on our deck while he dried.

Caroline loves  holding him and he has really been very good!!

He hasn't cried at night and he has been very mild mannered and loving. And we found out that he is very healthy to have been a stray kitten!! YAY!

During the day on her actual birthday we took our little neighbor with us to lunch and to Monkey Joe's to play!

They had a great time playing and running around!

We also went to dinner with my husband's family and she got some good loot! She also had a cake with the number 8 on top... at her request! 

That's a lovely picture of us in front of the bar area with all of the liquor surrounding us isn't it? We know how to celebrate an 8 year old birthday right!! :)

I would say this kid had the best birthday a girl could ask for! Dinner with both sets of grandparents, loot galore and a kitty to top it off! Not sure how we will celebrate 9 years, but I am pretty sure we won't out do ourselves!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLINE! I love you honey!