It's Divine to turn Nine!

For months and months, Rebecca has planned her birthday celebration. Back in December, she realized that her birthday would be on a Saturday, making it possible for us to celebrate "out of town." All on her own, she settled on St. Louis as her destination as it would make it possible some of the aunts and uncles and cousins to participate in the celebrating - so essential to a good celebration. And so each time we were in St. Louis ... twice in December, and again in March, she invited and reminded all of my sibblings that her birthday was coming up and she would be in St. Louis to celebrate and will you are you please going to be there?!

The kids didn't have school Friday, and GR was able to arrange his work schedule such that he could take the day off of work. So after finishing up all our Thursday evening commitments and packing up the car, we were on our way, making it an extremely late night for the mama and the papa, but allowed us to maximize our time with Grandma Mutti and Grandpa Art and the rest of the crew.

Friday, Rebecca requested a trip to the Magic House, one of the kids favorite places to go. They have made lots of additions, and everyone had a really fun time.







Saturday morning, for her birthday breakfast, Rebecca requested Mutti's cinnamon rolls. Which everyone devoured before going to one of our favorite neighborhood parks for a couple hours of running around. While the little kids played on the equipment, the big kids followed Grandpa Art around the park grounds for a hike - another Rebecca request.


The last birthday celebration activity, Rebecca wanted to do, was a trip to the Butterfly House. Something we haven't done in ages. We had just enough time to walk among the thousands of butterflys they have, before that part of the park closed for the day. The butterflies were beautiful and amazing, and the amount of time we had to spend watching and admiring, was just perfect (about 30 minutes)!







We finished up with dinner, cake (banana sour cream) and chocolate ice cream back at Grandma's. Suz found some fantastic gummy butterflies at a Mennonite general store in northern Missouri, they made the perfect decoration for Becca's cake.



It's hard to believe Rebecca is nine. She is quickly growing up into a beautiful young woman and we are very proud of her. She continues to share her bright and bubbly personality with everyone she comes in contact with. She is an avid reader and never tires from reading stories about her favorite characters as over the years they become her good friends. She is a big fan of all the Ramona Quimby books, but has recently added the Penderwicks to her circle of friends. And this summer we hope to add a few more new girls to the mix. Rebecca has a strong creative side to her. She is always creating something from found objects ... scraps of fabric from the sewing room; containers, tubes or boxes from the recycling bin; paper, sequins, and glue from the craft cubboard. She is very generous with these creations, always intending them for someone special in her life.