lucky number 7.

last month my middle babe turned 7. having a birthday so close to christmas (just over a month after) results in having a pretty hard time shopping for her sometimes. being a minimalist-at-heart, i hate having to buy "stuff" for the sake of giving SOMETHING. this post gave me an idea, that i suggested to katie: "how 'bout we ask your friends to bring donations for the animal shelter instead of presents to your party?" honestly, i fully expected for her to shoot down that idea, but instead she loved it. at first she was a little hesitant ("i REALLY want to....but i also like getting presents".....i reassured her that she would still be getting presents from mommy and daddy.) so we celebrated with a ton of her friends at Chuck E. Cheese and everyone brought donations in her honor for the Kitsap Humane Society.




waiting at the desk for her donation receipt.


saying hi to some of the residents.


visiting a kitty in their new "cattery".

she raised $115.13 in the end. quite an accomplishment for a 7-year-old!

thanks for looking!

missing! lost tooth!

last month katie lost her 1st tooth. one day she came to me and said "mommy, this tooth is wiggly!" and sure enough, it was. she wiggled and wiggled and wiggled some more, but it stubbornly refused to come out. daddy offered (more than once) to help her along by pulling it out with a string, but she declined. she does *not* like blood and when she found out that it might bleed when it fell out, she thought that maybe she would just leave it in there, LOL. after about a week of it hanging in her mouth by a teeny little thread, she ran into the kitchen one day frantically pointing to her mouth. it was dangling out of her mouth but still attached, so i plucked it off. in honor of the occasion, i made her a tooth fairy pillow from this tutorial. makes it *ever* so much easier for the tooth fairy ;0)



not even a week after she lost the first one (on 1-14-09), she lost the other bottom front tooth! her grown-up teeth are poking through now....