364 And so it begins ...

Monday night I put my sweet smelling little girl to bed. Tuesday morning when I went to wake her up and get her ready for school that had changed. There she was, asleep with her arms thrown over her head, so sweet and peaceful. When I leaned over her to pick her up and carry her downstairs ... BAM!! B.O.!! Where, oh where, has my little girl gone?!
Of course, Katie was as excited as could be! She has been trying to wear my deodorant for years, but I kept telling her she would clog her pores and really have to use it because she would stink. I have clung to her youth ... CLUNG I SAY! I teared up a little, and not just from the smell. My little girl is growing up ... no one better point out the next steps to puberty. I WILL CUT YOU!
After picking out and ordering her birthday cake (SINCE SHE TURNS 8 ON SUNDAY) we dropped into Walgreens. And I thought looking at toys was bad! She had to open and smell EVERY kind of deodorant ... and turn her nose up at them. Not sure what she thought they would smell like, but she was unimpressed with most of them. My one word of advice was that she needed to stay away from "powder fresh" scents. BLECH! Some she even had to smell twice.... AND OH MY I WAS LOSING MY MIND!

And of course all this time Connor was running around like a wild man. And it has to be along the makeup wall, so he is stopping to pull stuff off. We managed to avoid catastrophe ... right up until we ere checking out. That is when he managed to open a bottle of NEON GREEN nailpolish and THROW IT! Streams of neon green spraying across the floor and shelves. The lady at the counter was so sweet. She just said, not to worry, they were stripping the floors that night anyway. She came around with a box of kleenex and we wiped most of it up. At least it was an easier clean up than the yellow nailpolish he spilled across the carpet upstairs .....

So, my little girl is growing up ... but she is not so big she doesn't want me to tuck her in at night. And she is definitely not too big to fall asleep on my shoulder. I will hold tight to the little girl that remains, while I try to raise the big girl to be strong and smart.We are also caving in and letting Katie have her birthday party in Hell ... I mean, Chuck E. Cheese. My choices were limited. Our kitchen renovations will be happening soon, and it was entirely possible the kitchen would be gutted on her birthday. But, I had to come up with invitations of course. Katie is absolutely in love with peace signs right now. She wants every shirt she sees with a peace sign ... every shoe, everything! She had been saying she wanted a peace sign birthday, so of coourse I had to figure out something. I was just messing around. I painted this peace sign, and I wasn't exactly happy with it, not sure how I wanted it to turn into the invitation. So, I took a pic and loaded it into my editing software. I wasn't happy with the color so I started to adjust it a little ... and then I had an AHA! moment. I could adjust the hue and make a bunch of different peace signs. And this is what I came up with. I don't say it often about my own artork, but I LOVE THIS! It just might have to get printed up as a poster for Katie's room.And then the actual factuals ...
And VOILA! Birthday invitations .... and CHEAP birthday invites at that. I just had them printed as 4x6 prints. Even with one hour processing that is only about 19 cents a piece. Now if I could just stop putting it off to the last minute .... maybe next year :)