A Decade of Lydia

Lydia turned 10 today! Wow, we've been at this parenting job for a whole decade. That means I've been officially been out of the workforce for 10 years (woohoo to that one!). We praise God for this very diligent and purposeful first-born child, who has taught us so much more about ourselves than we knew before she arrived ;0)

The girls have a "bank" of "free days" which they earned prior to our school year beginning. Lydia asked if they could use a free day today which meant no school. I was kind of thankful myself!

We started our day with her present-opening, so that Daddy could be here too. She is really, really into dogs right now. She and Abigail have a (quite lucrative!) dog-sitting business in the neighborhood, which they take very seriously. So, we bought her an AKC kids book on dog breeds (one she has pored over from the library) as well as the AKC breeds poster (which she has pored over at the vet's office.

She and Abigail are also really into making duct tape wallets, purses, pencil decorations, etc. Three rolls of duct tape was quite a catch!
A fun book of poems by A.A. Milne from Aunty Emily and Uncle Gareth. I'm looking forward to reading some of them aloud to everyone.
And some folks just aren't morning people.

We went to the nursing home to visit an elderly church friend--that was a true delight for us, and she seemed to enjoy our visit as well. Then we went to a local school supply store for Lydia to spend some of her birthday money. When we went in, they asked if they could help us find something and I explained it was my daughter's request to go there on her birthday. They were thrilled and completely spoiled ALL the kids with freebies. Lydia selected some craft kinds of items and we hit the road again. Next we went to the pet store for dog food. They all enjoyed watching the "day camper" dogs through the glass--guessing their lineage (I think Mutt, was the major breed!). Next we went to the mall for lunch and for me to buy a new dryer ;0) We dashed home, threw Simeon into bed for an hour's nap, I got the crock pot going, the pizza dough thawing and we made a hasty welcome home sign. We got Simeon back up from his nap, threw him in the car and got on the highway, making it to the airport the minute before my parents exited the International Arrivals gate. We looked as though we'd been standing there casually all day ;0)

After a dinner of homemade pizza (for the kids) and chocolate cake, it was time to wrap up the day. Well, at least start wrapping up Philip's presents for his birthday tomorrow. Whew.