Savannah's birthday on the road. . . Again

This post is just because we are leaving tomorrow for our 10 day Road Trip and I wanted to check out first. It has taken us hours to plan this darn thing. I have a new appreciation for the 3 week trip my family took back east to see the sights when I was a kid. All the mapping, reservations and guessing how many nights in a city we might want to spend, and guessing how low we can go on Price line. It is going to be one crazy trip including Palmyra Pageant, Fayette, Watkins Glen State Park, NYC, DC, Philly, Baltimore, Hershey, Gettysburg and lots of tent camping in between. Six nights sleeping outdoors and a few 3 star hotels in between to clean up in. I am really crossing my fingers that I can enjoy the whole experience despite the dirty kids/laundry. That really is my biggest concern. But I am so excited.

This morning Caroline woke up and said, "Are we leaving for the trip today?"
She has been so anxious and I have been doing a countdown with her.
"No, not today, tomorrow."
"Well, is Today, Tomorrow?"
"No, Caroline it's today."
"But is Tomorrow Today?"
"No Caroline"

This went on for a while and I don't think we ever got anywhere. But guess what? Tomorrow is tomorrow so she's gonna be happy when she wakes up munyana.

And to keep with tradition it is also Savannah's birthday tomorrow. Her last 3 birthdays we have left on a big trip the same day. First to move here from Washington, last year to go back to Washington, and now another road trip interrupts her big day. I don't think she will ever forget them because they have so much in common - PACKING!

Never do a sleepover the night before a road trip! Savannah had a big party last year so this year was just supposed to be a couple friends sleeping over meaning no goodie bags, decorations, prizes, etc. Not an actual party. But Savannah insists on turning everything into a party and when she saw that I wasn't decorating AT ALL she started stringing ribbons all over the house. Then her and Kennon made a disco ball and hung it from our chandelier. ????? Who needs Party City when you have Party Savannah?

She also had each 15 minutes scheduled in a party itinerary that we rehashed nightly over the last 2 weeks.

My children amaze me. And when Savannah isn't working her creative magic she is devouring knowledge by the library bag full. Yesterday we went to our neighborhood library to get some trip reads for all the kids. She came up to the check out with about 8 books, mostly Nancy Drew length books.

"Now Savannah that is way too many! I only want you to get what you can read during the trip."
She checked them all out anyway and proved me quite wrong. She had the whole stack completely read before she went to bed last night. Back to the library today for a new stack for Savannah.

It was way crowded and crazy in our house tonight with camping gear/luggage all over the kitchen ready to haul out. I was making requested homemade pizza and couldn't get around all the stacks in my kitchen and dropped the first one pulling it out of the oven.

After pizza we had mud pie/birthday cake with all the girls and Brent and Ed Stull who just happened to stop by just in time. By that time it was after 9 and I told the kids to brush their teeth and we would start the Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen flick Savannah picked out at the library. One of Savannah's friends came into ask me (after I had been super mom for hours cooking, cleaning, packing, judging dance contests, and doing party crafts) how come we weren't going to pop corn for the movie, and isn't there anything good to drink around here? This is five minutes after mud pie and root beer. Sorry, I said but the kitchen is closed. Have a glass a water. She told me, "This party stinks! I want some action." Twenty minutes later she was asleep on our couch.