Caroline is 8

Here's Caroline on the day she turned 8 off to school in all her new birthday stuff.  Grandma sent something way more exciting than new school clothes. 

She started an American Girl 8th grade birthday when Kennon first turned 8 without really thinking of the ramifications of buying such a nice gift for the first girl of my four. I have felt so bad every time another one of my daughter's turned 8 and Grandma had to buy another expensive doll for our family. Thank goodness we are done with that and Grandma and Grandpa can start contributing to their retirement instead of our growing doll collection.  Caroline is so in love with her new friend McKenna and wants to take her everywhere we have been since she came in the mail last week. I am not letting her. Dad sees what has become of her sisters dolls (Laura and Marcus once took a bath with all three) and tried to talk her into keeping hers preserved in the original box.  

Instead of a birthday party Caroline wanted to host a party for girls and their little sisters. We invited over 6 sets of sisters from our ward. The oldest girl was 6. And the youngest girl was two. Abby seen here in front.   It was completely her idea and I fought it a bit because it seemed too hard. But I knew what was best and so I supported her.  She wouldn't be getting any presents and she had to do a lot of work to get ready for it. Camille was lots of help. They decorated, stuffed goodie bags and we talked a lot about it being her job to make sure that all the girls were happy and playing nice. We thought we planned for everything. Savannah brought a friend over to help and they ran the dancing games and the treasure hunt. All together there were 19 children (including my own) running around our place for about 3 hours. The one thing we didn't account for is Brent's sudden enthusiasm to begin building a deck the weekend before. 

Six days before the party he dug about a dozen holes for his deck. They were the perfect size for toddlers to fall into. They were deep and really about the width around of a small child. Marcus had been having a great time with them all week. Falling in a couple times and the rest of the time dumping toys or frogs into the holes. 
But the party was planned and I was hoping that the parents would drop off their children at the front door and we could keep the backyard a secret. But they kept walking around from the driveway and honestly most of them didn't want to leave once they saw where the party was being held. I ran to the garage and looked for boards to cover up the holes hoping that would put the parents at ease. That just made things worse because then the kids would aim straight for these booby traps. 


You can't plan these things. Sometimes they just happen. We made it through. The next day was Saturday and Brent worked late into the night pouring concrete. 

 It's hard to be the fourth daughter. Everyone else is luckier. Life is rarely fair, everyone picks on you, and you always miss out on all the fun, and get the smallest piece of everything. Caroline points these facts out frequently and we all get tired of her feeling sorry for herself and playing family sheriff. 


It was so nice to see her transformed as she worked hard and enjoyed focusing on this little party she had. I was reminded on how I can be a better mother for her and foster her better nature. She has so much to contribute and can be so happy when we find a way to shift her focus.


She spent forever formulating a perfect wish when it came to her birthday song. We had to sing three times. Twice for the wish and once more because Marcus jumped into help blow out and she insisted that the wish wouldn't work if he helped.  


Caroline is now old enough to be baptized as a member of our church. We are waiting for our summer trip to Washington because she chose to have her Grandpa Fielding baptize her.