Miss E is 9

I cannot believe she is already 9 years old! How fast time goes by of late!

Edited to add birthday interview first:

 

 

Miss E had an unusual birthday this year. We celebrated at home, and because our city went right back to a red alert, we decided not to invite friends over this year. We did try, though, to make it fun in a different way, by expanding on the usual "family party" thing we do, where we plan fun activities and prepare to do all those fun things in advance- because looking forward to it and dreaming up the fun is just as fun as being in the midst of it! Miss E looooves making lists, and almost every week I let her come up with a girls night out... we've done all kinds of fun things. For her bd, about a month or so before the big day, we sat down to talk about what she'd like to do.

She wanted a space party! Her list included cupcakes, making galactic glitter, games, and of course, decorating the house. She wanted confetti and streamers and planets and stars. It could all be done with paper and paint, so I decided to also order shirts for a galactic shirt diy activity, for the sake of doing something out of the ordinary, I would say?

Gifts started arriving early this year, and so we decided to have a mini party when that happened- just baked a cake I think, and had a dance party, that sort of thing. Definitely a serious full day marathon of playing with the new toys.

 

Then the next weekend -which was still a week early!- we had all finally had enough fun waiting around and having mini parties, so we decided to just go ahead and have the big party with all the activities she had planned. After all, it was just us, so we didn't have to worry about keeping to the plan! As it turned out, that we decided to celebrate her a couple times and a weekend *early* especially, was very serendipitous, since the day before her birthday and for a while after that, her mother was in a dark cloud, and there was little celebration to be had. 

A weekend before, though, we were all just going through life in our new normal and trying to have tons of fun "on our own." That aunts/tias and tios/uncles, grandparents and abuelitos sent cards, gifts, and called etc really did help in a special way this year, and I am so grateful for that. 

 Among many other things, her Nana sent her this projector, which has been on every night since. It's a definite favorite. She also sent a very fancy set of Gryffindor pajamas which Mr E totally appropriated! (Sorry, Nana!)

 My sister A and tio E and my parents also sent gifts! There were toys, makeup, jewelry, educational supplies, etc. The journal being a very big hit. And Q's brother and sister and their families also sent toys and other fun things. S, Q's sister in law texts us every year to ask what the kids might need or wish for, and she and Q's brother go from there, and every year they send something very cool. The favorite this year was Waddles the pig. He is so cute. And Miss E instantly recognized him. It was a very sweet moment- I wish I had been taking video!

 

Well, here are some pictures from our little party! 

They painted galaxy shirts. Or at least that's what the craft was supposed to be, but as usual, the kiddos had their own ideas of what the shirts should look like. I figured there was no harm in letting them paint their own shirts the way they wanted. Mr E painted a dinosaur, of course. Miss E painted a very big Earth in the middle and tons of stars, comets, etc all around it, so not so different, right?

 

There was of course a chess tournament.

We decorated Oreo cookies as planets to decorate the cupcakes with. It's like a solar system! We used home made sugar crystals and other sprinkles.

The "put the rings on Saturn" game. We all used our masks as eye covers jajajaja!

I think she really did have tons of fun, and I hope she will remember this birthday as having been special in its own way.

Happy Birthday Miss E!

(switch to web view to see video)