Jordyn's 8th Birthday

 My baby girl is 8 this year and I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that my little girl isn't so little anymore.  I'm not even sure how she ended up in the 3rd grade already.  Time is just going by so fast.  It is tradition for me to bring in lunch for her and donuts for her class, so that's what I did again this year.  It is so fun being able to sit at the lunch table with her and her friends.  Jordyn is always so proud to show her Mom off to everyone.  She also gets to feel like a rock star for a day when she hands out all the super yummy donuts to everyone.  The kids always get super excited and can't believe that we are actually giving everyone one.  Ethan has lunch the same time as Jordyn and his table was directly across from us.  I brought him a special donut and he got cupcakes because someone in his class was having a birthday as well.  Ethan loves to smear food on his face and act silly so that is exactly what he decided to do when he saw there was bright red frosting.  He loves to make people laugh.  I had a fun experience that also made me feel like a rock star and made me want to just come hang out at the school everyday...while we were handing out the donuts one of the girls said something to me but I didn't hear her so I leaned down and said "sorry sweetie, I didn't hear that." She said "you're beautiful."  I said " oh thank you, you're very beautiful too and you have very pretty blue eyes and lovely blond hair."  She smiled big and said "thank you, I'm the only one in my family with blue eyes." Then when I was cleaning up another girl came up to me and said "you're very pretty"  I then told her "thank you, you are very pretty too" and I think I may have said something about her outfit and then she remarked that "my shoes look just like yours, see they both have this (pointing to the wedge)"

You can see by the pic that I wasn't looking especially beautiful that day to deserve such kind comments, but it reminded me how much it can brighten someones day when you tell them something so nice.  Sometimes those that are the most generous with their compliments are the most in need of them themselves.  When we get older we loose the ability to give compliments freely for a host of reasons, but being around the innocence of children can help you remember how good it feels to be nice to someone and how you can be responsible for putting a pep in that persons step.  

When the kids got home from school we loaded up into the rv and headed out for our vacation to SD.  We didn't want Dad to miss the celebration so when he got home and got us on the road we got the cake out and sang to Jordy and let her blow out the lighter...because I couldn't find any candles.  Then she opened all our presents while we were making our way towards our destination.  I think this will go down as one of her favorite birthdays of all time because after all, like the kids at the lunch table told me, 8 is great! :0)