Birthday Girl

Fiora turned 9 years old yesterday! She had a wonderful Sunday evening before her birthday and a super day Monday all day of her birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Barrett came over Sunday for dinner and brought her five gifts, one from them, one from Aunt Heidi, and three from Krystal, Kynsie, Rachel, and Joseph. She got a Polly Pocket, cut clothes, and a giant stuffed bull dog! She loved them all. I bought her an oreo cake and mint ice cream and the Barretts sang the birthday cantata for her (its a tradition in the Barrett family to sing "Happy Birthday to you", "You've had another birthday", "This month is such a special one", "You've had a birthday", "Happy Birthday Happy". Savanna has decided to add a song to that list, it goes like this:
"We hope your birthday is as happy as the gooses wings are flappy on this day your dad became a pappy and your butt the doc did slappy."
We're not sure if the Barrett Birthday committee will allow it to become part of the cantata but Savanna keeps trying.
Monday morning Fiora ordered bacon and chocolate chip pancakes, it was a bad start to a day of a lot of junk food, but it was her birthday breakfast wish. Jared and I gave her our gifts to her, an MP3 player and a nail polish dryer and nail polish. She loved the gifts. She also got a fish bowl and fish for her birthday, kind of a long story, stay posted. Fiora had popcorn chicken for lunch at school and got two Airheads and a whole packet of notes from her classmates wishing her a happy birthday. I thought that was nice. At three oclock her friends came over and we had a "Trip to the Jungle" birthday party. The kids sat on a makeshift airplane and we served them snacks (corn nuts) and they watched Tarzan as we "flew" to the jungle. Savanna made them passports and everything. Then we stepped into the basement where I'd made vines out of construction paper and decorated the basement like a jungle and had jungle music in the back ground. We played "Pin the banana on the Monkey" and danced to jungle music. Then we hiked up a mountain and out to the deck where we fished in the jungle rivers for exotic fish, and Savanna was down below the deck putting prizes in the bags which had a gummy worm in them for bait. Then we were tired from our jungle adventures so we had a snack--dirt cups--and sang happy birthday to Fiora. (Fiora was complaining of a stomach ache about this point, but after 2 dirt cups she still counldn't resist having a sucker one of her friends gave her in a gift!) We opened presents, Fiora was very grateful for all, and then everyone got their swimsuits on to have a dip in the jungle hot springs. They stayed in the hot tub for over half an hour! Then jungle adventures were over and kids went home.
After friends left, we met Jared for dinner (and surprise! another gift, Grandma Neil sent a check for $9.00 for Fiora, thanks Grandpa!) We went to Sizzler and used our gift cards from Aunt Shawna and Uncle Justin. Fiora was really hurting, too much candy and junk food, and she ordered steak and fries, which didn't help much. I should have insisted she do the salad bar I guess but it was her birthday. Poor Fiora, she went to bed that night still not feeling too well, but was she ever happy and grateful! This morning I made a nice cleansing fruit salad for her breakfast.















So, the fish. Savanna got this idea in her head with the help of her friend Ella that she was going to buy a fish with her own money and take care of it. She told me her plan, telling me all the reasons why she and Ella should have a fish, and she was getting all offended at my rational reasons why this was not a good idea, and she was not listening to any of my useful details she was not thinking about, i.e. who is driving you to the store to get this fish? Well, it was almost a week before I could take her and Ella to Walmart, and she was so excited to pick out a fish and take care of it. ? So we get there and I'm thinking too rationally, (if I don't get more than one fish the odds are that it will die, fish always die in transition) so I talk Savanna into getting a fish and letting Fiora get a fish and keeping it in her bowl. Well that sounded great in the store, but it caused all sorts of contention at home, ("I want to feed it, its MINE! I get to change the water, its MINE! I get to keep it in MY room because I bought it! Well mom bought me a fish for my birthday so I get it in MY room sometimes! etc etc). Well, I was right, and the fish that Savanna had labeled as HERS did die that evening, and Fiora's fish is still alive. So I did not make Savanna pay for the fish, bowl, food, or rocks and we decided it would all be Fiora's and just be a nice birthday gift. I was hoping that's where the fish drama ended, but this morning Savanna remembered all those great reasons that she did want a fish and started talking about how she is going to buy ANOTHER tank and another fish to be in HER room with HER money, and Jared was shooting that idea down with all his rational details, and I had to say "We ARE NOT talking about fish this morning!" because I know where this is going.


This is Fiora's fish. I'm sure there will be another fish to write about next week.