The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Pajama Par-Tay-Tay

A few things that just can’t be beat:

1. having a birthday one day apart from your BFF
2. having a birthday party on your actual birthday
3. have that party be all things T. Swift!

We did all that and more on the morning of Samantha’s birthday. She and Frances had the ultimate Pajama Par-Tay-Tay!

taylor

I got the club all set up for the party with different stations – complete with appropriate lyrics! We had a Taylor bingo game, face gems, bracelet making, and nail painting.

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taylor

taylor

taylor

taylor

We also had a DJ station complete with microphone….

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taylor

and some really excited DJs! haha!

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They were actually great, did a fantastic job, and were super helpful! Couldn’t have done it without them!

The birthday girls!

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And my favorite Swiftie loving 9 year old!

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swift

We even had a special appearance by #87 at the party! Yay Robert!

taylor

party

More party fun tomorrow!

Birthday!

Samantha woke up on Saturday as a 9 year old!! Of course she had slept in her heatless rollers…

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She then put on some fancier pjs and got to open presents from two of her favorite people – Ms. Susan and GJ!

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samantha

Her very own Stanley!

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The best start to the best birthday!!

Birthday celebrations

We celebrated our favorite 9 year old and then celebrated some more!

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The fun started on Friday with school treats. I got to have lunch with these cuties!

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We then handed out mini ice cream cones to her class and teachers.

class

I love celebrating this little girl!

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NINE!

Tomorrow Samantha will be NINE!! Nine years of my magical, joyful ray of sunshine!

From this precious baby girl (born on her due date at 1:04pm)…

skb 1/27/15

To this happy one year old….

sob one year old

To this perfectly perfect two year old….

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To this lively three year old…

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To this sweet and sassy four year old!

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To this sunshiney five year old…

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To this bright light of a six year old….

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to this amazing seven year old…

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to this so so great eight year old…

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To NINE and feeling more than fine!

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She is happy, she is fierce, she is competitive, she is joyful, she is pure sunshine! I truly think she’s got some magic inside of her! I love her so much.

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She loves to watch YouTube on her iPad and sing every word to every Taylor Swift song. She’s the headband queen with the prettiest, longest perfectly wavy blonde hair! Each night we have to decide whether to curl it in her heatless curlers or blow dry it straight. She loves to pick out outfits and always puts together something cute.

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nine

She’s growing up every day but is still a little girl in many ways. She loves to get her nails done, put on a face mask, and wear makeup…but also still loves playing with Barbies and playing dress up with her friends.

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nine

Samantha is a competitor. She does swim team in the summer and plays soccer, basketball, and lots and lots of tumbling. She hustles harder than anyone on that basketball court and will outrun anyone on the soccer field. She’s been so determined and worked so hard on tumbling this year and it’s really paid off. She’s mastered her back handspring and is now working on a back tuck. I know she’ll get it in no time! She’s dancing on Sundays and I can’t wait for another chance to see her perform on stage.

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This girl is still a total Momma’s girl. She always wants to sit next to me and never wants to share me. She can put on a mean pouty face when she doesn’t get her way about it too! Oh, she loves me and I love her every bit as much right back.

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pout

3rd grade is going great. She has two cute, young teachers, Ms. Symons and Ms. Burgess, and she’s excelling at school – especially math! She has a great group of sweet friends and she really tries hard to stay out of the “girl drama” which makes me proud. She’s a happy girl and is really friends with just about everyone.

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This awesome kid is doing life right!

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A few questions with my favorite NINE year old!

Favorite book? The One and Only Bob
Favorite TV show? America’s Funniest Home Videos
Favorite movie? Taylor Swift Eras Tour
Favorite color? Purple
Favorite song? Long Live by Taylor Swift
Favorite number? 9
Favorite restaurant? Bricktop’s
Favorite thing to eat? mac and cheese
Favorite friend? Frances
Favorite toy? Barbie
Favorite animal? puppies
Favorite dessert? skillet cookie
Favorite sport? soccer
What do you want to be when you grow up? a mom

I really don’t know how to even describe the joy of this little girl. She is pure magic and she will always be the biggest dream come true.

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nine

Happy birthday Samantha! We love you so much!!!

Birthday

I wish I could tell him all about my new fake Christmas tree and how good it looks. I wish I could tell him about the fun surprises we have planned for our trip to Paris. I wish I could tell him how Maxwell is ending his first semester at the Junior High with straight A’s. I wish I could tell him how miserable wrestling is even though Maxwell is pretty good at it. I wish I could tell him about Spencer making it into the spelling bee and how confident he was up on stage. I wish I could tell him how Spencer made a buzzer beater 3 pointer to send his game into overtime. I wish I could tell him how Samantha got picked to get extra challenging math quizzes because she knows all the concepts so well. I wish I could tell him she did two perfect standing backhandsprings in a row. I wish I could tell him that I make the kids listen to “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams even though they’d rather hear “All I want for Christmas is You” by Mariah. I wish I could tell him Happy Birthday.

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Even though I can’t tell him all these things, somehow I think he knows. Happy Birthday Daddy. We miss you.