Alaina has spent the past few weeks really growing up.
She went to a horse-riding day camp for a week at the end of August with one of her friends from school,
rode her bike around the lake two days in a row,
then took off the training wheels and learned to ride without them in just an hour or so. She spent the next day riding around the zoo on only two wheels!
She set up her own business, making and selling freshly squeezed lemonade to our neighbors
(with the goal of earning enough money to buy a hamster),
then started Grade 3.
The next morning she woke up as an 8-year-old!
She knew she was getting a mini hamster and cage for her American Girl doll, because she'd picked it out when we were at the store in Seattle,
but she didn't know we'd also got her a real hamster cage . . . so with her lemonade money she'd have enough to get the hamster, food, and bedding.
Even though I'd mentioned it would be okay to just put a stuffed animal in the cage and pretend she had an actual hamster, after school we took a trip to the pet store.
Alaina held all the hamsters, and chose the friendliest one to take home (the only one that wasn't screaming in panic or biting her finger!).
He was immediately named Orlando Bilbo Baggins. (Yes, the girls are still really into The Hobbit.)
Twenty-four hours later, she finally got to hold and play with him. Little Orlando seems pretty happy in his new home.
That evening we had Grandma and Grandpa over. Alaina wanted to have fish and chips for dinner, and an ice cream cake with a horse on top. The cake was melting quickly, but we managed to get a couple of pictures.
Alaina was so excited and ready for this special birthday,
And we are so happy to have such a sweet, loving, happy and determined little girl growing up in our family.
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