The Lee Family: Happy Birthday, Sofia!

Today is Sofia's 12th birthday, which is very hard to believe! In many ways it feels like we were just heading to the hospital to have her, although when I look back at those photos, we certainly look a lot younger than we do now! She is still a very creative, thoughtful young lady that loves to make up stories and play pretend, even if Olivia is sometimes the only one who will play along with her. Most of her friends have outgrown the "make believe" stage, and she struggles with that at times. She also doesn't want to grow up and she loves celebrating her birthday but doesn't necessarily want to grow up and "be" 12. She loves being a kid and playing and pretending. Over this summer she has really discovered MineCraft and she and her sister can, and would, play for hours together. They can enter the same "world" together and make up their own stories, collect animals and build homes and animal enclosures together. It's quite sweet and it's fun to listen to their creativity while they play together. She has enjoyed a very lazy summer full of visits to the lake, sleeping in, playing, reading, her weekly piano lesson and lots of MineCraft. She absolutely loved our trip to Europe and keeps saying she wants to study in London, which I think would be such an amazing experience for her (plus, it would be so fun to go visit her!). She starts 7th grade on August 19th and it's going to be a tough few weeks for our girls, waking up early and working hard all day in school. I know she loves school, but she is completely enjoying her down time right now, which is also important. She absolutely loves sleeping in too!

She and Olivia spent the past week down at the lake with Grandpa and Grandma and they had a very relaxing and fun time together. The girls have so much fun swimming, making up stories or playing MineCraft together, so I got the feeling that Grandpa and Grandma felt like they didn't spend a lot of one-on-one time together, but they all had a great time together. While the girls were away, I worked on our actual gift for Sofia - rearranging and updating her bedroom. It ended up being quite the undertaking! I bought two white book cases from Ikea (after buying the wrong size and returning them....) and had them built and put them on either side of her window. Then, we moved her bed to face her window and moved her dresser onto the far wall. It really opened up her space and now she has tons of space for MORE books. I also got rid of a lot of her little kid things, stickers on the wall, stuff she no longer noticed and it really helped with the clutter in her room. I got her a new bedside table in white with three drawers, which will help with her need to save absolutely everything, and also got her a new bedspread. It really transformed her space! It's now so comfortable and feels good to just hang out in, which was not the case before. When she saw it for the first time on Friday afternoon, she loved it! She was so excited, which made me happy since I know she could have missed how it used to look.

We somehow got her up and out of bed around 9:30am so she could enjoy her Happy Birthday donuts! I'd actually picked them up Friday morning since we thought we'd be spending her birthday at the lake, until CK ended up having a fever and terrible joint pain. So, the girls and their Grandparents drove up from the lake on Friday so we could be together for Sofia's birthday. The donuts tasted like they were a day or so old, but they are fun. After donuts, I asked Sofia if she would like to go to Altitude H2O for her day and both girls were super excited to go! They changed into their swimsuits and cover-ups and Sofia suggested we go to Rainforest Cafe for lunch, which we go to about once a year for their birthday meals. I'd completely forgotten about it, but thought it would be a good lunch option.

By the time we made it to the very crowded Grapevine Mills mall, found a parking spot and made our way inside to Rainforest Cafe, it was 1pm and we were all starving. Unfortunately it was a 1 to 11/2 hour wait!! So we decided to go elsewhere, but not before Connie offered to buy each of the girls a stuffed animal - a giraffe for Olivia, of course, and a tiger for Sofia. Sofia asked if we could go to In-N-Out and so off we headed. The burger was delicious, but possibly because we were all so hungry by then.

After lunch, we drove over to Meadowmere Park where the Altitude H2O is set up. The girls had 2 hour tickets starting at 3pm, so we got there just before their hour started. The girls were so excited! Connie and I found two beach chairs under an umbrella and sat and relaxed while the girls headed out to the obstacle course. There was a nice breeze and we had snacks and drinks for the girls and ourselves. It was quite pleasant out. After 45 minutes the girls returned to our area for lemonades and a quick rest before heading back into the lake for another 45 minutes. They had so much fun! After they were done with their two hours, we headed home.

Sofia had asked for her favorite meal for her birthday dinner - spaghetti casserole! So, I got started cooking, which was great since it's such an easy meal. We ate around 6:30pm and Sofia was so excited to get to the good stuff - her ice cream cake! Sofia had asked for a chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream, which I thought would be easy to buy that morning from Baskin-Robbins. All they had was chocolate cake with cookies and cream ice cream, which would have to do this year! It ended up being perfect and so delicious. We sang "Happy Birthday" before Sofia blew out her candles and made a wish.

After a delicious slice of cake, it was time to open presents. Sofia was so excited! The funny thing about Sofia is that she loves opening presents, but whenever she was asked what she wanted for her birthday in the past two months, she'd always respond with "I don't know...". She loves books and reads a lot, but we generally buy her books whenever she asks for them, or we go to the library. So, I guess she never really feels like she needs or wants anything. The other great thing about Sofia, which she has done since she was very young, is she thoroughly enjoys each gift as she opens it. So, she takes forever to open her gifts, but she really enjoys each item she gets and is very thankful for everything. It's a very impressive trait.

Her gifts included four Nancy Drew books and a white bedskirt from Grandma and Grandpa, a cute t-shirt that reads "I disappear into books. What's your super power?" from Aunt Cynthia, Uncle Jay and family, a Target gift card and cute socks from Holly, Emily and David, two Mad Libs books, a set of macaroon erasers, and two kinds of cotton candy from Olivia, Papa and me, a bead craft set, The Candymakers book, a journal, a stuffed leopard animal, and a dragon bath bomb set from Sian and family. Plus, Aunt and Uncle sent a totally cute and crazy taco card that had all sorts of funny sayings. She was so happy with all of her gifts and they were all so thoughtful and generous! After she'd opened everything, we played a few rounds of Mad Libs, which was super funny! What a fun 12-year old we have and we can't wait to see what she does with herself!

Happy Birthday Sofia donuts!