Fabulocity

Happy birthday to Araceli!  It's hard to believe she's been around for nine years.  I am thankful for her sweet, loving energy and fun, creative spirit.

For Ari's birthday, I wanted to organize her room.  (I stole her new aqua/green bedspread for Freestone's room.)  Ari had just informed me, "My favorite color is now red.  Forget all those other colors.  I like red."  Red, black and white, she said, because she's a Utes fan.  After I cleaned and rearranged the furniture, I trolled the house looking for red things to transform the room.  I brought in two wrought-iron chairs from the front porch, some art from the storage room and a red music stand from the shop and they gave me an idea.  Then I mentioned to my mom that I was making Ari's room into a red, white and black French bistro for her birthday.  I made Coco promise not to buy anything, but you can't say "Paris," "redecorating" and "shopping" in the same breath to Coco and expect her to stay home.  This is what Coco was born for!  She added to my re-purposed collection of things with new pillows, curtains a red bedspread and accessories.  Coco made the room fabulous!  Thank you for your enthusiasm and expertise, Coco.  You're so much fun, and so generous!

Ari had a sleepover in Ruby's room the night before her birthday;  I told her I had to lock her room because I had violin stuff in there.  When we unlocked the room for Ari the morning of her birthday, she dropped everything and stared.  Shock and awe!  The finishing touches were a beautiful pillow from Gingham World and a big canvas.  I painted it the canvas red and told Ari to paint a picture of the Eiffel Tower on it, and she got right to work.  I love how childlike and whimsical it turned out!

After getting her birthday off to a good start with a new room and a fun painting project, Araceli had a great day at school.  (Scott had taken her to her birthday lunch at Pepperbelly's the day before.)  Then she got to take a treat to Mr. Marsden at her cello lesson, where she wore a new outfit from Grandma and Grandpa.  It was only fair that the birthday girl got rewarded with YogoTogo after her lesson.  And Scott took her to buy treats for the kids after dinner.  I think our little nine-year-old was worn out by the time she crawled under her new comforter.  She'd better rest up!  Her birthday party is still in store for this weekend!