Our quest for a very special birthday for Heather (without throwing a party) started with me taking the day off and farming the other children out to Grandma’s so Heather could have my undivided attention. We baked a cake from a strawberry boxed mix and then headed to the mall.

Since Heather loves to shop, I didn’t buy her any gifts ahead of time.  I gave her the money and then helped her choose her own gifts.  She bought a new lunch bag and water bottle set from Old Navy.  A red feather and flower hair pretty to go with her school uniform.  Clip on earrings (Buy 2 get 1 free from Claires.) Candy necklaces and candy treats for her siblings at Dollar Tree (plus fancy paper plates and table decor), and then we went to buy the food for dinner at Aldi.

Once we got home, Heather and I cooked dinner for our family, plus my parents, and my brother and his family.  And we decorated her cake. She did most of it.  I was pretty impressed :).

The sugar cones are sprinkled with rainbow nerds. All the candies on the cake were from Dollar Tree, then we passed all the leftovers around after dinner, so they wouldn’t tempt me later.  I threw away all the leftovers because I have no self-control when it comes to sweets.

This was the least stressful birthday celebration yet and we made lots of great memories together.

Happy 9th Sweetie!  You are growing up so fast!