Happy Birthday Soleil

Even if we wanted to, we couldn't forget this day.  Soleil has been reminding us for weeks.  Not only that, but she got a great idea (at least in her mind) after I get breakfast in bed for Fathers' Day last week.  She decided she wanted it for her birthday.  Earlier this week, she not only laid down her breakfast-in-bed demand, but told Ang exactly what she wanted to eat.

Soleil is our little princess.  She loves to play dress up, jump on the trampoline, play basketball on the tramp, and wrestle (though at 36 lbs, not sure if they have a weight class for her).  She's so proud to weigh herself every morning, and is delighted when she has gained a pound (I'm sure that will change in the next eight years or so).  But, at 36 lbs, she can stand to be excited about gaining weight.  Rhett, at the other end of the spectrum, probably weighed more than that before he was eighteen months old (not kidding).

For the kids' birthdays, Ang always gets up really early, blows up balloons (so they wake up to a bunch of floating balloons in their room) and sets up a treasure hunt for them to find their gifts (usually by making a treasure map akin to a map to buried treasure with four or five stops along the way).  In the picture to the left, Soleil, Rhett, and Jesse have just discovered one of the presents in the piano bench on the way to the final destination, the shed in the backyard, where her new bike was hidden.

When told she could pick one of several activities for the family to do on her birthday, Soleil was adamant that she wanted to go ice skating.  They have a nice rink at the Fiesta Rancho local casino where a lot of figure skating and hockey is played, not to mention the time it is open for anyone who just wants to go try their luck.  We drove up and had a lot of fun.  Soleil turned into a real pro very quickly.  With the help of a little support thing that looks kind of like a walker, she tooled around the rink about too fast for me to keep up.  Jesse did pretty good too.  Rhett had a tougher time picking it up because he didn't have the luxury of the support, but soon he was doing well too.  It was a lot of fun, but boy, we had sore muscles when we were done as we used muscles that hadn't been used in a long time, if ever.  It was a lot of fun, after which we went and had ice cream.


We are very blessed to have this smart little chick in our home.  She has a sweet personality and is kind to everyone.  She has a tender heart, and loves to make others happy.