Our good friends the Jays came over a couple of days before Annalie’s birthday. They were going to be out of town on her actual birthday, so we had an early party. Annalie wasn’t too upset about that.

We had dinner at our favorite Italian place, then walked down to the little independent children’s bookstore to browse for a few minutes. I love that store. True, I love pretty much all bookstores everywhere, but this one just feels especially welcoming. There’s a turtle tank on the floor in the middle of the store, down nice and low where kids can get a good look at the turtles. All around the walls above the bookshelves is a border painted by a local artist which is a detailed, accurate depiction of the main street of our town. There are low upholstered stools all over the store for sitting on. There’s a big rug in the back of the store flanked by easy chairs and scattered with pillows, perfect for kids to plop down with a stack of books and read.

Or for husbands to chill out while their wives wander around the store fully intending to only browse and end up accidentally buying four books.

Finally Annalie convinced us that if we didn’t leave the bookstore soon she was going to WALK HOME if she had to and OPEN HER PRESENTS WITHOUT US. Into the van we piled and home we went. For some reason taking all the gifts outside to open seemed like a good idea at the time. I don’t really remember why—the balmy evening air, maybe?

Isn’t that a pretty stack of presents? D and Nina had decided on a Littlest Pet Shop theme for the party gifts, and pink, purple and yellow for the colors. I have to say, even though I don’t usually care much about themes that it did make it seem a little extra fun.

Annalie tore into her gifts and was thrilled to receive a bunch of Littlest Pet Shop pets and extra-specially super excited to open the present that had a Littlest Pet Shop treehouse playset in it. She’s been admiring those at Target for ages and her mean mom never let her get one. Not that I was against her owning one, just that I don’t usually buy my child large toys on a whim. That’s exactly the kind of toy that was made for birthday gift-giving, so I was just as pleased as Annalie that she finally got something she’d wanted for so long.

Then it was cake time! Well, Rice-Krispie-treat-shaped-like-a-cake time, actually. Annalie made a secret wish and blew out the candles. She ate about three bites of her treat before asking if she could be excused. She was too excited about playing with her new toys to bother eating!

Joe and Nina went into Annalie’s bedroom with her and helped her open all the packages and set up the treehouse. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, they are so wonderful with Annalie despite being almost 8 and 6 years older than her, respectively. If Annalie turns out to be as neat as those two when she’s blowing out 11 candles on her cake, I’ll be a very happy mom.