It was a bittersweet day today.  Jackie is officially no longer a little girl and now a young woman.  But as I tell each of my girls everyday, no matter how old they are, they will always be my babies.  Jackie was my first and will always hold a special spot in my heart as the firstborn.

I’m hoping that she had a good birthday day.  The celebration was different this year, but lasted the whole day.  Eric intended and a Father/Daughter date to Science City but they got there only to find out that they are closed on Mondays.  So they made the best of the situation and went to the Airplane Museum. 

Of course Daddy did start the day out properly for her and took her birthday shopping.  Her all time favorite store right now is the Science store in Parkville.  Eric totally let her go overboard and she bought some really cool rocks and minerals.  That’s totally her thing that she is into.  Different than most girls her age, but hey it’s educational.

They were going to go to a movie afterwards but just as they pulled into the parking lot I had to break up all the fun by being locked out of the house.  So instead they came home and we headed out to Powerplay in Kansas earlier than planned.  Of course I had to run into two craft stores on the way.

All I can say about Powerplay is never go there for the food.  Their pizza buffet was a joke.  They had three different pizzas out there.  Everything else looked like it had been sitting out since they set it out at lunch. 

The older girls went off with Daddy and did the rides and a few games while Erica and I parked ourselves in their KidZone.  It was actually a pretty good deal.  It’s this little area blocked off.  It cost $3.00 to get into and there’s a little train track, a bouncy thing, a playland, and a few of those coin operated rides but you don’t have to put any coins in there.  Erica played her little heart out.

After we left Powerplay I left Jackie the decision of whether or not we would stop by the store and get a birthday cake or go out for ice cream.  She picked Cold Stone Creamery, which made me ecstatic as I’ve just recently discovered they have THE best ice cream of all time.

All hopped up on sugar we finally made our way home.  It was a wonderful day.  Any day that we end up spending a large chunk of it as a family doing something like that is always a wonderful day.  I do truly love my baby girls and enjoy spending time with them.  And birthday’s are always the perfect excuse to do so.

Okay, we finally made it back to church today.  We had become so inactive it wasn’t even funny.  We used to be so involved in our church, but there became a point and I don’t remember when that sleep and scrapbooking became more of a priority to me.  Sad I know. 

But it was just so nice to be back in church.  I actually was brought to tears twice today.  On the first Sunday of the month, our church (Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latterday Saints, aka Mormon) has a Fast & Testimony meeting the first hour.  What this is, is instead of there being speakers members are invited to come up to the podium as the spirit may move them to do so and share their testimony with the congregation.  There was one sister that went up and basically said that even though you might think that you might be a bad person and have gotten off track that it’s never to late to get back on the right path.  I know this in my mind, but it really hit me in my heart today.

Then the second time was when Jackie had to meet with the Bishop.  This was her last Sunday in Primary and next Sunday she will be going to Young Womens as she turns 12 tomorrow.  So the Bishop was telling her that during Sacrament (our first hour meeting) that he would call her, the Primary President and the Young Women’s President and welcome her into Young Women’s.  It was just a bittersweet thought to think that my baby girl is not a little girl anymore.  She is now a young lady.  This will be the group that she spends the next six years with until she turns 18.  And that thought in itself is just unbearable to me.

Okay, so now if it wasn’t bad enough that one child grew up on me overnight, Erica had to do the same thing.  All this time that I’ve been preparing to go back to church I thought Erica would be back in Nursery.  Nope, she’s now in Primary!  So overnight she went from being a baby in Nursery to a little girl in Primary.

Seemed kind of bittersweet that I had one little girl spending her last day in Primary and my other little girl spending her first day in Primary.  Thank goodness Ally is right where I thought she was.

It’s been something I’ve been mulling around since she was just a tiny little baby.  Eric talked me out of it then.  He told me to wait until she could make her own decision.  So, I don’t know exactly what brought it up again, but basically we were talking the other night about if whether or not Erica wanted her ears pierced.  She is a very bright child and really comprehends everything.  Of course she said yes.  So I went on to explain to her it would hurt.  That it would feel like her ear was being pinched but it would be over quickly.  After mulling it over quickly she still wanted to get her ears pierced. 

The next step was talking to Daddy and securing the funds.  I talked to him about it and he kind of nodded and so I figured he wouldn’t remember the conversation or he really wasn’t listening.  But I thought I’ll take whatever green light I could get.  So yesterday I made up my mind that I would take her to get her ears pierced.  I he really hadn’t given me the green light, well what could I do.  Well, typical of me I brought it up again.  He assured me he had listened to the conversation.  And while he wasn’t totally completely sold on the idea, if she really wanted to have her ears pierced after explaining what would happen, that’s fine.

So after our bowling playdate with her new little friend (Christy’s neice) we took her to Claire’s at the Independence Mall and got it done.  She was so excited as she sat up in the chair and I picked out the earrings.  Thought the teddy bear that she would get to hold was cool.  The lady seemed nice enough but being of the shy nature didn’t want to talk to her.  Then as the lady started loading the earring gun, apprehension began to hit.  You could see it all over her face. 

The moment the lady inserted the first earring, she fell apart.  Just broke my heart!  Christy of course was such a great friend by making sure I got the whole thing in pictures without having to worry about taking them myself and being able to be there if Erica needed me.  So as Erica is crying, “I want my Mommy” I’m trying to hug her and comfort her while the lady does the second one.  It was such a wonderful moment when the lady was done and I could at last hold my baby in my arms and comfort her properly. 

As you can see in the picture, it did not take her long at all to recover.  I’d say not even a minute passed by and she was all smiles about her pretty new earrings.  I showed Eric the pictures tonight against better advice and he just about fell apart.  But if you ask Erica if she wants to go get them pierced again, it’s a strong “yes!”

After the first earring:

Moments after both ears were pierced: