Totally Rotten.

You'd never know that Ellie wasn't already seven (or seventeen) given the celebrations that went on this past weekend, in anticipation of her birthday.

On Saturday she got to go to DISNEYLAND! Our good friends Adrian and Elisa love Disney, but only have boys, and they wanted to go and do Disney with a girl, especially the bippity-boppity-boo-boutique, which is hair and make up for little girls, inside Cinderella's castle. So Tim took the kids and headed out bright and early (I had volunteer duties for Special Olympics, and also, do not enjoy Disneyland and don't really want to deal with my kids in that mass of humanity until they're a few years older. Meanest mommy forever!) She had a BLAST. Was more difficult about waiting in line than her brother, but overall, they hung in their pretty well. The park was packed, so even though they were there until 6pm, they only went on six or seven rides. Ellie liked the Haunted Mansion, but Adam said it was too scary, and then at the end of the night, I'm proud to say that she told Tim "it's okay that we missed Pirates. Mommy says it's boring and the water smells bad and the line is too long."

They did a really cute job! She's wearing a birthday girl sash, AND got the shirt and the tutu, and then she got to take home a bunch of little hair products (loves the new hair pins), nail polish, and a little make up palate. Elisa had a great time watching her get all done up, and the seven of them all had a good day at the park.

I had a good day volunteering to get people registered for We Run the City with Special Olympics. We got fifty-five racers to sign up at the Long Beach Marathon expo, and the best moment was this very unassuming woman singing up for the race, and then saying "I'd like to make an additional donation." I showed her the sheet we have that outlines the fundraising incentives, and she said "I'll donate $350." Just like that! And when asked about it, she said "I'm not a millionaire, but it seemed like the right thing to do." It was so incredibly heart warming and sweet.

Meanwhile, after their day at the park, Tim went to dinner with Mimi and Poppy, and left Ellie behind so that she could spend the day at the American Girl Doll Store, meeting her new doll. Ellie's been pouring over the Truly Me catalog for months, and so finally, she got to meet her new baby. Bitty came along too, of course.

Such happy little ladies! After some debate, the doll's name is Samantha Rose. Runner up name was Rose Law. No idea where Law came from - perhaps a tribute to her Poppy's profession. Then they all got to go to the cafe and have a wonderful lunch together with Mimi and Poppy. It's a weekend of wonderful memories for sure, though I'm slightly concerned as to how she's going to do on her actual birthday.

The other night though, she asked about presents on her birthday and I did warn her that she's already gotten to do a lot of fun stuff. Plus she already has new pink boots, and she's getting a birthday party at Fired Up, so not to expect a huge mountain of gifts. Then of course we followed up by teasing her that Gigi and Grizz didn't get her any presents, but they took the gift that Lisa left behind last month and took off the tag and wrote their names on it.