My Baby Girl is 8. . .

This is my baby girl. She turned 8 on Saturday. 8! Seriously!!!! She has since reminded me that 8 is almost 10 and 10 is almost a teenager. . . .whaaaaa!!!!

Alright, I feel a little better getting that off my chest.

On Saturday I had a portion of my family out to the farm for the first time. I had cooked for 5 hours the day before, gone to work for 10 hours that night and then slept for 4.5 hours. I was not quite sane, but now that I think about it, when have I ever been quite sane? Hmmm. . .

Morgan decide that she wanted a crumb top apple pie and I decided that one pie would not be enough, so I made my favorite mandarin orange cake.

One thing that I discovered is that I should not bake when I am not well rested. I pride myself in my ability to make delectable and attractive deserts. . . these desserts were just so-so. The pie looks a little raggedy because my mom and I kept sneaking apples off the edges, "just to see if they were done." Riiiiight!

This is Morgan practicing her candle skills.

I experimented with the icing on the cake this year. The original recipe calls for cool whip, and I have banned my family from eating sweetened plastic. I decided to try and used whipped cream instead and it worked just fine. Yeah! I think, however, that I put too large of a can of oranges in the cake mix, so it turned out pretty dense. . .oh well, at least this one looked pretty. . .

Regardless of how injured my pride was, my baby was happy and that is what counts!

No party is complete without the party favors, and I accidentally got the ones that don't make noise. . .

Ooops, I am soooooo sorry, honey.  *snicker-snicker*

They enjoyed them anyway.

Mikah enjoyed abusing Grandma a bit.

And the tiger (aka Lukas) enjoyed them as well.

Happy Birthday to you! 

Make a wish!

The self-satisfied look on her face is because she anticipated the tiger's advance and blew the candle out before he could make his move. Watching this scene play out gave me a sense of deja vu. . .

Not sure if it is the costume or what, but I seemed to remember a female tiger at the table on her 6th birthday, so I went through my pictures and it is just as I thought!!!

There is a tiger helping her blow out the candles!!!

We miss that little tiger. . .birthdays just haven't been quite the same without her!

I never could have known when I sat and sewed that costume for her when she was 2 1/2 that it would still be stalking me around the house 5 years later! Love it!

Well, another birthday under the belt. It was a wonderful day.