It's hard to catch up!

One of the first things that Darcey asked after they arrived was whether we had celebrated her birthday yet.

I wish that I had done better when we saw them in November, but here is was December 28 and her birthday was December 4. But she knew we had not done our usual celebrating.

Dad surprised us all by taking us out to eat after church to Olive Garden.

What a great break!

Plus I LOVE their salad.

I reminded Dad that this was supposed to be Darcey's birthday celebration, so he ordered a cake, the waitresses sang, and Darcey was shy, but I hope she enjoyed the attention. They both told how the birthday dinner in Round Rock was not quite a "children's" idea of celebrating.

Lisa was intent on getting some pictures of the girls after lunch, so we stopped at Bishop Arts. The girls were more intent on playing and horsing around, so no new professional pictures.

Darcey was having trouble with her Sunday shoes being too small, so she decided that was what she wanted for her birthday. So we headed to Payless. Annabel needed house shoes too, so we got both taken care of!

Where else do you go for a "special" kid's birthday dinner? CiCi's Pizza, of course! Only the one by the shoe store was packed with a line out the door, so we went to the next one! I LOVE the cinnamon dessert pizza! I'm glad they have added chicken noodle soup so Annabel can enjoy 4 bowls each time!

Uncle Ken and Aunt Lisa gave each girl a $50 Visa gift card. WOW!!! They decided they would like to buy a new Nintendo game. We checked out the prices at Gamestop, especially for the used ones. So our best laid plans were to go Monday and buy their games. Unfortunately my plans at taking the day off didn't work out.

I know it was an extremely long day for Mom and Dad with all 4 girls and it is always hard for me to get away from work so I was late getting home. Mom, Dad, and the girls had taken care of Christmas returns, including taking my beautiful TIFFANY necklace back to add a couple of inches to the chain.

This afternoon I took the girls to Barnes and Noble since they got gift cards from Uncle Chip. Darcey had left hers at home, but the other three took their time to find just the right combination of books to get the most for their money. At first Annabel was not interested since all the books are in English. There were copies of The Tale of Desperaux, but it was too advanced for her at this point. I tried showing her some of the activity books, craft kits, stuffed animals, etc. Then she got a great idea - she loves word find books. They had good choices for her focusing on learning words. She also loves dot to dots, so she found several that fit the bill.

When we checked out, she had a balance of $3.77. The chance of finding something for that amount was slim, but the cashier suggested she buy a hot chocolate from Starbucks. That didn't seem quite right since none of the rest would have something. Gillian and Grace picked out books that actually went over their $25!!!

But Annabel wanted chocolate.

One of her new vices she has learned from the Western culture. That and butter!! (seems more like my own flesh and blood every day!)

She decided to buy some chocolate and share with the others.

They had a small box of Godiva chocolate with 4 pieces of candy on sale for $3.50. She LOVED buying that and then sharing! I got to just smell of the box!

We pressed onward and went to Target where Nintendo games were buy one get one free.

It took a LOT of explaining that they could go in together on the buy one get one and split the price of one game.

Aha! They finally understood that they could get a game for $15 instead of $30! They agreed on their choices, and thankfully we found a kind man who checked us out and agreed to split the costs between the different gift cards. He must know little girls, as he also gave each their own sack!

Since they still had a balance on their gift cards we decided to check out Gamestop just in case there was a bargain there. Grace had taken her Gameboy and all her games to check out selling them back. Wow! This was quite the transaction, but she decided to go for it and have even more gift cards!!

Since we were in North Dallas we got to eat at my all time favorite restaurant, Taco Bueno! Now that is some good eats!!! When I was going to school in Abilene I could get a small drink and two menu items for $1!!! OK, now you can't! In fact I had to go back the second time and buy more!!

We came home and all four decided to take showers at our house. So much laughing! I'm really surprised that my bathroom was still in pretty good shape after that many laughs!

Poor Darcey had also mentioned that she was missing a pair of her jeans. I wasn't sure if I had seen them, but she decided that the ones Annabel wore today might be hers. When I saw the brand was DKNY, I knew I hadn't bought them for Annabel! I guess I'm not too observant! We've just been so fortunate to have people supplementing Annabel's wardrobe that I hadn't paid that much attention. I offered to wash them and she agreed, IF I would put her name in them.

Mom came to get the girls and it took an extra 15 minutes for the girls to tell each other good bye! I'm so glad they have each other!!!