9 years and a new look

 My oldest daughter turned 9 years old on the 4th of January.  In one way it feels like a lot has happened in those years, but it also feels like the time went by too quickly.  I keep thinking back to when I was 9 and what I was doing to help her get what she needs right now.  Feels like the beginning of the end of her childhood. 

 She wanted a pink Barbie themed birthday, so we had pink balloons and streamers and tiny cup cakes that were pink with Nutella frosting.

I didn't plan the candles well.. just used ones we already had.  I should have gotten new ones that were smaller!

Opening the Barbie remote control car.

She used her birthday money to buy these minecraft themed foldable craft project.

Ta da!  All done.

 The other thing I decided to do for her birthday and the new year was to re-arrange their room again.  I took off the doors to their closet (put them behind the tall shelves on the left of the picture above) and sectioned off the rooms with the beds so they could each have their own area. 

 The littlest and middle in their areas doing stuff.  I'm liking their clothes being in such different places so I don't have to re-sort their clothes when they throw them all out of the drawers looking for stuff.

 They share this space a little because they both play with the castle

 Her kitchen and toys on the shelf.  SO much easier for me to put away now because I can easily tell where they were dumped from and just throw them all back in.

My oldest's area.  She's on the top bunk now too and we hung some fabric up to sort of block out the lower bunk from being apart of her "room" in the corner.  She was so excited to get her own space!  Though also glad that their are still in the same room because she said she'd be lonely if she had totally her own room.  ;)

 And she also wanted a hair cut for her birthday!

Before

After!

 She wanted a hair cut like mine and this is pretty close to the length and style of mine!

 Also she got a new skirt for her birthday.  She loves wearing skirts because it's usually so hot here and they are so comfy.  I also had 4 shirts to alter for her and they all matched pretty well.  Slightly too big still, but the little room to grow into them is totally fine.

New dresses for the younger two as well.  I just made these by putting a few dresses together.  The little one's is a shirt with two strips of fabric from other dresses that were too little for her.  Gather and sew onto the hem of each to make a long lovely dress that fits her quit nicely! 

 Confession.  I was cutting our own hair and taking hand-me-down clothes to create new looks far before this was a "thing" to do.  I realize it's trendy to do these things now, but even though I know that in my head I don't feel that way at all.  I do these things because they save us money and if anything I'm more likely to feel embarrassed or apologize about them not being as nice as something new.  I don't like throwing something away if I can fix it though and I dislike spending money on things that I can do myself.  It's a habit that I can't break very easily I suppose since I've been doing this all my life.  My feeling about it is a habit as well though.  Just thought I'd throw that out there because I don't want other people to feel like they need to do the same as me.  You don't, and I'm not awesome and all "saving the earth" by re-making clothes for my kids.  Just trying to save money and do what I know how to do.  :)

I think they like them!

She was very excited about her new outfits.  The shirts used to be mine, but were slightly too small so I cut the sides and the sleeves off and re-attached everything slightly smaller to fit her.  A little long still, but she's tall and will grow into them.  :)

They had fun decorating a bit on the window today after the hair cut.

 Everyone changes so quickly.  If feels like I'm having to change our rhythm or school or furniture to fit everyone better every 4 months or so, but I know it doesn't feel fast to them.  When you are doing the growing it seems like time goes much slower.