Suki and Kate spent some time at the play place at the mall with David today.
They even enjoyed some delicious Chick Fil A.
Meanwhile, Grace and I celebrated her birthday with some of her friends. My friend Sarah was my fabulous helper, because honestly -- eight girls on my own in a busy restaurant is kind of a stretch.
Sarah, Grace, Neeva, Isabel, Mari, Leah, Paige and Juliette all had lots of fun coloring during the indoor thunderstorm.
And they were -thrilled- with the lightning glasses.
We ate some lunch.
And then we went to toss pennies in the fountain to make wishes.
Each girl had their own little container of pennies, and let me tell you, it is hard to imagine better entertainment for just one dollar.
Then the cupcakes came out!
There was no singing, per Grace's request. But the first presentation of cupcakes had the candle in the vanilla elephant cupcake, not the chocolate monkey cupcake. Grace was in tears. Fortunately, she had her friend Sarah to talk her down from that woeful state.
Back at home, we opened her gifts. She loved this new gorilla, Baby George.
Red Dog makes his introductions.
There was a Hello Kitty stationery set with colored pencils.
There was a beautiful flower press.
There was a set of craft kits and this birthday bear.
There were art supplies and some books about animals from Africa and the Amazon.
Sweet Suki flies her "kite."
Kate and some of the leftover balloons.
Kate and I wait for her 3 year follow up visit at the pediatric cardiologist's office.
She -sailed- through her EKG and earned lots of praise from the technician. They put 13 "stickers" all over her body and then hooked those up to wires leading into the reader -- Kate stayed still and happy the whole time, which made everything go so much faster. Click here to see how her first one looked.
Waiting and waiting and waiting for the echocardiogram. The exam itself took -forever- and Kate started getting bored. She kept herself entertained with her penguin, a book, and by sampling the gel they used on her chest and belly for the test.
After getting the all clear from the cardiologist. All of the holes in Kate's heart have healed, and she has no restrictions and needs no further followup care for her VSD. We are all so relieved. Kate knew that the exams today were so the doctor could make sure her heart was healthy but that was all. I could not believe how patient and agreeable she was to all of the strange things we were asking her to do, it was such a help.
Suki and Grace hung out with David at home, because no one thought it would be fun to have them come with us.
