Friday, November 6, 2009

Happy 9th Birthday, Zoe!


Hard to believe, but Zoe turned 9 today! And Zoe will remind you that it happened at 3 o'clock this morning -- she's still so thrilled to have discovered that information about the time of her birth! She wanted to set her alarm for 3 a.m., but I put my foot down on that one.

It was a very Chinese birthday this year. Zoe declared last month that for her birthday she wanted "everything Chinese and panda." I did lots of running around and found a veritable smorgasbord of pandas -- a Groovy Girl panda, Hello Kitty dressed as a panda, a "realistic" stuffed panda, a "realistic" panda figurine, a My Little Petshop panda, a Hello KaiLan panda tshirt, a blown glass panda ornament, a National Geographic panda game for Nintendo DS. Whew! Add in a handful of Chinese tchotkes -- a Buddha magnet, a dragon backpack charm, an ornament of a Chinese girl playing with a Chinese yo-yo, the American Girl Spring Pearl doll I bought years ago and saved for her -- and I think we achieved success in the "everything Chinese and panda" department.

I went to have lunch with Zoe at school, and brought a celebratory dessert for the class -- ice cream and fortune cookies. The fortune cookies were a HUGE hit with the 3rd grade. They're at such a great age -- old enough to read the fortune by themselves, but still a little young to get much of the advice being doled out. Asking them what they thought their fortune meant was a hoot. They really had a ball sharing their fortunes with each other. I wasn't sure whether they'd like the fortune cookies, but no worries! We'll definitely do that again.

Family celebration tonight with Mimi and Grandpa. We went out for dinner and Zoe got to pick the restaurant, and given the theme of the day, you won't be surprised to hear she picked Chinese.

It was murder getting the girls to bed tonight -- Zoe said, "I don't want this day to ever end!" I, on the other hand, am worn out and can't wait to take myself to bed where I can shed a few tears because my baby is growing up so fast!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Zoe!!
Sue, Maggie, and Meredith

Adelaide Dupont said...

Whoops!

I didn't mean to click Disagree there.

Bonne anniversaire and happy birthday to Zoe. Wasn't it awesome discovering the hour of her birth? It means quite a lot in terms of the Chinese Zodiac.

Fortune cookies are so awesome too. I wasn't introduced to them until I was a little older than the girls, and then only in a restaurant.

In the past weeks I have been learning a lot about Chinese cuisine, in that there are Eight Great Traditions, as opposed to the 5 I knew about since 1998.

Jeff and Madeline said...

Happy Birthday Zoe!
Sounds like you had a great time!

Wendy and M

Joanne said...

Happy, Happy Birthday Zoe! I LOVE the "theme" and mommy, you are a great shopper to find all that stuff :)

Dawn said...

Happiest of happy birthdays!!!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Zoe a day late. Malinda, you have to check out the new Gymboree Panda line. It is so cute! I'm just waiting for it to go on sale.

Anne said...

Okay, that last comment was supposed to be from me, but it came up as anonymous.

Anne

Cassi said...

Happy Birthday Zoe.
It sounds like you had an amazing day.

김상실 said...

Sounds like an amazing day... happy birthday, Zoe!

Sang-Shil
(Korean adoptee)

LisaLew said...

Wow - that sounds like a wonderful day. I am sure she will cherish the memory forever.