The very first celebration we had in this house was for this girl.
She was turning three.
Now she’s eight.
In anticipation of her big day, she’d carefully crafted a birthday list:
1. Tamogachi
2. pink sandals
3. kinetic sand
4. Wonder
5. a backpack
6. watercolors
And the menu:
Mom’s chicken chili
homemade bread
Coca-Cola (on repeat)
And for dessert? Another carrot cake.
But this one would be all chocolate with a carrot on top. And not such a big carrot, like last year. A smaller one.
What the birthday girl wants, the birthday girl gets.
So we celebrated and – just like she requested – drank Coke and ate chicken chili and buttery homemade bread. 
She got a Tamogachi, kinetic sand, watercolors, sparkly pink Umi sandals, a Japanese backpack, Wonder and Farm Anatomy, just because it’s about gardening and chickens and I thought she’d love it. She did.
And Victoria, Sophie and I did our best to make a chocolatey-chocolate cake with a not-too-big carrot on top.
Thankfully, it met with this carrot lover’s approval.
So blessed to get to celebrate eight with this carrot-loving, missing-her-front-teeth, chicken-book-reading girl.
Happy Birthday, Lula Bug.