Raine turned 7 this year — only 1 more year until she’s baptized! Naturally, we celebrated with dinner at a local Brewhouse followed by a concert at the wine festival! (There is actually a very logical explanation for it, but I found it mildly amusing that the two locations we chose to celebrate Raine’s last birthday before reaching the age of accountability, both had something to do with alcohol.)
Since Raine’s birthday fell on a Monday, we celebrated on Saturday. Raine had two requests for her birthday: she wanted a pazookie and she wanted to go to a concert. Naturally, we went to BJ’s Restaurant (& Brewhouse) because they have the best pazookies.
When she said that she wanted to go to a concert, I immediately thought of Grapefest — because festivals always have concerts. Sure enough, they had three different stages with various performers throughout the evening. Raine and I listened to some of the performers online and she decided that she wanted to see Chaz Marie perform.
During the concert I asked Raine if she liked it and whether it was what she wanted. She said it was different than she was thinking but she liked it. Later that night, I probed a little deeper into how the concert differed from what she expected. It turned out that when Raine had said “concert,” she was thinking of a symphony concert, like we had gone to a few months ago. Whoops! That makes a lot more sense!
Carter wasn’t as impressed with the concert so he headed over to Legoland.
After the concert, we visited the petting coral…
…and the carnival.
On Monday, we celebrated with the usual birthday regimen.
Raine wanted pizza for dinner.
Then she opened presents with both sets of grandparents on the phone while she opened their respective gifts.
After presents, we ate cake.
Raine’s gifts were perfect for her: a rock and geology kit, a paper weaving kit, and a robot building kit. Raine has been trying to build a robot — using trash from the recycling bin — for months! Now, finally, she is able to build a REAL robot. Here is the remote-controlled robotic duck that she built first.
Raine is an energetic little smarty pants who loves school and books. She believes that she can do everything and isn’t afraid to try anything. She loves art and music, she doesn’t like PE (because she is the slow one), and she enjoys riding her bike and playing soccer. Raine always wears skirts and dresses, she looks out for Carter, and she is always ready with a prediction or hypothesis to try out. It’s not easy keeping up with Raine, but it is so much fun to watch her learn and pursue her goals. Just the other day, she told me that she wanted to be a lawyer (I was ecstatic) “because lawyers help people.” Raine is always thinking of ways to help the less-fortunate (building houses for the homeless, creating jobs for the poor, etc.), I can’t wait for her to grow up and make those ideas a reality. She will certainly change the world someday.