Happy Birthday Greta!

Greta started birth-weekend on Friday in her classroom.  As luck would have it, Friday was Pajama Day and the class got to watch a movie with popcorn!  

When it was time for Greta's class party, Miss Tammy presented Greta with a birthday book that her classmates made for her.  Each child read out which gift he or she would like to give Greta.  Interestingly, "puppies" (plural) were mentioned.  Hmmm.

Greta blew out the candle, the children joined hands and sang to her, and she served her classmates some cookies.   Wyatt got to leave his class a bit early to join Greta's party.

The next day was Saturday, and it was Greta's actual birthday!  The long wait was over!  Greta finally got to open the birthday packages she'd been eyeing for a the last few days.  So excited!  The rest of the day we spent getting ready for her party and we ended it with a trip to her favorite restaurant for dinner.  

Sunday!  The big "Puppy Party" day finally arrived.  Greta started talking about her birthday six months ago or so.  She loves working with the dog shelter, Adopta Perro, and she kept saying that she would like to sell some of her baked goods during her 7th birthday party so that she could raise more money for the shelter.  We talked about other ways to help the shelter without asking our guests to buy muffins.  After much conversation, Greta decided to host a puppy party and to ask her guests to donate money and gifts to the shelter.  We were able to organize four loaner puppies from Adopta Perro for the afternoon, and we asked all the guests to come with doggie gifts or monetary donations.  Of course, many friends also gave gifts to Greta, to her surprise.  

Getting ready for the party was almost as fun as hosting it!  After a few attempts, Paul and I were successful in our puppy cake making.  I could NEVER be a professional baker.  This was hard!

Greta and I made puppy drawings.

Greta, Wyatt, and I made sweet Adopta Perro t-shirt and magnet bundles for the party favors.

And we all set up the food.  What seven year old isn't excited about eating out of a dog bowl?  

The puppies were the first guests to arrive!

Then ten little friends trickled in, too.

Amaya!

Amelia!

Roberto!

Amaya, Asa, Ana Sofia, Domenica, and Aylen!

Amaya, Ana Sofia, and Sofia!

It was hard for this girl to share, but she did a great job of taking turns with her puppies and overseeing them to make sure that everyone was nice and gentle with these babies.

Peter and Wyatt!

Adopta Perro told us that they are phasing out their current t-shirt design.  So, the children drew up some t-shirt design ideas for Adopta Perro.

We then displayed the designs and each child voted by secret ballot on the best one.  Amelia's blue t-shirt won the prize - - a one hundred-piece puppy jigsaw puzzle!

Next, we fed them a little kibble. . . 

. . .  and let them roll around.

Then it was back to puppy play!

And puppy presents!

At the end of the day, we donated bones, leashes, collars, food bowls, and about $100 to Adopta Perro.  And who knows?  The way the wind was blowing, it seemed that there might even be a few kids with new puppies sometime soon.  

Again and again we watch our girl and her loving kindness.  She walks so lightly on this earth and is so generous.  Her small heart is moved in huge ways, and sometimes we cannot keep up with all of her big ideas.  She is making us better people each day that she lives.  We love her more than we can possibly say, and I hope in my bones that she feels it.