Mabel Molanphy

“Sev­en” is a HUGE num­ber to me. HUGE. It makes me feel like she is so old, and that my “lit­tle girl” is just gone … In talk­ing to a friend, I real­ized that two major events hap­pened when I was 7 that have stuck with me. 1. We moved from Tuck­er, GA to West Lafayette, IN … and two, I “stopped” suck­ing my thumb (pos­si­bly simul­ta­ne­ous­ly). “Stopped” mean­ing it was more like this: bandaids, and foul-tast­ing fla­vor paint­ed on my thumb. This may have also coin­cid­ed with the time my “blankie” disappeared…I guess that’s three main events. Wow. I won­der what Mabel’s mem­o­ries will be?? Hope­ful­ly this party …

Today was an epic par­ty (3 1/2 hours of play!). The kind that only chil­dren can plan and enjoy. There were bal­loons, stream­ers, dec­o­ra­tions to behold, but most impor­tant­ly: kids in-charge of their own play! Mabel even had her first art show!

I pur­chased face paint (the Hal­loween kind), and they dec­o­rate them­selves. They played legos, dol­lies, dress-up clothes, pre­tend­ed they were all kit­ty-cats, and so much more. Oh, yes, we unrolled large sheets of paper and they traced them­selves and drew them­selves in. Sev­er­al times I heard, “this is so much fun!” It was great to see the kids so utter­ly hap­py to just be able to play freely!