Little Miss Sunshine--Almost

Chloe's 11th Birthday brought a freakish summer deluge of rain-two inches of it to be exact. Not a good thing when all she wanted for her birthday was a brand new bike. And when she got her wish, the poor girl was left sitting on the thing under the eaves of the house longing to take it out for a spin. But Chloe's never been one to be impeded by anything. She might be small but she's a tenacious little bugger.

After about an hour she couldn't stand it anymore and decided hell or high water,  she was gonna ride her bike no matter what.  And so she did.  She rode down the driveway in no particular hurry, getting totally soaked but ever so determined to have her day in the sun regardless of whether the sun actually showed up for it or not. She took her sweet time and then returned home with a converse skunk streak on the backside of her new birthday clothes.

The next big rainy day birthday hurdle was her party plans. She had decided she wanted a campout in the backyard with a few of her friends complete with tents, flashlights, and smores--and again, despite the weather, Chloe was completely undeterred. When there was no sign of the downpour letting up she simply insisted the garage be cleared of cars and left us with instructions to pitch the tent in there. (She also left us with a directive to plug in extension cords, a TV, DVD player, and a fan. Chloe displays true Skillman style--we like to camp but we certainly don't rough it when we do.)

Nothing seemed to deter her birthday splendor.

...That was until Little Miss Sunshine didn't get enough beauty sleep.

One thing that has been consistently Chloe is that from day one she has always gone to bed early and gets up waaay waaay too early--just like her dad. But her friends at her slumber party had other plans. Imagine that?! A gaggle of girls NOT wanting to go to sleep at a slumber party??  This was the only glitch in Chloe's plans that she could not outflank.

Very early the next morning, Chloe was the only one to arise and head in for breakfast. She deserted the tent and it's slumbering contents and came in the house and made a most serious proclamation like she was channeling the fervor of Martin Luther nailing his ninety-five theses to the church door:

"Mom, I will NEVER do that again. Nobody wanted to go to sleep. I have tried and tried but no matter what I do, I am just NOT the sleepover type."

Apparently our birthday girl has a limitation on how many tragedies she can overturn.