Our baby is 7.....

Can you believe how late I am on blogging about my baby's, my overgrown toddler's our youngest child's birthday?  This is what happens when your Mom is lazy and doesn't want to blog anymore you are the third child..... :-)

We had a friend party a couple days earlier than her actual birthday.  This indecisive little nut ball could not decide on what type of party she wanted.  First, it was a Tae Kwon Do party, then it was a roller skating party, then it was a paint party and then finally, the week before her actual birthday, she went with Mommy's original choice of an American Girl Doll party at our home with a handful of her favorite long time buds. 

While a home party is wonderful, I've decided I much prefer an outside party.  Home party = Obsessing on Pinterest, while an outside party needs no imagination nor clean up. :-)
I must admit though, I loved making Lily's favorite cake, the tissue paper pom-poms, finding striped paper straws, gluing color coordinated strips on the ever so expensive glass apple juice bottles, coming up with a craft idea and other activities that would keep the girlies happy for two hours....NOT....not completely at least. :-)  Fortunately, this was an amazing group of girls who kept the party going all on their own.

No birthday is complete without a Daddy/Daughter date.  The following night she chose to eat dinner at Red Lobster with her main man and then go to Build-A-Bear.  Honestly, I think this date night with their Daddy is their favorite birthday gift of all.  One on one time with Daddy is hard to come by with a house full of women but Jeff makes sure that each girly gets his undivided attention for at least one day out of the year.

Birthday morning was the next day and always starts off with that sugar filled donut and more sugar filled cookies to take for snack to school to keep the celebration rolling through out the day.  We always let the girls choose what they would like for dinner or where they would like to go for their birthday dinner and guess where we went.  Red Lobster...2 nights in a row!  Those cheesy biscuits were calling her name....mine too!  I LOVE those things!  While Red Lobster's food is nothing to brag on, those biscuits are.  The hour wait to be seated is so worth having ten one of those biscuits melt in your mouth. 
On a side note:
Our favorite sitter was not able to sit one night because she was out on a 'date'.  Lily asked what Mollee was going to do for her date.  I told her that they were going for ice cream.  Lily's loud reply:  "That's it?!?!?"  I then asked what she would like to do for a date.  With a big smile on her face, "I would have him take me to dinner at Red Lobster, then we would have dessert, then he would take me shopping and then I would need to get home to take a bath and go to bed".  Yes....and that bath and going to bed would not include your date! :-)  She kills me!
Filled our bellies and came home to open family gifts.

Oh my "Lillian Hope of the most perfect Love".....yes, this is what I call her and she can't stand it but secretly loves it.  You are FUN!  You are a firecracker!  You are a pistol!  We never know what is going to set you off.  You too are the most tender hearted little love bug ever and best cuddler.  A perfect combination!  Life is a roller coaster ride with you....always loud and always exciting.  We wouldn't have it any other way.
It's hard to believe that might be one of the last 7 year old parties we would ever have in our home.....
LOVE you, my little Baby of Love.

I tried to be a 'fun' Mom and got the donut with Captain Crunch crap on it.

Vanilla on vanilla....my favorite. :-)

      

Yes friends, you can make these too!

I love paper straws!

Monogram craft frames.

Charlotte and Jane brought all of their American Girl doll clothes so we had a fashion show!

 

This is Lily trying to introduce her doll at the 'fashion show'.
Can you hear the belly gut laugh through the computer?

Unscripted posing on her sunny birthday morning. 
Just wait.....

Doesn't the boot make the whole outfit complete? :-)

Work it Sassy!

That boot never slowed her down.

Oh you crazy girl....I LOVE YOU!

Nine is so Devine!

Are you shocked?  You should be!  I've not blogged since October!
So here i am trying to redeem myself because our middle daughter's 9th birthday is absolutely blog worthy! :-)

Bella for the most part is easy going and does not like to be the center of attention and this year she decided she only wanted to do a 'family party'.  I have to be honest, i was THRILLED!  Her birthday always falls on mid-winter break and it's hard to gather up friends around that time anyways.  Well guess what my sweet girl did?  Ten days before she was to turn nine, she decided she wants a 'friends' roller skating party.  WHAT?  Now this is a girl who does not ask or anything at all so when she has a little heart's desire hits her, we try very hard to make it happen.  And it did!  Whew!

It's hard to believe our Bell-Bell is one year away from being double digits.
She is sweet, she is kind to everyone, including her sisters :-), she is smart, she is silly, she is disciplined, she is fun and she is about the prettiest little tom-boy you will come across.
As you can see, i think she is about darn near perfect....perfectly made for our family.

We love, Love, LOVE you our Faith Isabella!

Birthday donut!

4 layer candy bar cake!



Oh my...
I am still trying to adjust to this gift from Daddy. :-)

Already looking like a pro.....

Do you think all of the parents loved me for giving their kids blue frosting?

Fall down.....

.......and you always get right back up!

GENEROUS friends!

Does this look like something a petite pretty little nine year old girl would be playing with?
They are called Skylanders and it's part of  Wii game that Bella is obsessed with. 
Between Christmas, birthday gifts and birthday money, she is now the proud owner of 22 action figures.

This totally screams all girl! :-)

Look what Jeff's Mom sent!!!!
These hot wheels are 40+ years old!!!
Can you believe she saved these from Jeff's childhood?
AWESOME!

LOVE you our funny almost Valentine baby!

You're never too old for the Pumpkin Patch!

After all these years, we finally figured out that going on a weekday, even though it was cold, is the best time to hit up the pumpkin patch.  No lines for anything!

While i love...and i mean LOVE the sunshine, it was fun to get a glimpse of our fall weather yesterday.  It can get cold and crisp, but i prefer my fall days to have a lot of sunshine thrown in as well.  Like i've said before, i am solar powered!

Sling-shot pumpkins!

Waiting patiently for our turn......

You knock off the stems before you shoot them into the air.

Our Daddy is best biggest kid of all!

Can you hear that big belly gut laugh?

And the release....nope, it didn't hit the target but it sure was fun!

I love all of the funky shaped stems as much as i love the pumpkins.

Bella's pumpkin!

Seriously....what is this child fretting over?

 

She got over really fast! :-)
She can turn it off, just as fast as she can turn it on!

This child literally does not let me take a single photo of her, but for about 15 minutes she stayed in front of my camera.  Enjoy the many faces of Grace!

What she calls her 'bearded' pumpkin.

Really wishing we would've brought this big guy home with us now.

Our princesses in a castle!

And my handsome prince.....oh friends, he still makes my heart pitter-patter quickly.....yes, even at the pumpkin patch! :-)

And the loot we came home with!