she's 8 today.

Well hello there.  I promise I'm still here.  My plate just seems to be quite full lately.  You know, the to-do list that is never-ending. It's challenging enough to survive each day hoping I get the necessities done.  I love blogging, and I miss it.  But it never makes it to the top of the list.  And as it approaches the top of the list as I get closer to catching up with life, then it quickly moves back down.  

But I made some time today to record another big day in our house.

Today our sweet girl is 8.  

 We had a big weekend of celebrating!  

It was the first party for us without a theme.  She couldn't think of one, so we decided we didn't need one.  I have loved putting parties together for my kids...decorations, party favors, cakes, every last detail.  They love it and I love it.  But let's be honest here, it's a lot of work.  And for a mama who tends to do things at the last minute, there's usually some stress involved too.  Although each year gets easier, I've figured out when I need to start, how much time cakes tend to take, etc.  But this year was a nice treat.  Just simple balloon and streamer decorations, no party table.  Just a cake.  And I know that she felt just as special as always!  I told them I would make them a cake for as long as they want!  That can definitely keep being "our thing".  With no theme, we were out to find just a cute girly cake.  I found the rosette cake, watched a tutorial and was pretty confident I could pull it off.  

We had some friends and family join us for the party.  It definitely felt like much more of a "big kid" party than ever before.  

She has saved her money up to buy her 2nd American Girl doll.  She had almost enough so we finished the rest for her and ordered it to surprise her.  She thought she was going to have to wait to get more birthday money and order it after her birthday.  She wanted the doll that you can pick all the details to look like her.  When I saw the option at the end to add pierced ears to the doll I knew that was the perfect way to surprise her and tell her we were FINALLY letting her get her ears pierced, after asking for nearly 2 years.   She noticed right away the ears on her doll were pierced.  We acted like it was a mistake and that we either needed to send it back to get the one that was just like her without pierced ears....OR we would just have to get her ears pierced!  She knew right away what that meant!

A friend owns the salon I go to, and she offered to come in over the weekend to pierce her ears so Taylor could go to school today, her actual birthday with pierced ears!  So we got up early and met her before church.  It was quick and easy!  Taylor didn't even flinch, she did it like a pro.

 She absolutely loves them and can't stop talking about them. 

 

And today we celebrated at school.  We all went to eat lunch with her (we left Gavin with grandma), and then celebrated with her class! 

After a whole weekend of celebrating... at 11:22am this morning she was finally officially 8.

She's a gift.  One that brings joy to our lives every single day. 

 

Taylor's 7th Birthday {a "glamping" party}

It has been one. crazy. month.  About a week before Taylor's birthday, we weren't really even sure yet what we were doing We hadn't had any time to even think about it. But maybe you know by now that I work best under pressure.
 She talked about not doing a theme at all because she couldn't think of one.  I was totally fine with that.  But then she started throwing out some ideas...but nothing was sticking for her.  So I got online to show her some ideas. I've seen camping themed parties before and always thought they looked fun.  We love to camp.  And we have kids that love to camp.  She loved the idea of it and we decided to go with a girly twist.  The actual term is "glamping" (glamorous camping).  I don't know if that's a real word, but there are definitely lots of references to it online.
We had already decided that we'd let her have her first slumber party, so we thought this theme fit perfectly with that!

I think this was the most fun cake yet!  But I think I've said that before.  I got almost all of my ideas from a mixture of online "glamping" parties and google images.

 

 

We had a gift station that had their pillowcases and fabric markers to decorate,

Seconds before we lit the candles, Nana and Papa, and our Michigan family called in to Facetime.  So they got to help sing 'Happy Birthday' and watch her blow out her candles.  She was enthralled at the campfire on her cake.

Later, after all of our non-sleepover guests left, and Mason headed off for a sleepover with his cousin, we did smores...

decorated pillow cases...

watched movies and made a god's eye yarn craft...

The tent was definitely the highlight.  We put up a canopy that we use when we camp, and then just started clothes pinning fabric and sheets all over.  We added mini bunting, Christmas lights, streamers and hanging ball lanterns in the center.  It came complete with the stench of campfire smoke leftover from our bluegrass weekend in September. 

Taylor was the first one asleep.  About an hour and a half later the rest of them fell asleep about 1am. I really hated to tell them they really needed to get to sleep, but at 7 years old, with church the next day, I didn't think I should let them go until they wanted to. 

It was pure joy watching these girls together.  3 of them are from her class and her cousin fit perfectly in with all of them.  They got along sooooo well and were so excited about every little thing.  They did each other's hair, played dolls, Daddy served them popcorn, and they were all so polite and sweet.  I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from a 7 year old sleepover, but we enjoyed it so much!

Taylor's first day of Kindergarten

Well, we made it through with no meltdowns from anyone.

We started the morning off with Daddy at home with us, a special treat.

And a pancake breakfast.  Something I'm sure we will make a tradition of.

Because heaven knows I'm not with it enough in the mornings to do pancakes other mornings.

First day of school, I can handle that.

Looking at this picture makes me teary eyed all over again.  She was definitely nervous. Last night she said her tummy hurt and we explained it was probably just nerves.  But it was hard to see her stand there like this.  Luckily, they were off to the classroom pretty quickly and she did completely fine.

 Her teacher gave them all a heart sticker to come put on their mommies.  Taylor put it on my palm just like we do with the heart stickers that came with our "Kissing Hand" book.  Do you know that book?  It's the best.  I teared up several times reading to her in the days before Kindergarten.  Both kids love it and wanted me to read it a hundred million times.  Taylor came home so excited that Mrs. Burkhart read it to them the first day!  I think that definitely won her heart over.

 I'm glad that neither Dave or I actually cried.  But there were moments our eyes both got teary.

 After we left to go have coffee cake and drinks with the other parents, a few of us snuck back down the hallway to peak.  Her daddy was having a harder time leaving than I was.

I started this picture idea last year for Pre-K and almost completely forgot about it. It's definitely something that takes planning, since I have to set my picture up the right way to be able to fit the words on.  I'm glad something sparked my memory.  We'll see how I do all the next years.





And just one year ago...

Despite the chaos and mommy-meltdowns without Dave around lately, we did find lots of ways to celebrate this little milestone in her life.  I'll share some more of those pictures soon.