7

She's 7! On February 16th, at 1:13am she turned 7. Seems a bit surreal. When I grew up we had a tradition of waking up early on our birthdays and celebrating before we went to school. We decided to implement the new tradition in our own house. So Thursday morning we woke up and sang and had cake and opened presents before leaving for the day. The kids couldn't believe we were actually having cake for breakfast. It was awesome.

The next day we had her birthday party. I had the perfect plan as we were leaving for our trip the next day. The plan was this:

4:30- party starts

4:50- kids decorate heart shaped picture frames, which is also their favor. They will each get a picture with Ariel to put in the frame.

5:15-6:15- Ariel the mermaid comes to tell stories, do magic, paint faces and do balloon animals

6:15-7:00- pizza, pinata, cake

7:00 parents pick up kids, party over

What actually happened:

4:30- party starts

4:50 kids decorate frames

5:10- Ariel and owner of character business call to let us know her car broke down on the freeway. Josh gets in car to go get her about 8-10 miles away.

5:10-6:30- girls are asking every 13 seconds when Ariel will show up, my brother goes to get pizza, we do pinata, game, and open presents. Ariel still not there. Kids pull out all garage toys and ride on bikes, scooters, etc. Pizza arrives. Kids eat. Josh is texting every so often to say he is sitting in rush hour traffic, both there and back. He texts that he can't find her. He texts that he finds her.

6:30- Ariel shows up in time for cake

6:30-7:00- kids completely mesmerized by Ariel and her talents

7:00- parents start showing up to pick kids up and Ariel has just begun painting faces. Parents eat pizza and have cake and visit.

7:40- all guests are gone.

PHEW!!! Haley said it was the best party ever and that's all that matters. It was pretty comical.

T

he thing I loved most about it was meeting a few of the girls that Haley plays with at school and meeting their parents. I am proud of Haley for many many things. The thing I am most proud of, at this point, is her choice in friends. All 8 girls at the party had lovely manners and played so nicely. They were lively and kind and inclusive of one another.It makes me proud that Haley is choosing a mix of friends with one thing in common, they are all good little girls.They all love school and play by the rules. It's awesome to see your child coming into her own and making choices you hope she'd make.

She is 7. She is awesome.