Birthday Celebration - Part Three

After dinner, Katie opened her remaining presents and played and played and played. She was too full to have her cake after having ice cream at the restaurant, but she wanted to look at her cake, so she could dream about eating it the next day. It was so fun for her!

I got a Moana set of Legos! I couldn't wait to build them!

Aunt Jennifer had her present in this big box. 

 I couldn't help but smile when I looked inside it!

It was the Rapunzel tower that I had seen at Disneyland. 

I was also happy to get a book about girls who didn't give up! 

Plus, I got these kits to make my own books. I love to write! 

After my presents, I took a sneak peak at the Ariel cake I had chosen. It was perfect!

Birthday Celebration - Part Two

After her play date with Kai, Katie wanted to celebrate being seven by going out to dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. We invited my parents, Jennifer, Garyldine, and Jim. We took some of her presents with us for her to open and left some at home to open later. Katie loved every minute!

Jim and Garyldine brought a big My Little Pony balloon with them. 

Jim also wore his My Little Pony shirt that I had gotten him for a gift. I was so happy to see it!

Once we sat down, I caught up with Garyldine. 

After we ate, I got to open some of my gifts. Garyldine and Jim got me a beautiful Elsa doll!

Grandma and Grandpa got me the guitar that I have been dreaming of! 

My mom got me a Barbie set that lets me design some dresses! 

It was fun to open the gifts with everyone watching. 

After gifts, I was shocked when our waitress announced my birthday to the whole room, and... 

...everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me! 

It was such a good surprise! 

I love, love, love their vanilla ice cream! 

 Thanks for being part of my big day!

Birthday Celebration - Part One

About a month ago, Katie told me that she had "one dream in her heart." She wanted to have a birthday party. Since she has always had family birthday parties, I thought I'd grant her wish and let her help plan a party.

Based on things she had said in the past, I braced myself for some big party ideas. I was shocked with how little she wanted. The first thing she wanted to do to celebrate was to have a play date with her friend, Kai, at the school playground, and she wanted to have cupcakes with him. That was the biggest part of the dream in her heart, and luckily, Kai complied.

Before Kai came over, I got to go with my mom to pick up my birthday cake for evening. I couldn't wait to look inside!

Once Kai and I got to the playground, we played for awhile in the sun, and then decided to blow bubbles in the shade to cool off a little.

I also thought of a craft for us. I got some small paper and popsicle sticks. Then we made flags out of them. It was fun!

I drew a picture on my flag, and Kai made a stop sign!

Finally it was time for cupcakes. Yum!

Then we ended with some fun swinging!

When it was time to walk home, Kai and I led the way. I love Kai!

After Kai left, I decided to try on the giant sunglasses that were in the goodie bags that Kai and I had. I thought they felt weird, but my mom liked them!

Super Seven

Katie was thrilled to turn seven on Saturday! It feels like only yesterday that we were celebrating her first birthday. Although it's strange to think of how quickly time moves, I couldn't be more proud of who Katie is at seven. I asked her a few questions about how she was currently feeling.

What is your favorite color? Pink

What is your favorite food? Oranges and grapes

What is your favorite song? "How Far I'll Go" from Moana and "When Will My Life Begin" from Tangled

What is your favorite movie? Tangled

What are your favorite books? Disney Princess books

Who is your favorite author? Mo Willems

What is your favorite thing to do? Play with my toys

Where is your favorite place to go? Target

If you could meet one famous person, who would you want to meet? The girl who played Moana

What is your life dream when you're seven? Play again.

What is one thing you really want to do when you're seven? Go to the mall

What is the best fact that you know? Counting like 2+2 is 4.

What is something you know that you think someone else might not know? If you use electronics too much, you might lose your imagination.

I'm seven!

Parachute Men

Jennifer's house has an area upstairs, where you can look over the rail to the floor below. What better place to drop parachute men?

Watch out below!

Warming Up

One day, I had taken Katie up to her toy room in Jennifer's house. It happened to be a cooler morning, and my feet were freezing. Katie felt bad that I had cold feet, so she went into her craft drawers and picked up some other materials from around the room and got busy making me "foot warmers." When she was done, she made herself a "warming belt." She's a problem solver!

I was pretty sure that pipe cleaners would play an important role in making foot warmers. 

I also used a plastic bag to trap the heat. The pipe cleaners ended up being padding. 

I tied the whole thing on my mom's foot to get them warm. 

I used the extra pipe cleaners in my belt to warm my whole body up. 

Not only were they warm, but they looked fashionable! 

I love creating!

Already a First Grader

Katie went back to school yesterday, and she is so excited to be a first grader! She could barely contain her enthusiasm the night before school started. After the jumping and squealing calmed down, she finally went to sleep. Then she woke up at 2:30. "Is it time to get up?" I told her she still had a lot of sleeping time before she got up. She said, "If I count to 100, will it be time to get up?"

Somehow she went back to sleep but hopped out of bed the moment she could. She was too excited to eat most of her breakfast and ran to the car to get to school.

After school, she let me know that school and her teacher were both a "thumbs up!" Later I asked her what the best part of being a first grader was. She answered, "It's good because you're not too big and not too small. You're more like one of the bigger kids, and bigger kids can mostly do whatever they love!"

I've got the world on a string!