Alana is 7, and I'm OK with it

Alana is now 7. I have come to terms with it. Two birthday parties will do that to you. Now I have to document it before she turns 8, which I'm fairly sure will happen tomorrow.

On her actual birthday, which fell on a Wednesday, she had a birthday party with friends from school. It was fall break, which allowed for this odd party time, and I'm sure all of our jam-packed Saturday schedules are thankful for that. I had to fight the urge to go all Pinterest crazy. It is tempting, but I didn't really want to spend much money since it wasn't her only party, and I didn't want to go overboard. Instead I went with cupcakes that I made and simple games like tag and duck-duck-goose that require no planning. And you know what? The kids still had fun, even without personalized monogrammed gift bags and an elaborate handmade pin-the-tail on the whatever game.

One of my major pet peeves is when you go to a birthday party and it is poorly paced. I don't want to stand around for 2 hours waiting to eat cake, let's get to the point people. But I digress...At Alana's party with her friends I had the kids play outside for like an hour, then we moved on to cake, that's why everyone came here anyway right? Then presents and so on. Everyone here is familiar with what you do at birthday parties, there aren't any surprises. All of the kids were more than happy to take pictures with Alana, I wish adults were this cooperative. I also had them sign our easel, which some treated more formally than others ;)

My favorite part of every party for Alana is her face when we are singing to her. She just smiles like a goober the whole time, she can't help herself.

After her first party was over and I had thoroughly vacuumed all the cupcakes out of the carpet, we had a second party on Saturday at Peter Piper. After all of my kids birthdays and the cleaning and party hosting, by the time we get to Alana's birthday I'm ready for a break. And she loves pizza and is obsessed with store bought birthday cake (although its SO overpriced) so everybody wins. We had her party in the afternoon to accommodate soccer, so by party time I was starving. Maybe that's why that pizza tasted so delicious. Sausage and mushroom pizza for life! I told you so David!

The greatest part of having parties at pizza places is that I don't have to clean up after. Or before. I can just leave and go to Target. That's my kind of party.

Once again Alana smiled like a goober while we sang to her, she can't help herself. She is the only kid (in my family at least) that gives just as much attention to the card that comes with her present. She opens it carefully, reads it, and doesn't even check for money. She is a gracious gift opener. I was glad that she got lots of books and jewelry this year, she loves both of those and they don't take up tons of room in the toy box.

I'm so grateful for my girl and the light that she brings into our lives. She is so smart and perfect, reading books and giving me hugs constantly. I wouldn't trade her for anything. Not even a million dollars. Well, probably not. I might consider it. No, I'm definitely keeping her.