Sydney is SEVEN!!!

Sydney turned 7 a couple weeks ago! I can't believe that this time next year, me baby girl will be getting baptized! She shares her birthday with my mom, and we were lucky enough to be able to celebrate with them both. My parents drove up from Texas and got here just a few hours before the party. Sydney chose to have a pool party at our neighbors' house where she swims all the time. It sure made planning easy--let the kids swim a long time, do presents, swim some more, have treats, and done! She had a great time and had a ton of friends over. I even played the role of "FUN MOMMY" and swam with the kids the whole time. I can be fun when I want to. :)

She got way too many presents...I guess that happens when you invite so many friends.  I love her face in the picture on the top in the middle--pure joy and excitement.  She felt pretty special getting presents on her party day, which was 2 days before her actual birthday.  She tried real hard to let me open her gifts from us that day too. That was taking "fun mommy" too far...she had to wait!

 For her treats, she wanted to same rainbow cupcakes that we had done for Ryan, but with purple added, of course, to girly them up.  We also had ice cream cones, in keeping with the easy-on-Mommy party theme.  All 24 cupcakes and 3 containers of ice cream disappeared in no time!

 My dad was a great entertainer to Jake once he had spent enough time in the pool and while I was still swimming with the kids.  Jake thought it was great fun to get his hands wet, then shake them on my dad's face.  I can see where that would be fun. :)  It was so great to see my kids with my parents...they don't get much time together each year...

Once it was Sydney's and Mom's real birthday, I let Syd open her presents from us.  She has been begging for new bedding for her room for months, and we had been "window" shopping several places.  She really loved this zebra bedding with purple and hot pink as accent colors.  So she mostly got stuff for her "new" room.  I was pretty excited that she's moved on from Littlest Pet Shop...

That day, I took my parents and the kids out to Winger's.  It was nice to be able to treat my parents to lunch for once.  Too bad our service at Winger's was A-W-F-U-L!!!  But in the words of my mother, "We made a memory!"

For dessert that night, we had raspberry Jello poke cake and homemade vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries on top.  It was delish!  The best part, though, was Sydney...  Tim and my dad had gone to the little neighborhood park to fix the pump for our irrigation system and Syd wanted to go see what they were doing at one point.  She was gone for a while, then when she came back, she was COVERED in dirt (see photo above...).  I don't know that she's ever been that dirty.  I took the hose to her, but not until after I got a picture!  My sweet little girl--all boy!  That's why in the pics of her and my mom later at dessert shows her with wet hair--she had to have a spray down followed by a bath before dessert--typical Sydney Grace!