8 is Great!

This past Friday, Lily Grace turned 8 years old.  We spent the entire weekend celebrating and having a good time.

Lily Grace was extra excited to have her birthday fall on a Friday.  

Lily Grace, daddy and I are so proud of  you.  You are so confident and happy.  You enjoy being a little girl who's in no rush to grow up.  We wouldn't have it any other way. You are a blessing beyond words.  We adore you and love you very much!  
Special thanks to everyone who called, sent cards and gifts.  You made her birthday very special. 

To celebrate her birthday at school, she requested chocolate cupcakes with pink icing and white star with a number eight.  Her birthday party this year will be an American Girl theme so the cupcakes are just a prelude. 

Birthday Morning (She actually asked to sleep in the queen guest bed so that she would have "room" to enjoy breakfast in bed.  Gracie, dad and I are sorry that twin bed has been confining your breakfast in bed for the last 6 years. HA! HA!) 

At the top of her wish list, Kaya.  Lily Grace admires how brave Kaya is in her stories and loves her long hair which, has already seen several new styles. 

 

This year's requested breakfast: strawberry crepes

Kaya went to school with Lily Grace who asked me to braid her hair to match Kaya.  So cute!

All smiles as her class sings Happy Birthday to her

Arriving home from school, she was greeted with gifts from family and her requested homemade Red Velvet Cake.  

She received some new outfits for Kaya and wasted no time trying them on her. 

Out to dinner for shrimp and almond crusted walleye

After dinner we returned home for cake and Gracie blew out the candles making it official.

Saturday brought a trip to Sky Zone for some jumping.  Thanks Matt for taking one for the team.  

On a funny side note, Matt has been complaining of a neck ache since our visit Saturday morning.  According to him, he went way outside his capabilities.  Too funny!

Matt and Lily Grace also chose birthday weekend to get in their annual camp out.  However, this year they did it in the basement.  They did at least sleep in the tent.  Really roughing huh! Especially when you consider that Gracie is wearing a mermaid costume. - HA!

Happy Birthday Gracie Cakes!  Peace be with you, today and always!

Happy Easter!

One of the gardens at church just before the Easter Vigil

Lily Grace and Molly woke to treats from the Easter Bunny.

We enjoyed a special Holy Week and a beautiful Easter Sunday.  
We are blessed indeed!   

Spring Break

After just returning from China a few weeks ago, we couldn't think of  a better place to spend Spring Break than HOME.  
We had one of the best Spring Breaks ever.  Lily Grace had put together a bucket list of things she would like to do.  
Gracie, I had the best time completing your bucket list with you.  I had so much fun!!!!!

Lily Grace used fabric markers (while listening to Frozen- of course!) to decorate a piece of canvas to add to the pile we put together to create one of the most anticipated activities on her bucket list.

A Tee Pee- Matt took a day off to help us during Spring Break.  He did the the drilling and wrapping of the poles for us.  He even helped with a little fabric cutting.

After an entire day of cutting, wrapping and hot gluing the fabric to the poles, Gracie ended up with her very own tee pee.  

Her tee pee even has security.  (which happens to be sleeping on the job- ha!)

One of our most delicious activities involved making cupcakes.

Chocolate cupcakes with a raspberry frosting- yum!

Lily Grace loves washing the dishes as much as she does cooking

A little bike riding

Yes, this is how she looked at least 3 days out of 5 over Spring Break.  She LOVES frozen and this shirt.  However, the outfit just wasn't complete without a tiara, diamond bracelet and her fashion glasses.  She wore this outfit wherever we went.  That's one of the things I love most about her.  She is so confident and marches to her own beat.  By the way, she asked me to take a picture of her in this outfit because she liked it so much and wanted to send it to her daddy at the office.  She then breaks into poses and calls this one her, "I'm thinking with my glasses on pose."  Too funny!!

We hung with Molly

Lily Grace also did some pet sitting for our neighbor.  She did an amazing job and took it very seriously.  Matt and I were so proud of how responsible she was.  She even created herself a business name, LG's Pet Pals.  The "S" family treated our family to dinner and gave her a gift card and picture of her and Duchess as a thank you for doing such a great job.  

We also managed to sneak in some time for sidewalk chalk.

Our 13th President

Lily Grace recently completed a really big project for school.  Her class drew names of presidents to research and give a presentation on.  
She did a wonderful job researching, creating a poster, and putting together a presentation on our 13th president, Millard Fillmore.  
Parents were invited to attend the presentations that each student was required to give.  Lily Grace did an amazing job and I couldn't have been more proud of her!