These Boots...

Getting ready for drama camp this morning, Gracie came out in her cowgirl boots. "Honey, it's going to be close to 100 degrees today. You sure you want to wear those boots?", I asked. She replied in classic Grace fashion, "It's never too hot to wear boots." So it begins: fashion over comfort.

I'm posting this here because I want to remember it:
There are only 24 hours in a day, and I have decided not to fill that time being frustrated by other people and negative situations that are out of my control (again, assuming nothing really bad is occurring). I barely have the energy to do all of the things I want to do, and giving people the benefit of the doubt helps me to stay in control of my emotions and time.


from Uncluttered.com

Birthday Month Continued: Strawberry Fields Forever

Luscious strawberry goodness! You just can't beat this. Yum!

June packs so many birthdays. Feels like we celebrate the entire month. This week, we took the party to the strawberry patch to celebrate Em's birthday. What a great idea for a party. I'm all about exposing kids to new experiences & this certainly provided that opportunity for most of Em's party girls. The strawberries were so plenteous; plants heavy laden with fruit. Picking was easy. AND talk about tasty! This fruit is good & will be yummy in some strawberry jam. Just have to make time in all the party going to make it. Oh, yes. We are headed to B's 3rd birthday party today! What a month!! Happy Birthday, girls! 

My Strawberry Shortcake. Now that's what I call sweet. =)

Fresh Strawberry Pie

Girls Rule - Boys Drool

After a fun filled afternoon & evening at friends, Gracie fell asleep in the car on the way home.  Groggily, & with some help, she made her way into the house. She crawled into bed & said, "Maybe it's true that boys rule/girls droll, 'cause I was falling asleep in the car & I think there was a little bit of drool coming out of my mouth." =)  

Celebrating Seven

Jazzy joins the birthday fun...like she has a choice. =)

We celebrated Gracie's 7th birthday a few days ago at Monee Reservoir with a fishing theme. It was simple, outside, and loads of fun. Despite the little mist for a bit, some of us played the day away until 5 pm. What's the rush? The kids are playing today - good clean fun, so to speak. We did take dirty kids home, but they washed up nicely. =) 

Seven years old came too quickly, but here we are. They grow so fast. Now I understand that line. They grow so fast. I treasure the moments and the memories.  I'm proud of who Grace is and who she is becoming. She is kind, clever, adventurous, daring, and brave (except after watching Scooby Doo).  She is fun, friendly, confident, creative, compassionate, and conscientiousness. I love that Gracie Cakes. I love that she loves to sing, dance, snuggle, travel, explore, create, be outside, make up songs, write books, draw pictures, make new friends, include others, tell jokes, tries to trick me (every day is April Fools Day) & worship God.  She is such a treasure. She is my treasure. 

Seven came too quickly. She tells me now I can't call her "Babele" - I got that cutie name from my friend, Nae. In my mind, it is short for Baby Love. I have a song that goes with it nicely, but that's over now she said. Can't call her that or sing the song. She's too big. I hope she forgets she said that. I hope she changes her mind. =) In the meantime, I have a plethora of other names I call her with permission and love songs I can sing. 

Here are a few fun pics of the birthday fun.  

Gracie snags a lily pad

Gracie and friends

Gracie finally gets her gun...did I mention she has a good memory? She's wanted this pink gun/holster since she was 3 years old. 

wet sponge relay - the teams race to see who can transfer the most water using big sponges

cooperating - I love it!

sizing up the lake & preparing to fish

Birthday Month

Gracie is turning 7 soon. A special request was made by the girl herself to take her bestest friends to Key Lime Cove to celebrate her birthday. We scored a deeply discounted stay at the resort; and I do use that term loosely, but that's another post. So, making some calls or sending some texts rather, we invited C & E, along with A. Whooo, C &E were THRILLED beyond belief. We found a weekend that worked for us. A was unable to join us, but I saved that sad piece of info for the very last moment. In doing so, Grace was already in the midst of bliss with her other two besties to fret much. Good call, Mom.

The car ride up to Key Lime Cove was NOISY to say the least. Who knew happiness, joy, & giggles could get to deafening levels so quickly? ACK! None was so happy to arrive at the resort (again, loose interpretation of the word). Those girls were splish splashing & slip slidin within the hour. I did a bit of birthday decorating when Gracie wasn't looking & viola - it's a birthday party!

The girls swam the evening away, as well as the next day! Whoo hoo! To celebrate the birthday, we dove head first into a gargantuan sundae called the kitchen sink sundae with elaborate toppings and spectacular mini fireworks - all served in a small kitchen sink! It was amazing & sooo much ice cream, we didn't even make a dent! It was indeed fun trying. =)

On the ride home, I asked the girls what there favorite part of the weekend was. Each replied, "Being funny together." True. True. I've never heard so many knock knock jokes before in my entire life. However, the joke that garnered the most giggles was this one: Hey, what's that under there? Under where? HA! I made you say "underwear"!!! Hilarious, even the 100th time. =)

Ready to ride!

Splash!

BFFL

Birthday Girl Surprise

Gearing up for a good day

Say you're surprised

Kitchen Sink Sundae

So hungry they could eat a kitchen sink!

Fireworks

Birthday glow