Happy 7th Birthday, Evelyn!

The Saturday after Evie turned 7, we celebrated with a bunch of family in the area.  Grandma B made a beautiful (and super tasty!) chocolate cake.

We got to have her cousin Jessica with Aunt Katie and Uncle Brian.

Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Jenny and three more cousins, Emily, Michael and Natalie

From Grandma and Grandpa B, Evie got a beautiful book, and all the makings for a fun swim bag, including diving rings, goggles, and a float toy.

Natalie is Evie's birthday buddy - they're about 3 weeks apart - and she gave Evie a nighttime bag including jammies, sleep mask, hair ties and slippers.

From Emily, Evie received a jewelry box.

Mike gave her a fantastic book - such a fun read with beautiful art and a secret code and hidden pictures.  Way cool!

Aunt Katie, Brian and Jess gave her the makings for friendship and bead bracelets, a giant pencil, and some fun, sparkly stickers.

From us - me and Aaron and her siblings - she got a couple of outfits.

Grandma and Grandpa R sent a t-shirt with Evie's favorite character.

To go with the decadent chocolate cake, Evie chose Mint chocolate chip icecream.  Yummy combination!

Nature was frosted with glory and I couldn't resist taking a couple pictures as we went from home to Evie's choice outing...

...Monkey Joe's!

A good time was had by all, and we scored a deal wherein we paid for 10 visits for the price of 7 and only had 7 kids there - so we can take our three oldest another time later for 'free'!

I loved this moment.  Cole got to snuggle with Daddy...

...who got to watch a riveting basketball game!

We were even surprised by the appearance of Monkey Joe himself!

Cole took a moment to show off his walking

Later that night, I made a couple of bracelets with Evie.  She was content with the bead ones with which she has experience, but has cheerful enough when I introduced her to the fun of knots in friendship bracelets.  The only problem - and I confess that I had the same problem when I first tried them as a kid - is that it's tedious and she got frustrated with how long it was taking to see any result.  I did finish this one for her, after all her hard work.

Happy Birthday, my oldest, sweetest child.  Seven wonderful year with many more to come, I hope!!