My wonderful Gracie

How is it possible that I've been a mother for 7 years???  I still remember before Gracie was born, aching to hold her and to know what she'd look like.  It's so hard to believe that my beautiful biggest baby is 7.  She's sweet, fun, mischievous, silly, darling, and is the best big sister, so good at sharing, helping me all the time and always creating fun for our family.  She's a lot like her mommy - a dreamer, so creative, loves to read and can never make up her mind about anything.  An example: the girl who has always wanted to be a mom when she grows up now wants to be a famous cheerleader.  Heaven help us!  We had fun for her bday.  No big party, but she still claimed it was the best ever.  

Gracie just HAD to have an ice cream cake.  So I tried my best and the girls helped me put together this YUMMY oreo cake.  Gracie said it was the best she'd ever tasted.  Hmmm.
We celebrated by going to SunSplash for the very first time ever.  Gracie is a thrill-seeker in every way and loved the huge crazy slides with daddy.  I just HAD to stay with the other girls in the kiddie area all day (I didn't mind and probably wouldn't have ridden on the big slides anyway.)  We had tons of fun.
Birthday morning - is there ever any more joy than this???  Look at these faces!  Gracie got EVERYTHING on her list except a real puppy (the webkinz one was a good substitute, though.) An American Girl Doll from Grama G. was a dream come true.  And the gelpens from Grama Laura will entertain all of the girls for many months to come.  
For her special date night out with mom and dad, Gracie chose to go roller skating.  The roller rink here is hilarious - probably built around the same time that roller skating was invented.  We had fun skating with all of the 13 year olds.  Gracie loved when her daddy would request funny songs from the DJ.  Then we went out for Blizzards at Dairy Queen - total old school.  What a night!  We love our Gracie!