Grace's Birthday Bash

Grace lucked out this year.  She was so excited that THIS year was HER year for a birthday party.  You wouldn't believe how stressed out I was about this.  See, her birthday was the DAY before Easter.  The Sunday before Easter our family starts a "Easter Week" where we talk about Christ and all he did for us during that week.  Each day is like a mini Family-Home-Evening lesson.  So that was stress #1.  Stress #2 was the fact that I needed to make and photograph an incredible cake for her baptism book that I am starting to work on.  Stress #3 was that on Saturday (her birthday) was the Easter Egg Hunts in our city, so we had to pack up and do that, plus all her birthday celebrations for the day.  I also had a meeting that night to meet with a bride for a wedding reception shoot, and after THAT we had to get ready for the Easter Bunny to come the following day.  Yay for stress!!

Whew!  All you Mom's out there might be thinking, "That's no big deal.......I do that in ONE day at MY house."  Well I don't handle things as well as most people I guess.

Sorry, I digress.

ANYWAY, Grace woke up Saturday morning super excited that it was her birthday.  We made her a yummy breakfast, sang "Happy Birthday" to her, and Chance opened up her very own Caffeine Free Dr. Pepper to sip right along with her toast.  She snarfed down her breakfast and then promptly asked to open her presents.

The cake.

The presents.

More cake shots.

Grace excited for her big day.

Opening presents.  She got some squinkies, some books, some cute pajama's, and some necklaces and bracelets.

That night, after all the chaos, we sang to her, and she blew out all those candles.  Every year I crack up at all the OTHER kids watching her blow.  I love those empathy blows...haha

The INSIDE of the cake.

Her mark on the wall.  She is getting so big!  She's just about as tall as Morgan was at age 9.

The following Tuesday, we held her birthday party.  You can always tell when I'm super stressed about an eventful day because that's the day that I don't take any photo's.  I got some of the party details, but NONE of the actual party.  Yay Mom.

Grace invited some friends from school, and some from our neighborhood.  She had 8 friends show up, and they had a blast.  I was so thankful that it was such a beautiful day because we were able to do it outside.  Here is our front door with the notice to come around back....

The kids all sat and colored right when they arrived, then we played a ring-toss game with glow-sticks.  After that we had an Easter Egg Hunt, played a skittles game with straws, and then ate cake and ice cream.  I set up a "photo booth" where the kids that wanted to could have their photo's taken.  THOSE are the only shots I got of SOME of the kids at the party.  At least I got some, right?

Here are the "photo booth" shots.  They turned out fun.

Here's the GROUP (minus about 5 kids)

Silly Grace.

The group WITHOUT their glasses...

Crede...

Aaand Morgan.  (Don't you love her haircut?)

Crede and his friend Alyssa.

After ALL of that, I would just like to say how much we love our Grace!!  She is the sweetest, most thoughtful person I know.  She is always looking for ways to help me and the rest of our family.  She loves to serve others, and she has the most tender heart of anyone around.  She loves to smile, and laugh, and loves playing soccer.  I love watching her play soccer because of the smile she has plastered on her face the ENTIRE time.  She is smart, and loves school, and we are so proud to have her as part of our family.  We love you Grace!  I hope you had a very Happy Birthday.