Lily's Birthday

On August 22nd my baby girl turned 8 years old! I can't believe how grown up she is. For me this has been my favorite age so far. She's grown up so much in the last year. She's still too young to be a sassy, moody teenager, but she's old enough to be responsible and helpful. I love it!
We did a little family party for her the day before her birthday.
On her real birthday I took the kids with me to the pet store to get a new fish for preschool. That was a bad idea. Since we'd been so busy building the preschool I had not gotten Lily a birthday present yet. I felt terrible about it and wasn't sure what to get her. The one thing she had been wanting forever was a hamster, but I did not want to get a real pet. However, when you go to the pet store on your daughter's birthday and she sees a hamster, falls in love with it and names the darn thing, how do you say no? So I texted Tom and we consented to give in. Lily had gotten some money for her birthday and so I told her if she bought the hamster I'd buy the cage, food, etc. for it. So Buttercup became a part of the family, and Lily couldn't be more excited. She said it was the best birthday ever! That night we went out to dinner as a family, including Nana and Grandpa Bryce, to IHOP, Lily's favorite restaurant. The following Saturday was her birthday party. We had a great turn-out and I'm so grateful I had my friend Amy, niece Aubree and her friend Chalysa there to help. Tom was out of town that weekend and I ended up dedicating a twelve hour day to this party. It turned out great though. The theme was cats and dogs. I learned how to face paint cats by watching YouTube. First I practiced on the boys (Jeff looks like a cat just waking up and Cedric looks like a bunny with his teeth sticking out).
We did a dog and cat craft project, pin the tail on the dog, and a scavenger hunt. We broke the girls up into two teams and with cameras went around the neighborhood to do a photo scavenger hunt. Here is one of the pictures of Lily's team pulling a silly face. Other things included finding a bike, dog, flag, black car, the girls climbing a fence, etc. Then we did cake and ice cream. I tried to make a paw print cake, but I'm no artist when it comes to food.
After, that we did presents and I made all the girls balloon animal dogs (also learned from YouTube). It was a hot, long and exhausting day, but Lily is worth it :)
The following Monday was Lily's first day of third grade!
I can't believe I have a third grader! I remember being in third grade as if it was yesterday. The funny thing was she had a really loose tooth and purposely waited until the first day of school to pull it out. So far she loves school (although it's been a very tiring week) and is fortunate enough to get to ride the bus there and back everyday.
I'm so proud of Lily. She's such a sweet, spiritual, caring little girl. I feel so blessed to have her in my life. Happy Birthday Lily!