Crystal is 8!!!!

A LOOK BACK

I am really having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that I have an 8 year old! For one I don't feel old enough. Lol. I'm still waiting for that moment in my life when I feel like I'm a 'real' adult. I was hoping it would happen before the kids hit their teenage years... but it's really not looking good. lol. Secondly, it doesn't seem that long ago that the anesthesiologist took this picture of us! 

CRYSTAL'S BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

Well we didn't really mean to do this, but Crystal kinda celebrated her birthday all weekend even though her birthday wasn't until Monday. Haha. Friday night we usually go out to dinner. It's generally our 'date but bring all the kids' night. Lol. This Friday we went to Garcia's after Jay requested to go to the 'Gar Eating Place.' Haha. The first thing Lily told the waitress was that it was Crystal's birthday. Ty and I told her it wasn't really her birthday until Monday (Garcia's won't usually give you a dessert unless it's your actual birthday so I wanted to clarify). We had a kind waitress who surprised Crystal with a Happy Birthday AND a fried ice cream! 

After dinner we decided since we were in the mall parking lot already that we should go get Crystal her birthday present... pierced ears! She's been waiting for this day for at least 4 years now!!! Haha. We decided she needed to wait until she was 8 and old enough to decide for herself if that's what she wanted. Well she decided that's what she wanted for her 8th birthday! I was pretty nervous for her, but she did great! She was even still smiling after the first earring went in! She was a little more nervous for the second one but the smile never left her face! Then we wandered Claire's for a bit and let her pick out a few more earrings. 

Saturday I took a break from working on things at the house to take Crystal to ToysRUs to get her free Geoffrey plush, book, balloon, and crown! We missed the little party they had for all the birthday kids but she still left with a smile on her face.

After working on the lawn, the front porch, and party preparations for the next few days, we were exhausted and no one wanted to cook so we went out again (we're bad I know). This time we went to Lucy's Pizzeria. The kids loved drawing on the pizza boards with dry erase markers! Lily again announced her beloved sister's birthday (she has clearly figured out birthday girls get free dessert and wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to help her sister out. haha). After we ate they brought out a Reese's/cream cheese cal-zone.  It was huge. Haha.

THE CAKE
I made her a Frozen barbie cake this year. It wasn't my best work, but I was just glad it stood until we were ready to cut it. Haha. We cut into the cake a little early this year because I didn't want to have cake at her 'friends party' and then turn around and have cake again as a family an hour later. It just felt like too much for one afternoon. So we had her cake at Grandma Gordon's during our usually Sunday dinner at their house. Grandparents Cook and Great Grandparents LaPray stopped by to see the birthday girl and have cake with us too! 

FROZEN PARTY
First I want to mention that for her birthday Crystal walked home from school by herself for the first time ... well she walked with a friend so not totally alone. I think they made it home faster than they usually get out to the car after school. Lol. Crystal was super excited and wants to do it again! I wonder how long the excitement would last if she had to do it every day. Haha. 

Crystal requested a Frozen Party this year with her friends. We had a Frozen Ice Palace (bouncy house), Elsa's Magic Bubble Wands with a water table full of bubbles, and SNOW to build a snowman with (Baking soda and shaving cream mixed together. It was awesome and my preschoolers loved it the next day too)! We also had crowns/antlers to decorate and wear! We had Frozen cupcakes (thank you Walmart...I wasn't baking 2 cakes this year...), and icicle suckers, as well as Glacier Juice! I think the kids all had a good time! And Crystal said on more than one occasion that this was the best birthday ever! So I'm going to call it a success! 

The birthday kid gets to choose what we have or where we go for dinner. Crystal chose Leo's Place and requested that instead of wristbands we got lots of tokens to play the arcade games. So that's what we did. The birthday girl won the most tickets and even though she didn't quite have enough, the guy at the ticket counter let her get a pink sword! What a way to end the day!