Soon to be 8

Before I leave civilization and wireless for the next 9 weeks, I wanted to take a couple of cute photos of Sydney for her 8th birthday.  We bought a few balloons and went to our favorite spot.

Sweet smiley Sdyney!

Kinder Grad

I'm so proud of our big girl Sawyer Molly.  She graduated Kindergarten last week! Jim and I had so much fun watching her on stage.  My shy little girl!!!

She had an amazing school year.  She loves to read and is now starting to work through chapter books like her big sister! She also really loves math.  Summer will be so much fun with two big girl readers at camp.  We already have stacks and stacks of chapter books to read.

So proud of your accomplishments, my sweet, big girl, Sawyer Molly!!!!

Sydney's 8th Birthday Celebration

My big girl is turning 8 years old in the beginning of July.  As we have done for the past few years, we have an early birthday celebration with our family before we move to camp for the summer. This sweet, wonderful girl is growing up so fast! She is the most kind hearted, sweet loving big girl.  We are so grateful for her loving, affectionate, grateful, sweet natured personality.  So blessed. 

A few months ago I came across the most adorable white birch cake online.  It made me think of my little nature girl and how it might be the perfect theme for her birthday.  She is starting to get "too old" (her own words) for the little girl themed parties.  She loved the idea of a woodland nature party when I suggested it to her.  We were so excited to go to camp over Memorial Day weekend so we could look for nature treasures for her party decor.  We found several perfect white birch bark pieces and moss all through our woods. I sent several pictures of white birch cakes to our baker and I searched Pinterest for other decor/treat ideas.  The baker made the most beautiful cake and I had a ton of fun making homemade caramel corn and s'mores treats for the family to enjoy.  

The girls were so excited for the party this morning.  They were having a hard time trying to occupy their time before the family arrived.  Finally, they settled in the reading room for lots of book reading time!

Found the prettiest woodland creature wood ornaments on Amazon. Can't wait to put these on the Christmas tree this winter.

Our favorite baker made the most perfect cake! I think it is even more beautiful than any of the sample pictures I sent to her.  As always, her cakes taste as wonderful as they look.  Sydney was so excited when Daddy texted us the picture when he went to pick it up!

I loved decorating the table with all of our white birch pieces from camp.

I found the cutest woodland creature stuffed animals for each of the girls.  Sydney and Sawyer helped me make tags for their cousins' stuffed toys. Emma and Reese loved their treasures.

 S'mores treats turned out nicely.  I found the idea on Pinterest.

 Home made caramel popcorn using my friend's recipe.  Yummy.  The family enjoyed munching on it while eating lunch.

 The top details of the cake.

 My sweet birthday girl.

Sawyer was the sweetest today.  She loved celebrating with Syd and loved playing with Emma and Reese.

 More table pictures.  I'm kind of pleased with how well it turned out!

Presents time! Many thanks to our families for the generous gifts.  Elves Lego sets, new chapter books, workbooks, sketch pads, writing journal, crafts...all of Sydney's favorite things! She was so grateful for all of her gifts! Pap-Pap made a comment about how different the gifts are now for this big girl. It amazes me how quickly we went from little girl toys to big girl gifts now that she is older!

 After gifts it was time to eat cake and ice cream!

Enjoying her yummy cake even with her stuffed up nose.  Poor girl started a cold the other night. Not fun when you have all this yummy food to enjoy!

Love you, sweet girl.  Hope you had the best day today!