We keep counting up the years on our little one. While she is still our little one, she is not so little anymore. For her 7th birthday her biggest wish was just to spend it with her family. During lunch we celebrated in her class with cupcakes. Then for dinner we met up with all of the Grandparents for a little asian food. There were lots of gifts and even more grins from the happy girl. The birthday was a joy, just like she is. We love you big girl!

Dinner is always fun when you get to watch it being made for you. Julia was not only hungry, but willing to try some new things. She decided shrimp was great. She asked mama if we could have shrimp at home because it was SO good. Mama told her that she didn’t know how to cook shrimp well so it probably wouldn’t happen. Her response was that it looked pretty easy to her after watching the chef do it. 😉 What good answer can a mom give to that one.

When asked what kind of birthday cake/cupcake she wanted it seemed like an easy decision to have a strawberry cake. She doesn’t love chocolate like her mama does. Her favorite color (pink) and favorite fruit (strawberries) come together really well in a strawberry cake.

Now that these Grandparents are now Tennessee Grandparents it is easier to make it to our birthday dinners.

The original Tennessee Grandparents

Hello, Hello Kitty! Julia has quite a family of kitties. Emily gave her a new one. The rest of them had to come out to meet the new friend.

Loving sisters (most of the time)!

Emily wrote a birthday card to Julia. Her advice is priceless! “Dear Julia, I hope you’ve have a great night. So now you are 7 you get a bible and more, but most importantly I want to warn you how much she (mom) makes you help in the house.” Mom had better make sure that happens.

To say that Emily was excited about her birthday would be an understatement. She counted down to the day, picked where we would go and eat, gave her suggestions for gifts, picked her cake design, and put up with her mama’s teasing about not getting gifts. Mama and Julia joined her for a birthday lunch at school. We shared tiny ice cream cones with her class.

She requested a pink butterfly cake. Emily was delighted with the outcome and assisted with the decorating. 

Making her wish.

Julia was excited about Emily’s birthday. One morning on the way to school Mama teased Emily that when you turn a birthday with a seven in it you don’t get gifts that year. It was quite the discussion. Emily didn’t believe it, but she put her heart into the reasons that included gifts in the birthday. Interesting enough Julia never joined in the conversation. She and Mama were about to go and buy her gift for Emily after dropping Emily off, so she knew information to the contrary of what Mama was saying. She is learning a teasing side to life also. After dropping Emily off at school Julia had several comments that she had saved and shared with Mama.

Emily was right, there were gifts! What a fun day we had with all that we did. We love you big girl!

We wondered what gift God was going to give us, we wondered about what kind of parents we would be, we wondered if we were making good choices, we wondered who her friends would be, we wondered what personality she would develop, we wondered if she would use long words like her Daddy, we wondered if she would order her toys like her Mama, we wondered . . .

We still have a list of things we wonder about, but we also marvel at the great gift God has given us. Happy Birthday to our WONDERful big 7-year-old!