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.

We enjoyed a beautiful and a bit muddy morning at the pumpkin patch. The girls love the extra fun games that go with the maze and pumpkin patch. They rode the slide and bounced a lot. It is a wonder they had energy to do anything else. We did half of the big maze with the girls taking turns leading the way. Each girl searched the pumpkin patch for the perfect pumpkin. Emily wanted a small one and Julia wanted one she could carry. The sun shined on us and a breeze kept us cool. It was a perfect way to spend the morning with Grandma and Grandpa.

It was a good year! Looking forward to the memorable and everyday moments of 2014.

We took our grandparents out for pumpkin hunting at a local pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day to be outside enjoying fall.

Happy pumpkin grins!

Hiding among the cornstalks

We didn’t get lost in the maze and we had a great time.

We wanted to see the Everglades during the summer when it is the rainy season, so we took the shuttle ride in Shark Valley. Because of the extra water in the Everglades the alligators were more spread out and were not easy to see, although we saw a young one by the road and one large one by the observation tower. The biggest difference from our previous visit was that it rained while we were on our tour. The large open spaces allowed us to see several rain clouds around us while we were riding which gave the day its own unusual beauty.

It was a bit breezy for the ride. Sitting with the grandparents made it lots of fun. Grandma shared her camera with the girls to take some photos. Who knows what photographic masterpieces she ended up with.

At the half way point of the tram ride there is an observation tower that we climbed to take a good look at the scenery. Emily decided to have a one-girl race to the top. She won.

The girls took a minute and stopped moving to check out the view.

This is the alligator who greeted us at the observation tower stop. He had found his lunch of a turtle. We watched him for a few minutes from a safe distance and then went to look at other views. After we got to the other side of the road the alligator threw the turtle into the air and grabbed it back as it fell. It is almost like he was showing off for the visitors. We were glad the girls missed the excitement.

Emily is officially more than a handful of years now. What a blessing our big girl has been in our lives. We are thankful and grateful for her. She was looking forward to this birthday a lot. We kept teasing her that she could have two years at five and then skip up to seven, but she wasn’t interested.

Her first party of the day was at school. Her class sang to her and made her feel special. Then for lunch Mama ate with her. We shared blue iced cookies with her class. Then that evening we had a family party. She chose to eat Chinese in town for her birthday dinner. Then after dinner we opened gifts and had cupcakes. Her favorite gifts were a Merida dress-up dress and ballet classes.

Her assorted gifts and little mini-Emily figure that comes out every birthday.