The Birthday celebrations

Oh yes, there sure is an "s" at the end of celebration.  Come on...me celebrating Simone's Birthday for only one day!?

No way... it was a week long celebration of her big seven years.   We had a lot of songs and skipping and reminders of how old she is!  And Simone received so many wonderful gifts ranging from new chapter books, to new LPS stuff, some play dough (a HUGE hit in our house) and some jewelery making stuff!  She also got plenty of add-ons to her Pokemon collection and some new clothes!  She loves everything she got and really had an enjoyable week!

So just how did we celebrate?

We started off on her "big day" with a swim at the pool after camp with some pals.  Then we had some yum-yum-yummy Thai food!  Both the kids (and Adam & I) dug in to the great feast Adam brought home!

 And we had some cheesecake.   Not your typical Birthday cake...but that's what the Bday gal wanted!

 A few days later we had a party at the Cove.  Just a few of Simone's closest pals and their families for some good fun.  It was just perfect!  Again this year we did "wild animal" theme. 

Lions and tigers and....Simone's.  Oh my!

 Sammy tried to make a new friend, but it just kept running away!

Simone with her very first and one of her best friends, Ms J!   

 Some friends wanted to be very well rested for the festivities!  I swear SP falls asleep every time we're meeting up with his family.  But isn't he so cute....

 Swim fishies...swim!  Being at the Cove meant the kids could enjoy some lake swimming, and enjoy they did!  We almost had to drag them back to eat and do crafts!

And yep - that's Sammy out there swimming around with no fear.  D is close by though to keep him safe!

Simone & pals...

 My Birthday girl!  

We did a flag cake since she was born on flag day! 

 The cupcakes were very good.  At least Sammy-Wei thinks so!!

   She had such a nice time at the party, we are so blessed to have such great friends...

 We  also had some face painting - done by Mom & Dad helpers.  The kids all looked so cute, I wish I had gotten more on camera!   But I do love this photo below....  She looks like a woodland fairy!

It was a fun party with wonderful weather and even more wonderful guests!  Thanks to ALL of you that made Simone's day so very special!  (and helped make the party so stress free for me - You guys all rock!)

  To continue our celebrations we headed to Atlanta on Sat. morning to watch a baseball game!  Every year Adam's company has an "appreciation day" for them complete with a great BBQ and great seats!  Plus it was Sammy's first real ball game and he was sooo excited!

So....of course he fell asleep!  Did you honestly expect anything else?

Simone had a great time during both the pre-game BBQ and the game itself!  Below is her "self portrait".  She took all sorts of photos that day! 

And let me tell ya... It was a hot day with little breeze - but it sure was fun just to be together!   Below is a photo Simone took - we call it "melting Mama".  I swear I was stuck to that seat by the meltation

process! 

Once Sammy woke up he enjoyed the game and really got into all the crowd cheers and boos.

In the 5th inning a storm rolled in, a BIG storm with lots of rain and some thunder booms.  The rain delay lasted for a few hours so we packed it up early and headed back to the hotel.  We had a nice family dinner together and then watched a movie all curled up in our beds in the hotel room.   It turned out to be such a nice quiet end to a busy week!

That was our fun week celebrating seven amazing years!  Can't wait to see what festivities next year brings!!!

J

**I have to add...we tried to stop in GA to grab the kids some lunch.  We turned off the exit and drove up the street of a decent sized town to find absolute devastation.  We had unkowingly stopped at one of the towns hit by those terrible storms that rolled through a month or so ago.  In our neck of the woods we had some hail damage and a scary night in the basement, but came out of it perfectly fine.  But this town lost everything in this area, as well as the lives of nine people.  I know other areas were hit as well, some much worse, this was just my first time seeing just how powerful those tornadoes were and it was a terrifying sight.  My heart goes out to all effected.  Let's keep them all in our thoughts....