Bella Turns 7

Bella turned 7 on June 16th. 

Originally we were going to have her party that night, but moved it to Friday so that I could get everything ready and really enjoy it. 

But on her actual birthday we did give her some gifts...

 She had just woken up and put on her school uniform, hence the unkempt hair.
She is sporting her new 'Elsa' shoes or 'blue sparkly clickety clack' shoes. She asked for these and loves them.

She also said she would like a new doctor kit. She has always said she wants to be a doctor...that is until she was grossed out by dissecting owl pellets. She then wanted to be a nurse. But she goes back and forth so we found a kit made of wood that has things she doesn't yet have, including a real stethoscope, mask, and some iv bags.

She looks ready for her rounds:

We stopped for pancake breakfast

 Sophia made a joke...(and had a raging eye infection and high viral fever following that)

After local school I said: 'no homeschool'!

 And all the kids enjoyed the kit...Tobin dug into the dental part and wanted to pull some teeth.

Nurse Sophia started an i.v. on the patient Gabrielle

 Then the doc came to check her out.

 She did have a heart beat.

Daddy came home for a quick lunch and was the next patient
he is wincing from the shot he is about to get.  I actually passed out on them :).

 And then the Friday night party. She invited her row from class, the kids she plays with the most.
And then added two more at the last minute. Only one of the invited boys came and he lives in our complex and comes over all of the time anyway. It was still a big crowd, including her teacher. I love it when teachers come to our house so they get a sense of what we are about. We do ask for special treatment in some ways (only go in the afternoon, not doing all the homework for every subject, getting homework prepared beforehand if possible, not staying all semester, coming in late during a semester). When they come to our house they see we are intentional about their education and them loving where they live.

The front yard started filling up! The swings are always a hit.

 The cake. Bella wanted a cake with Ariel on it. She also wanted a chocolate eclair cake (layers of vanilla pudding/whipped cream and graham crackers topped with chocolate icing). She had no idea I was going to try to make a real ocean for Ariel to swim in.

 We ordered blue jello off of TaoBao and let it set a bit before putting it on the ocean side. The sand is graham cracker crumbs. Gummy bears are sunning on some gum towels, a few are swimming in their floaties. I let Bella tell me where to put everything and what she wanted to do, this was super fun for her!

 chocolate rocks surrounded the cake.
Here she is, growing up fast.

Before the cake we played musical chairs, after the cake they went outside to play hide-n-go-seek in our neighborhood. 

The friends all had a lot of fun and some didn't leave until close to 9 p.m.!

We were so thankful it wasn't raining and that everyone was mostly well for the party.

We all had a blast.

Bella is big brown-eyed beauty of girl who loves to giggle, play jokes, tumble and do gymnastics. She loves to draw and play games and HATES any scary part of a movie so she just avoids them altogether (even cartoon movies). She has some good friends at school, loves dance class, and loves being at home close to mommy and daddy. She recently said she would just marry Tobin and live with us the rest of her life. 

Though she seems to go through life at her own pace (slow at times), she is a thorough and hard-working student who excels. She is a peacemaker and go-with-the-flow kind of gal whom we adore.