Madi's 7th Birthday!

My little girl turned 7!  SEVEN!
What a day she had.  She had been, of course, looking forward to her big day well, since her last birthday really.  A couple of months ago they had a school assembly for the "kite festible" and she came home SO  excited that the "kite festible" was on her birthday!  Our power company puts on the kite festival every year for the elementary school kids in the area, they read each day and keep track of their reading minutes and then get a free kite when they turn in their minutes.  We've never even been before, but our little bookworm was thrilled after the school assembly where they showed them kites.  She had a lot to look forward to on her big day...

Our traditional breakfast muffin...

So excited, I love this shot of her.

The "kite festible"! 

Madi chose a lady bug kite and Pierce chose a shark, they were so excited! We gave flying the kites a go, but we weren't very successful in the big crowd so we packed them up, got a snowcone and headed home to get ready for the big "friend party"!

Madi was so excited to have her friends over, especially since she didn't get a friend party last year. 
We did a Strawberry Shortcake themed party, the girls colored pictures and enjoyed strawberry lemonade and strawberry Twizzlers, then we played Pin the Hat on the Birthday Girl, "Strawberry, Strawberry Shortcake" and then it was pinata time!

Pierce was disappointed that the pinata didn't hold up for him to have a turn to hit, but the girls had a ball and they all enjoyed gathering up some goodies!

Present Time! She got so many fun gifts from her friends, here she is opening a favorite, American Girl books from Annie.

Such cute friends - Kassidy, Aubrey, Ava, Madi, Annie
Kinsey, Natalie, Laynee, Ashlynn and Brother

Cake Time! 

Love this face.  After cake and ice cream we watched Madi's new Strawberry Shortcake movie until the party was over.  Such a simple party and they loved it, success!

That night we went to Pizza Factory for her birthday dinner, we were excited to have The Woodburys and Grandma join us for a fun, yummy and bit chaotic dinner.  Here she is with her big 7 year old pizza.

Madi & Annie

After dinner Grandma came home with us and it was time for gifts from Mom & Dad, wahoo! 

Here she is opening her Strawberry Shortcake "Berry Bitty Market", she was so excited for this and I was so excited to finally give it to her! It's been hiding in my closet for a year and a half while I waited until she was improving on picking up toys before I gave it to her, it's still a struggle, but we've made progress.  I really wanted to give it to her before she completely outgrew it, glad she was able to be persuaded to have a Strawberry party.  She has loved playing with it and so does Jens.  He says "Strawberry"  and wants to play, I can't blame him, it's a really fun toy!
 

And for the finale, here she is opening her last gift in true Madi fashion,  notice her expression in the first picture, then the second.  She is opening a set of Beverly Cleary books, she was thrilled about it, (she is a fan of Ramona) but as she saw all of the titles, she looked up and me and said, "Really, Mom, Ralph?" Not as excited about Ralph.  I told her we could return it, but she decided to keep it.  We'll see if she eventually decides Ralph is worth her time.  She has been loving her Ramona books.

Oh our Madi girl.  She is a sweeter than sweet one minute, then meaner than mean the next.  Sometimes she pushes me to the brink of sanity, and sometimes she completely melts my heart. I want to remember and cherish the sweet moments she brings, here is a recent favorite...

Translation:
Verse 1
I love my Mommy
I love my Daddy
I love my little brother
I love my big brother
I love me

Verse 2
I love my uncles
I love my Grandma
I love my "ants"
I love my cousins
I love my Grandpa
I love my big big big big family

p.s. sing poem again if you forget it

So glad she loves her big big big big family.