My baby is eight

Rachel had a birthday this week and I can't believe she turned eight!

I also can't believe how good her cake turned out :)  it was all her idea, I started asking her questions like to you want chocolate or yellow cake? square or round? we had it narrowed down to round, chocolate double-decker cake, with chocolate frosting, and then a couple days later she said maybe we could make it look like a baseball...and I thought to myself 'I think I could actually do that' lol.  Sam was out of town (in an actual city) so I called him to pick up a few things, including a red tube of frosting, instead he bought twizzlers pull-n-peels--which turned out great! they looked way better than the red gel frosting, and didn't smear or drip--even had the perfect 3-D effect to look like real laces.  And I didn't even drop it on the floor :)

Also--on the advice of my friend I did the cakes in springform (cheesecake) pans instead of round cake pans for easy removal  (I also lined the bottom of the pans with wax paper--which was awesome)

I let her go a little crazy with the guest list since this is her last birthday here.  There were about 16 kids  ranging in age from 3 -10.  It was a little crazy, but thankfully ended promptly after 2 hours, so I made it through :)  Rachel is such a well-behaved, easy-going, kid, we really aren't used to putting up with a house full of hyper, noisy, mischevious friends. 

 

Opening a card and some presents from Grandpa Lennie and Grandma Karla--

she (and all her friends) giggled when she read it--

It's your birthday

so shake your "wittle" tail feathers 

Nice choice Mom & Dad--mission accomplished :)

Here is a pic from her last day of school where they had a birthday/going away party for her.  She has been excited to move back to be near cousins, and grandparents, and friends...but on the second to last day of school she got pretty sad and realized how much she was going to miss her school, her teachers and her friends.   That night she made good-bye cards for every kid in her class.

They were all fighting to give her hugs all day long.  I know exactly what she is going through because I still remember crying because I was going to miss my best friend when I moved in the 1st grade.  Her situation is a little different than mine though because she has actually been to the same school for the past 3 years so she has more than one friend :)  She is such a friendly girl, every one knows her and is always saying hi in the hallways. Thankfully, I know she will make new friends quickly.

This is a picture from a recent field trip.  Love all the big grins--they all get super silly when a camera gets out and are in the stage where sneaking bunny ears on somone is hilarious! (and they don't even notice that while they are doing it to someone else, someone is doing it to them)  ha ha  gotcha :)