HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRACIE-RAYNE!!

Today our sweet girl turned 7.  Where does the time go??  I didn't have a lot of time to plan a party this year, so we told her that we would just take her to Build-a-Bear and Justice to pick out an outfit and that would be her birthday party.  She was good with that, but didn't know we had a small surprise waiting.

First stop was the mall to Build-a-Bear.

Or in this case, a bunny.

Vi took one off the shelf already stuffed and we had to let her carry it around with her and pretend it was hers.  We didn't need any melt-downs until afterward.

Then we all kissed the heart and sang happy birthday to it.

Note the bears above Allan's head.  CUTE!

The girls washed and blow dried their animals.

Little man tried on the bears' duds...

...while big sister put her bunny's new duds on.

And she even got spoiled with the birthday cupcake especially for BAB.

And then we had the staff embarrass the crud out of her by gathering the whole store around and singing to her.  We had 2 other birthday kids in there while we were there, too.  June 15 is an awesome day to have a birthday!

While we were at Build-a-Bear, my battery light started blinking, so I had to choose the absolute best moments for a picture.  Here they are:

Since we told her she wasn't getting a party, we got a cookie at a bakery instead and shoved a candle in it and sang happy birthday again.  She loved her cookie and so did the little ones!

And then we went to Justice, where I thought she might be able to get a SHIRT with her $30 g/c, but everything she wanted was on sale, so she scored a shirt (complete with horse...as requested!) and pair of jammie pants, a cupcake pillow for birthday guests to sign, (unplanned, but worked out VERY well!) and a necklace with a couple of magnetic charms.  Since I got off scott free there (thank you Aunt Trish!) I got the kids a Jamba Juice to share. 

For dinner, "Chinese food" was requested.  I put that in quotation marks because her idea of Chinese is white rice, sweet & sour chicken without the sauce and little Chinese donuts.  HA!  But it made her very happy.  Then we had to get stealthy and head on over to church.

The kids went out to do their summer play-time thing and Livia and I got busy decorating for the horse party that was originally requested.  It was spur of the moment, but Livia made it look fantastic!  We have the neatest group of people at our church.  The kids usually have devotional after play-time, but tonight they came in and SURPRISED my girl.

She hid in that bucket when they first came in and everyone yelled SURPRISE! but she was so excited.

Everyone lined up around her and sang and it was great.  I couldn't have done any better if I had planned it in advance.

Can you see the cake?  I laughed when I went to order it because the horse is a Build-a-Bear horse.  I assure you, that irony did not escape the 7-year-old.

See the adorable table settings?  Livia has serious talent :)  She made it all up with stuff we had laying around the church, as usual.

And her balloon bouquet.  And that's all the pictures I got, but during the time everyone was eating cake and ice cream, my sweet girl ran up to me and gave me HUGE hugs about 5 times and kept saying "Thank you SO MUCH, Mommy!"  And she finally told me at the end of the night "This was the BEST birthday EVER!"  I've heard that every year she's been able to talk and I pray I keep hearing it every year from now on.

We love you, Gracie-Rayne.  You make our lives interesting and keep us laughing!  Thank you for your joy and your heart and your amazing ways of looking at life. <3