Elisabeth's Seventh Birthday

 Despite some challenging circumstances, we ended up having a great time celebrating Elisabeth's seventh birthday. Because of a COVID exposure at church a few days before her birthday, Matt and I made the tough decision to quarantine our family for several days surrounding her birthday and we had to reschedule her birthday party. She shed a few tears about it, but overall kept a great attitude, and everything worked out wonderfully in the end. She definitely was celebrated. 

For her birthday breakfast, she requested French toast. 

Her other main request for the day was to play Roblox with Nathan and Samuel. Matt set up the kids' computer for her, so they could all play together. 

For lunch we went to Sonic, which was a hit for all the kids. They kept asking why we don't go there more often, ha!

We had a family birthday dinner for our sweet seven year old. She asked for spaghetti carbonara and unicorn ice cream cake. 

After dinner, she opened her family presents. 

She asked for new sand baking tools for our upcoming trip,

Her big gift from me and daddy was a gymnastics panel mat. It's gotten plenty of use since she opened it!

I think she had a pretty great birthday.

When we got back from vacation, we were finally able to celebrate her with her gymnastics party. Our gym was very accommodating with our need to reschedule and all but one family was able to attend the new date (and several who were unable to attend her originally scheduled party were able to join us at the rescheduled party). It was stressful rearranging everything, and I was SO happy when party day arrived without any other disruptions. 

Elisabeth wanted to have her party at the gym where she and Samuel take gymnastics. We invited ALL her friends and had the most amazing party. It was so, so fun! The coaches who hosted the party were super fun and went over and above making sure everyone had fun. The kids got to play on all the equipment, participated in a couple of obstacle courses and played some games. They were worn out and sweaty after 90 minutes of hard playing. 

Elisabeth showed off all her tricks at the party, and I didn't have to stay in the parent viewing area, ha!

Now Katherine insists that she needs to take classes at Pride instead of Almighty. She had fun!

Samuel showed off his killer rings skills too!

Elisabeth is blessed with some really sweet friendships. I'm so thankful for all her friends and the families they represent. These kids are the best, and I'm thankful for each of them. Many of them have been friends since she was tiny.

After gym time, we headed back to the party room for cake. Elisabeth requested a cookie cake for her birthday with very detailed color and decorations. She helped me decorate it, and we were both proud of how it turned out. 

We finished off the party with presents. She got some great stuff and couldn't wait to get home and play with it all. 

I breathed a big sigh of relief once that party was over and smiled big at what fun memories we made celebrating our special girl's seventh birthday.

After the party, the Shondelmyers came over for dinner to continue celebrating and Elisabeth got a birthday sleepover with Kaydence. We party big over here, ha!

The girls had a fun night, and then came and asked if they could make their own scrambled eggs for breakfast. How did they get so big?!

Elisabeth graduated out of the preschool department at church, and the Sunday after her party was her first time to get to go upstairs to the kids' area for church. She and Kaydence were excited!

Elisabeth is a gift and a joy to our family. It's a privilege to get to celebrate her!