She's seven!

Well, gone are the days of the old Veronica. The throw-a-big-ole-party-for-every-single-kiddos'-birthday Momma.  It's just not do-able anymore now that I have three kids and a way smaller budget to work with.  It's taken me a long time to get used to the "new" me, in terms of birthday parties and how we celebrate but I'm coming to realize that the size of the party doesn't count so much as the memories made.  It doesn't have to be all about a fancy cake or matchy-matchy decorations (which I still happen to really LOVE) but just doing "something" to celebrate, even if it's small.  

This week Alyssa had two small celebrations to ring in her 7th year. One was a surprise party thrown for us on Sunday by my Dad and Step-Mom, and the other, one we celebrated on Monday--her actual birthday. Alyssa was spoiled with two birthday cakes when it was all said and done!

Alyssa and her cousin Tal

When asked what she wanted this year for her birthday she told everyone she wanted pens, markers, and notepads--"school type stuff"--and boy did she get what she asked for! I've been having a tough time this week trying to figure out where to put all the mini notepads, workbooks, markers and other little goodies! She was very blessed with lots of fun little things and I think it's safe to say we're set for a while in that department!

Since Lyss is all about school, I suggested that we go to the library on her actual birthday to get her her very own card. She was SO excited and couldn't wait! Our library is newer and I honestly hadn't really been there since probably when Audrey was a baby, so it was nice getting back there.

Alyssa is a such little bookworm, just like I used to be when I was a little girl and so getting her own library card was the greatest thing ever!

She picked out nine books to check out and proudly took them to the counter at check out time!

We didn't get to stay at the library too long due to a certain very curious and rambunctious two year old that shall be unnamed, lol, but we still had a fun memory making day. :)

That night, we had a few family members over for cake and ice cream, which was fun. Alyssa requested a carrot cake so that's what we had.  The cake will go down in the record books for being the plainest one I've EVER made, but that's okay.  The only person who honestly probably cared is me!

She had me put "Alyssa rocks!" on her cake!

It was a fun day, celebrating Alyssa turning seven and in all honestly, I'm in shock that I can now say my oldest is seven!  When I was a little girl, I always used to think it was silly when older people said how time would fly when you get older, but they were totally right!  You blink and you have yourself a seven year old. It truly goes by that fast!