Lily is 7!

Happy Birthday Lily!
Lily is 7 today and she is so excited to be another year older! I feel so blessed to have her not only as my daughter, but as my oldest. She is truly the best example to her younger brothers. I feel like she has made it so easy to learn what works and has given me confidence as a mother to challenge my kids. Learning the articles of faith, reading The Book of Mormon, learning to read, excelling in music, creatively playing, excelling in school, she is full of talent and hard work. She wants to do things right and to get it right and is willing to practice until she does. She is competitive and that drives her to try and do better. She loves helping with Liam and often plays with him while I'm trying to get some things done or do dinner and she even wanted to learn how to change his diaper. She will read to the boys or plays legos with them. She shares her Barbies with her cousins and is always thinking up fun scenarios. She loves exploring and playing and being adventurous. She loves learning and reading and is never far from a book.

This year she started The Book of Mormon and is in 2 Nephi. She has learned 8 articles of faith and continues to work on them. She read well over 30 hours this summer (that was how much we actually calculated at the library) and has read too many books to count. For fun she practices in math workbooks, she reads science and world fact books. She loves her dolls and stuffed friends and has a hard time deciding who to have on her bed. She loves playing make believe and is often a tour guide, college student, mother, sister, ninja, orphanage owner, or hairstylist. She loves sleeping in my bed when Jeff is gone, which I don't often let her do, but on occasion and she thinks it's so fun. She loves spending time alone with me or Jeff and I love it too. She learned to swim all four swim strokes and got the award for most improved swimmer. She works so hard. I have loved how she even helps me reach my goals. When I started a book group she was often checking on me to make sure I was reading and going to get my book read in time. If she came in and I was nursing but not reading, she'd chastise me a little. She is also so sensitive and when I am having a hard day she tells me things like "having four kids can be so hard sometimes. I understand. I bet that's hard." She is a good girl.

I love my sweet girl and will thank Heavenly Father over and over again for blessing our family to have her.

When Lily got on the bus I told her to have a great birthday and the bus driver heard. So before she got off the bus the driver had all the kids sing happy birthday to her. While at school she got a crown and I went to eat lunch with her and pass out donut holes for her treat. She really enjoyed that and it was fun to see her at school and talk to her teacher.

After school she started working right away on her Ninjago water strider lego and wanted her own space to do that. Ja and Laura's family came over for spaghetti dinner and dessert and the girls had fun playing. I had to go to a parent meeting for music class so a babysitter came over, but overall it was a great day and she felt celebrated. I have learned that no matter what, you need to do something special on the birthday. Even though we had her party on Saturday, I insisted she not open her lego until her birthday because I knew she'd be disappointed to not have anything to open and be excited about on her birthday.

Dropping donuts at lunch 

Excited for her water strider lego

Anna joining in on the lego fun

presents from Mama Baer

Playing at the children's museum. 

Ryan slept hard

Last Days of Summer

We tried to make our last week before school count. We had 98% totality with the eclipse from where we live. I was totally fine with that, but after hearing about how amazing 100% totality was, I regret not driving a couple hours to see it. But, you live and learn and hopefully I can go to the next one. It was neat being able to look up at the sun and see how the shape changed as different parts of the moon creeped in. What an awesome experience! And Jeff was able to see from where he was in Toledo. He didn't have as much coverage as us, but it was still neat. Family in Kansas City, Nashville, and Knoxville all got totality, so I was very happy for them!

Macy and Anna played over here a couple days since they had been gone for two weeks to Utah. The girls picked up right where they left off and had such a great time. They play better than any friends (and Lily has had some good friends to play with), so we feel very blessed. Ja and Laura credit Lily with teaching them how to play with their dolls.

We went on a very nice nature walk to Buzzard and Wash Rock at Latta Plantation. I really, really love going on walks there. Lily wore her school uniform from last year because she said nature guides wear uniforms. She held the map and acted as guide. While walking she was asking how old my kids are and their names. Ryan and Max ran off and she said, "your kids like to run! Those cuties. How old is your little one?" Then Ryan tried to hit her later because she had a stick he wanted. I told him not to hit our guide. Lily said, "it's okay, I have little brothers so I'm used to it." She was a pretty cute little guide and she had fun pretending to be 25 years old on her first job after college. The boys were calling her Miss Lily. Max almost called her Lily, but then corrected himself and said Miss Lily. He then told us to start calling him Maxton and not Max. That only lasted until the evening though when we went bike riding and then he was Jay from Ninjago. He is always Jay when he rides his balance bike.

Sleepover in the tents

 We went swimming with friends and to the Discovery Science Museum. Last time we went it was so crowded, but this time hardly anyone was there so it was awesome! The kids were very cute and so interested in everything. Liam was perfect and slept or just hung out the whole time in the ergo.

Creep dead octopus

Ripley's believe it or not 

Bed of nails

 Lily was so excited for Back to School night to finally meet her teacher and see her class. Ms. Cox is new to the school but seems very nice and it relieved a lot of anxiety for all of us to drop off school supplies and be back at the school. The boys were pretty crazy and I was just relieved to make it out of there. Since Max has been practicing his letters, Ryan was trying to quiz him with the letters in Lily's room. Max wasn't interested in doing that though so Ryan got pretty upset. Then when I had to fill stuff out on the computer Max messed up the screen. But we did it!

We went on a nature walk with Laura and co afterward. We were going to be a bit late so I told Laura to go ahead. But Macy said she was training to be a guide so she couldn't go without her boss.

\

Lily helped Ryan with his primary talk

A sweet Max hug

Jeff got home Friday night late and I was just making it through the week, so we had to prep Lily's party Saturday morning and it felt a little rushed. But we all worked together to get it done! I stayed up late and worked in the morning getting her Troll headbands ready and flowers made, Jeff worked on streamers and balloons and printing off bingo cards, and somehow it all came together. This was a lot less crazy than Ryan's party because there were less people and the kids were older, but since it involved art projects it was more messy and involved. But the kids all had a great time and Lily loved having them over and their presents. Jeff and I decided that parties are a lot of work and we don't think we will be doing them every year. But when all was said and done I did enjoy doing the prep with the kids and executing the ideas. Lily was involved in all the ideas and went shopping with me for the materials. While at Hobby Lobby with just Liam and Lily I mentioned how different it was shopping without the boys. She said, "yes, it's so pleasant." I had to agree with her.


After her party, she had a little break then went to Anna's party since it was Anna's actual birthday. That was a Barbie theme and they had a fashion show and Lily said it was a lot of fun. We then went over to their house for dinner and playtime. It's fun having family so close!

Cute, chunky Liam

A new backpack for her birthday 

Finished Troll headbands

Anna and Macy with a Star Wars shirt and legos

Claire Campbell

Esther Erdmann

Following clues to the treasure

Trolls bingo