8 is GREAT!

My sweet La-La is eight (September 1st!)! I can not believe how fast she is growing up! She is the most loving sweet child with a strong sincere desire to help others. I love my little lady!

La-La has been waiting very patiently for her big day. Unlike Jaco, Care Bear, and Justin, she loves surprises and would rather wait to open presents on her birthday. I am the same way! She woke up so excited and was thrilled to have her own special day!

We opened presents right away. She got 3 books, a movie, a butterfly shirt, cash from Granny & Papa and Grandma Ann, and a baptism book from Grandma & Grandpa Finch. For her big gift, I left clues for a scavenger hunt. After 8 clues, she found a brand new red wagon in the barn! She loves to haul things around and our other wagon bit the dust a while back. Our new house (more on that soon!) has tons of places to haul things to so she is in heaven!

Later that morning, we went to get her ears pierced. She has been asking for years to wear earrings so finally I decided she could do it on her 8th birthday! I had to be 14 but I didn't think she needed to that old. She was a little nervous but did so good!
She LOVES her sparkly earrings and looks so cute. When the lady who pierced them was marking where the holes should go, we discovered that La-La's ear lobes are different sizes! One is lower and bigger than the other. Not a huge difference but it was kind of funny that we had never noticed!

After La-La had *bling* added, we hit McD's for lunch. She ordered her usual hamburger with ketchup only, fries, and a soda. The kids played at the play place for a bit and then we headed home.

Before dinner, we went shopping so La-La could spend her $$$. She bought a baby that eats and poops and a new doll stroller. She loves babies and since I won't have another baby, she settled for a doll that acts like a baby but thankfully has an on and off switch!

Finally it was time for dinner: BBQ'd burgers, watermelon, and corn on the cob. YUM!

Then we had cake and ice-cream. I was so disappointed in the cake! As you probably know by now, the birthday cake is my favorite part of the day! I try to make a cake that shows what the person is in to at the time or I let them choose what cake they want. La-La loves swimming so I saw a cute idea for a pool cake.(what it was supposed to look like!)

It should have been easy but I messed up. You use blue jell-o for the pool water. I apparently did not let my jell-o set up enough. I poured the jello into the center and sat back to look at how cute it was. I was adding smarties to the sides when all of a sudden a small section of cake fell off and blue jell-o poured out the side!

I just sat there so shocked. It was 11:30 pm at this time. No time to start over besides the fact that I did not have another cake mix. I was sad and just hoped La-La would understand. I tried!

We bought cupcakes so she was happy and she did like the idea for the cake!

Happy Birthday to my favorite 8 year old! Love you even though you are trying to grow up way too fast for me! We can't wait to get her baptized but we are going to wait until November when Grandma and Grandpa Finch can come. Grandma is starting radiation treatment soon for her breast cancer (more on cancer update soon too!) so we will wait until she is done.