Eight is Great

On April 8th, this girl woke with a BIG smile on her pretty face.

We tried our best to have a fun breakfast before heading out for a busy day. 
Honey Buns did the trick!

That evening, we met our family for some seafood, at the birthday girls' request.  She tried crab cakes for the first time and then ordered popcorn shrimp for her entree.  Both were winners.

We were so thankful that most of the family could be there to celebrate our precious girl.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Lila Grace!

The next weekend, it was finally time for her party at PINSTACK.  She was able to invite her best girlfriends--a few from school and some from soccer.

Go Lila, go!

Cute Cousins

Note to self, if you ask the party host to take a photo, there's 100% chance that Cami will refuse to smile.  Womp, womp, womp...

After the kids had pizza, we brought out the cookie cake made just for the birthday girl.

While we were cutting the cake, we passed around this bowling pin and all the kids signed it--so cool!

Then we turned the kids loose in the arcade.

Everyone had a blast.  Cami is a pretty good race car driver...

and Madison is an excellent rock wall climber.

These girls loved the ropes course...

"Hi Reese!"

Turns out, this girl loves to race anything.  She loved snowmobiles, race cars and motorcycles.

In the meantime, the big girls were having a ball hanging out 15 feet above our heads!

"Hey Brooklyn!"

While most of the group went to do Laser Tag, Brooklyn and Cami did the glow-in-the-dark bumper cars.  They gave it two big thumbs up...

and then Cami moved on to pinball, which she was equally enthusiastic about!

The kids played for over almost three hours...

and the adults were able to enjoy some fun beverages from time to time.

Malee, Lila and Lauren joined Madison and Sydney on the rock wall and all of them made it to the top!

Jackson and Dominic were thoroughly entertained the entire night as well. 
I'm so thankful Dominic was able to make it to the party.

The girls had a ball with each other!

And the boys did, too.

We finally made it home around 8:00 that night.  Jared and I were worn out, but this kid was still going strong.  She loved all of her sweet gifts, especially this monogrammed beach towel.  Adorable!  So far, being eight really is so great.