WHAT?!? YOU'RE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO BE 8!!

Somehow, a certain young lady in our household insisted on turning 8 yrs old!  The audacity!  I'm quite certain we just brought her home from the hospital last week.  She MUST be mistaken.  I suppose I'll just have to go along with it and throw her a really fun birthday party.  Having just had a baby, I just didn't have the energy to clean, plan games, etc and then just have to clean it all up again anyway so I opted for the simple way out.  We had a Blast Off! party!  It's basically a huge room of playground toys and ball pits.  The girls played for about 1 1/2 hrs then we drove back to our house for yummy cake, ice cream and presents.

 Since we had her party on Friday (side effect of constantly having a Conference weekend birthday) we celebrated again on her actual birthday.  She got to pick the birthday dinner and she picked an IHOP pancake.

I didn't take many pictures. Sad, I know.  But she seemed to have a lot of fun and LOVES the gift Israel & I picked out for her (mostly Iz), a REAL purse, all her own.

Now a few fun facts about Maggie:
1.  Maggie LOVES PINK!  Anything and everything should be pink! She will even go to school in a completely pink outfit, socks included.
2.  Maggie wears her heart on her sleeve.  If she's feeling it, you're knowing it!  She is who she is wherever she is.
3.  Maggie loves to READ.  Bedtime is 8:30pm and I will oftentimes find her still reading quietly in her room at 10pm.  Most nights she is found with 6-10 books draped around her bed.  She's currently reading "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
4.  Maggie has a love hate relationship with Math.  She loves to learn new things (especially fractions) but hates to do her work.  And she'd pick Science Camp over sports every day of the week.
5.  Maggie has an enormous enthusiasm about things she's passionate about and has the BEST giggle out there, she'll share it freely with all. 
6.  Maggie can create and imagine more than anyone I know.  She is in a constant state of story line development for whatever need might arise.
7.  Maggie LOVES to plan.  She can plan a party in 2 minutes flat and be in full swing of preparation all the while the rest of us are still considering whether or not we should throw one.
8.  Maggie is very forgiving, which I'm eternally grateful for since I know I'm not the perfect mother and make mistakes all the time. 


I know it's not always sunshine and rainbows parenting Maggie, but I wouldn't give up my time with her for the world.  She stretches me in ways I could never have imagined and teaches me everyday how to be a better person.  She has so much love to give and share with the world.  We're so glad we're blessed to have her in our family.