I thought it would be fun to do an “eight for eight” post with the eight best pictures of the day… but then I thought, “who am I kidding?!” I take way too many pictures and like to share them all. So, here is a look at Miss Eve’s 8th birthday.

My customary birthday display. The kids now come to expect them. I like to add my own gifts, but also little things from other people, like the cat card from Greg and Kathy, and the Happy Birthday note from the Kirkwoods. Lots of love for Eve from around the country.

Happy Birthday Eve!!

I got her some books, some science and craft idea kits, and an American Girl matching outfit. Lex got her a Lego Friends set.  She was pretty happy with all of it.

I love Lex’s look in this picture. :)

I tried several times today to get a nice picture of the two of us together. This one obviously didn’t work out.

This isn’t quite right either! :)

After school we had two friends over. I fed them all snack then we headed to the science museum!

I mostly like this picture. Great sunlight and color. However, where are Eve’s eyes?! Pictures with glasses are tough!

The museum has several great new exhibits! We had a great time!

Buddies.

Eve wanted to go to Panera Bread for her birthday dinner. I told her she could get a birthday treat and she chose a strawberry smoothie “all to myself!” Normally when she gets a smoothie the rest of us share it with her, but tonight she had one, with whipped cream, all to herself.

I really wanted a nice picture of us together so I finally recruited Alan to help. The back camera on my phone is much better than the front camera!

We all got a little silly.

Daddy wanted in on the picture too! :)

Happy Birthday to Eve! We are pretty lucky to have her in our lives!

The sleepover went well. I sent the girls to bed at 8:30pm and they continued to play and be wild. At 9pm I turned off the lights. The silliness continued (in part it was my fault because I provided them with glow sticks!) I was typing last nights blog post and wondering what to do next. What is proper sleepover protocol? Do I just let them stay up until they pass out? Do I insist on quiet? Separate them? Then I realized that it’s my house and I can do whatever the heck I want! I took away the glow sticks and reminded them it was sleeping time. Later I heard crying and discovered that Eve had bitten the one remaining glow stick in the room (bitten?!) and broke it. She had glow stick filling all over her hands, her PJs, her sleeping bag, and her mouth! Normally this would be a panic-inducing moment, but actually it happened once before so I did all the necessary panicking (and Googling) last time, so this time I was calm, cool, and collected. Secretly hoping that Eve’s tears would be the final straw before sleep. But nope, they rallied! :) Finally they fell asleep around 10:45 and I went to bed. Not to bad for a first sleepover.

I was hoping they’d sleep in a bit, but of course, nope! All three kids were up at 6:30am. Alan and I made it until 7:00. Not too bad, right?! :) I made rainbow pancakes and everyone just hung out.

Rainbow pancakes! Yum! 

This isn’t a very good crop and I can’t edit on the computer… and my phone is in the other room… so anyway, Eve and her Girl Scout friend loved the Wizard Of Id comic this morning.

Also this morning I got a text from a friend asking if I could watch her boys for a little while. Sure, I said, why not?! Eve’s friend left, and I had time for a quick shower before the boys came over. Fortunately my kiddos kept it together and played very nicely with the boys. They ended up staying for quite awhile and everyone had fun.

These two decided to start a “Save the animals” club and spent quite awhile making invitations for other friends and making info cards about endangered animals.

Save the Animals.

After everyone left (including Alan who went to the gym), the kids and I crashed. We had lunch and read some Percy Jackson until I fell asleep on the couch. Then the kids retired to their rooms for more reading.

I just want to take a million pictures of this beautiful girl laying in the sunshine.

She made a nest of blankets and read in the sunshine. I love this girl! I can’t believe she’s almost eight!

And so wraps up our first birthday celebration. One down, two to go. :)