Sydney's Birthday

Last Saturday my little girl turned 8 years old. 

(I can't believe I'm old enough to have an 8-year-old.) 

Wendell had the craziest work day, but we still managed to have a fun time. We did our usual breakfast (she requested blueberry waffles and bacon)  and presents in the morning. Then that afternoon I threw a little birthday party for her. We decided to do something small and simple since she is now 8 and also because we were giving her a big surprise for one of her presents...and I'll blog about that next.

Here she is with the few girls we invited over. We only invited 4, and 3 were able to come. It was perfect because our party was a scavenger hunt at the park and I wasn't going to have enough seatbelts if they all came!  lol. 

Here is Sydney with Jenny. They were partners for the scavenger hunt at the park.

They had a list of things to find, for example: "find something with holes in it", etc.

Lexi and Rylee(Sydney's BFF)

Sydney and Jenny won by finding at least something that could fit each description. I about died when they brought me two opened, and full, beer cans! Luckily they had actually found them empty and had filled them with water from the stream. Of course, I still thought it was gross and threw them out. 

When we got home, we had barely enough time to make our clay feather pens and do cake and ice cream. I love this cake decorating idea: blueberries (I had plenty left over from the waffles we made that morning) and almond slices.  Of course, nobody wanted to eat them, but they were fun to look at. 

Such a good one of her blowing out her candles....

Wendell was done around 5:30 or so, so we zipped over to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It was the busy time, so we waited for about a half hour before sitting and then waited some more for our food. They have really yummy BBQ and ribs, but there was one reason and one reason only for Sydney's request to go here:

She wanted to sit in the saddle!

We go to Texas Roadhouse a lot, and Ethan got to do it for his birthday, so she's been looking forward to her turn. Our waiter was super funny, too, so she really loved it. 

My Precious is such a grown-up 8-year-old sometimes. I think she shows a lot of maturity. She helps a lot around the house and with the boys and likes to be a little "mom" to them. And they love her. 

She LOVES to read, still. We went to the library the other day and she picked out 7 or 8 chapter books and read 2 of them in one day! She can't put a book down, just like her mother. 

Sydney loves nature and animals. She will make the most creative little things out of leaves and twigs. She collects EVERYTHING, which makes for a nightmare when cleaning her room. But she can't bear to throw things away - even garbage! She is taking after her daddy so much, too. She loves bacon about as much as he does and this morning she requested soup for breakfast....which is totally something Wendell would eat- and does eat for breakfast from time to time. 

I love Sydney's tendency to be happy and full of energy. She can't hardly sit still for anything and can always find something fun or weird to do to entertain herself (well, MOST of the time!)

Love you Precious!