Brynn's 7th birthday

Brynn turned 7 on March 7th!  She made sure everyone knew it was her "golden" birthday...turning 7 on the 7th doesn't happen all the time.  Even more amazing is that she is #7 in her class, which she also made sure everyone knew.  It was a very special day and I don't think she stopped smiling even once!

French Toast has become the birthday tradition around here, for the kids at least.  Added sprinkles makes it extra fancy for the birthday girl!

Ivy and I ran our errands (library and store) and then we went to Pizza Hut to pick up a free personal pizza for Brynn that she earned for reading.  We grabbed Justin and then surprised Brynn with her pizza and stayed to eat lunch with her at school.  We have never done this before but I guess we should have done it with the other kids because they all eventually came over to eat with us.

Ivy and I ran home for a little bit but we ended up back at the school to share a birthday treat with Brynn's class (Laffy Taffy's-her choice) and read her favorite book (she picked The Princess in Black and we read the first few chapters).  We also got to watch her play Heads Down, Thumbs Up which is what her class does on birthdays and was a total throwback for me.

After school, we had a few things we had to do-piano, homework, etc.  When Justin got home we were able to party.  She hunted for her gifts-she got her favorite treats (chocolate bars, skittles, and gum), a ceramic tea set, and a mermaid tail for the pool (those were here requests).

Justin had Young Men's so we had to have a quick dinner.  I was so happy when Brynn requested grilled hot dogs, french fries, and strawberries and blueberries.  Super easy!

Her request for a birthday cake was pink and purple-just like last year.  I tried to make it a little different but she's so easy to please.

After dinner she opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa Goodrich-sugar cereal (Lucky Charms-she kept them in her closet and took a month to eat the whole box), her 7-year-old doll, and a smart watch.

The next day, I checked her out of school a little early and took her to Park City to go birthday shopping with my mom and dad.  She is so fun to shop with and picked out some cute things that suit her personality just great.  She was dying to pick out some high heels but I nixed that idea and made her pick out some Nike's instead.  Practicality over style, that's me.  When she picked everything out, my parents came to our house for a couple of other presents-a new dress and a matching one for her doll and a beauty caddy for her doll.  My mom also bought her an umbrella when she was getting clothes at Old Navy and that could have possibly been her favorite thing of all!

I took a picture of her in one of her new outfits before she went to school the next day.  At the beginning of her birthday week, I had everyone give me one word to describe Brynn and we put them on the letterboard for the week.  Brynn really is spunky, nice, happy, loving, and crazy!

Brynn got to have a friend party this year so we had one on Saturday afternoon.  We decided to have a doll tea party and have her guests bring their dolls.  We didn't actually do a lot with the dolls but it was fun to have everyone bring them anyway.  Brynn planned the whole party-I helped with some suggestions but a lot of it was her.  She invited Grace Moyes, Tessa and Harper Walker, Marianne Freeman (from school), and Taylee Baird (her very best friend from Old Mill last year).  She also invited Addy Starks (ended up being sick), Audrey Stout (already had tickets to Disney on Ice), Evie Goodrich (Eric and Heidi were out of town and they were being baby-sat by a grandma) and Keslee Crystal (who didn't come but we don't know why).  It was a small group but that was okay with Brynn.  My dad was so nice to drive the three cousins up that morning.  Brynn looked adorable in her new dress from Grandma!

She wanted to start out with the actual tea party.  We had the guests arrive at noon and we had the table all set for "tea."  We had popcorn for the appetizer.  Our main course was sandwiches-peanut butter and jelly, plain jelly, and nutella.  I cut them in half and then fourths.  We also had mini lemon muffins (that I bought at the store), cucumbers and ranch, blueberry and marshmallow mini kabobs (alternated and threaded them on toothpicks), and strawberries with whipped cream.  We had pink Crystal Light to drink.  For dessert we had wafer cookies and cake pops.  I decorated the tables with fake flowers from the dollar store, balloons, and the cake pops.

Harper Walker, Marianne Freeman, Ivy, Stockton, Molly, Taylee Baird, Grace Moyes, Tessa Walker, Brynn

The first activity that Brynn wanted to do was to decorate fans.  I just bought a 12-pack for really cheap on Amazon and let them color them with markers.  The girls really loved the fans!

Then she opened presents.  She got a Little Live bird, some bead pets and a friendship necklace, some coloring books and markers, and a candy bar poster.

Taylee and Brynn

Grace and Brynn

Brynn and Mari

Harper, Brynn, Tessa

After presents we had a dance party.

Stockton, Taylee, Tessa, Grace, Brynn, Mari

Brynn wanted to play the dice/unwrapping game (does it have a name?) where you hide wrapped presents in a big bag of newspaper, pass around two dice and if you get doubles you get to unwrap the present.  If you finish unwrapping it before someone else rolls doubles, you get to keep the present.  I only had three presents in there and some of the girls were sad they didn't get a prize.  I should have thought that one out a little more and had a prize in there for everyone.

Tessa, Stockton, Harper, Grace, Taylee, Brynn, Ivy, Molly, Mari

They got over it and were excited to move onto the next activity-a doll fashion show.  They went in Brynn's room and then had to walk out to the rug and spin and bow like they were in a fashion show.  They were all very timid and shy about this part!

Tessa, Ivy, Taylee, Brynn, Harper, Mari, Grace

After that we decorated popsicle-stick frames.  I had already put them together and was going to have them paint them-I had even bought new paints for the occasion.  Then I thought how messy that would be and so we did markers instead.  I also had some gems they could glue onto their frames.

Molly, Stockton, Taylee, Grace, Tessa, Brynn, Harper, Mari, Ivy

Then we had a dress-up photo booth.  I decorated the laundry door and got out anything I thought they would like to dress-up in.  Then I took pictures of them with their dolls.  The idea was to put the pictures in the frames they decorated.

Tessa, Grace, Brynn

Last, but not least, was cupcakes.  We kept it super simple with funfetti cupcakes and pink frosting.

The party was over after that and we had it timed perfectly because the mom's started picking up-well, there were only two.  Grace, Harper, and Tessa got to stay and play for a couple of hours before I put those three along with Brynn and Ivy in the car to head down to Salt Lake.  My mom had bought Disney on Ice tickets for the younger girls.  We met at Crown Burger for dinner before heading over to the arena for the show.  The girls loved it and it was the cherry on top of a fabulous birthday week for Brynn!

Grace, Tessa, Brynn

Ivy and Grandma Kay