Turning 8 so let's Bake!!

Grace and Laura turned 8 at the beginning of January and I really struggled with their party theme this year. Not knowing enough about the area, I decided to do this year's festivities at the house. We also had the dilemma of not knowing many girlfriends yet so we just invited those girls whose parent's I DID know.  We invited 6 girls but only 4 could come.  We made the best of it and I think the girls had fun decorating cupcakes and having a tea party with their friends and American Girl dolls.  I went Pinterest nuts and therefore was not able to move for two days afterwards from sheer exhaustion.  SO here are some pictures of that day:

My sweet Grace,
You continue to amaze me and I continue to fall more in love with you everyday.  You are still the little mother hen and have begun to take disciplining your siblings into your own hands which gets you into trouble. You like things a certain way and are learning to deal with the disappointment of imperfection:)  You are good at every sport you try but you are not overly competitive.  You have made so many friends already and it amazes me how many emails and phone calls I get to have you over for play dates. You and Laura continue to be close but you both have started to make your own friends and become competitive with each other when we have one friend over to play with the both of you.  You are a sweet and kind little girl and you have a heart for Jesus. I can see it in the questions you ask and the way you listen and respond to our Bible lessons and readings. You are so innocently bold about proclaiming Him. For instance you came home from school one day bothered that a boy in your class told you that he didn't believe in God. When I asked you what your response was you told me this:"How can you NOT believe in God? He is everywhere. He made the world!!"  I am sad that you are seeing this already but on the other hand, it has given us some really good conversations at home.  I love you so much and I pray you continue to grow in the grace and the love of Christ this coming year.

Love, Mommy

My darling  Laura,
You are your mother's daughter in so many ways but I have loved seeing your own personality come out even more this year. You are our peacemaker and the one who is first to give up a fought over toy or say you are sorry. You are so sweet to everyone and show no preference to anyone.  You love your younger siblings and have become more nurturing than last year.  You are my little shadow and love to help when I need something done.  You are a people pleaser and try so hard to make people like you. You have cried tears over not having a lot of friends here and I have cried for you. This year especially, I have started to see that as a mother your hurts are my hurts and I ache to make you feel better and for you to see how incredibly special you are. You are also good at sports but have no competitiveness in you at all which is so opposite of me but so much like your father.  You are becoming a beautiful young lady on the inside and out and are also asking hard spiritual questions like your sister. I love that you want to know more about Jesus and I love that you actually miss going to the BSF kids night program like we did last year. I see your willingness to hear about our heavenly Father and it makes me so happy. May this year bring you closer to Jesus and may you learn that He is your everything.

Love, Mommy