Erica Turns 7

Erica turned 7 on Friday. We started the morning off with pancakes, eggs, sausage and bacon. While Justin was cooking, Erica opened her presents. I took mostly video at this time. She got the 5th Dory Fantasmagory book, an activity book, lots of food and a pair of pink rollerblades.

While the kids were at school I worked on the frosting for her cake and baked the cookies. She has been talking for months that she wanted a giant cookie cake and I was all prepared to bake her a few giant chocolate chip cookies to stack with frosting. But a few weeks before she decided she wanted a few stacks of regular sized cookies. I had everything ready for her when she got home so that we could do the assembling together. This is what she came up with.

I think the candles she picked out really made it super cute. It looks like something from Dr. Seuss. 

No sooner had we finished up than her friends arrived for her party. This is Finley. She and Erica were in the same preschool and kindergarten class but the school boundaries changed in the summer and Finley got moved to Park. There were a lot of tears from both of them about that. So whenever we can get them together, it's a big deal.

First activity--wand making. I previously made wands with white cardboard and chopsticks. The girls put on jewels and tied them with ribbon.

Then they went downstairs to the "ballroom" and played keepie uppie with 60 balloons while dancing to music. At this point I left them to go prepare for the tea party and things got really loud which I think is a good sign.

For the tea party they ate grapes, carrots and ranch, cheetos and princess punch and pink sugar cookies for a treat.

Then it was presents time.

I took a picture of each of her friends but not with what they gave her. Lots of glitter, lots of animals, lots of cutsie girlie stuff.

(Back) Sadie, Marlie, June, Madison, Bell (front) Maddie, Finley, Erica, Mary

Sarah led them on a treasure hunt to a bouquet of chocolate roses. It was 4:37 at that point--they had blown through all those activities much faster than I planned. We don't throw a ton of birthday parties but that's never happened before! Sarah and I thought quickly and led them through games of musical chairs, statues, and the thimble game. I have to say I was a little relieved to see the first parents show up.

Once all the girls had gone, we loaded in the car and went to Beto's for dinner. Justin and I haven't been to Beto's since high school and we've never been together so it's been years. It's not a place we, as adults, consider good food. But we have this kid, Erica, who loves nachos and I remembered getting super nachos at Beto's as a teen and thinking they were the best thing ever, or at least impressively large. When I told Erica what supernachos had on them, she was all about it and chose it for her birthday. 

They weren't as good as I remember (is anything ever?) but she was in chip heaven. We may need to find a better place for supernachos because I think she'll want them again.

Then we went back home for birthday cake cookies.

Corey and Nadine gave her this motorcycle jacket and boots that Erica is obsessed with. "Now all I need is a motorcycle"

Here are a few things about Erica at 7. 

She just recently started reading chapter books independently. It's like something just clicked. It went from her requesting "will you read a page, and I'll read a page?" to me catching her reading an hour past bedtime. Iet h had to go back to the library just to ger more books. Her favorite books are the Dory Fantasmagory series (I think they are hilarious too) and The Princess in Black.

She wakes up last and plays the most with friends so she watches the least amount of TV. If she ever does get to actually choose what's on, she chooses Anastasia.

She still is my nicest kid. She picks up on the subtlest hint of a need and she hops up and helps. It's pretty amazing. Be like Erica.

She wants to take piano lessons and is on the waiting list with Sarah's teacher. In the meantime I've been teaching her little songs I remember learning as a kid (think chopsticks and that one you play by rocking your knuckles across the black keys). Sarah has been teaching her actual piano skills.

(I'm sad the following picture is blurry. We were walking and laughing at the end of our photo shoot and that's why it's blurry and her most natural smile. Sigh.)

She's still pretty sneaky when it comes to getting into Sarah's candy stash. James does it more but he learned it from her.

She has lost one tooth and the other one is loose too. Her friends at her party all seemed so much older because she's lost the least amount of teeth and has no grown-up teeth.

She wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. She has the compassion to do that or anything in medicine but she also has a super sensitive gag reflex so we'll see how that pans out.

She can be surprisingly super goofy. Most of the time she's just pleasant. There's a strong grumpy streak in her, especially in the morning or if she's kept up too late. But sometimes she is so obnoxiously goofy. It's usually when she and Henry play house with their stuffed animals or if they just get giggling about random stuff. I've had to separate them to get her to knock it off. 

When she was a baby, I never got tired of her. You know how when your baby wakes up from a nap and there's this feeling of wishing the baby would sleep just a little bit longer? I never felt that with her. She was so content and pleasant and fun that I was fine about it when she woke up.

 I still feel that way about her. I like having her around.