Gracie’s 7th Birthday!

We started the day off with our traditional “Happy Birthday” singing family alarm clock.  We expected Gracie to be awake just waiting for us to come in {since the night before she had talked about how hard it was going to be to stay in bed} but much to our surprise…

She was still snoozing away!

This picture cracks me up!  It’s like she forgot what day it was and all she can think is “what is wrong with you people”…HA!

Oh yah…IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

  Seven Birthday Kisses From Daddy!!!

Happy Birthday Sissy!

Time to head downstairs for…

PRESENTS!!!

  

 

Time for Gracie’s big gift from Mommy, Daddy & Gwynie!

 

It’s her very first…

American Girl Doll!!!

{She had never shown much interest in them before now, but around Christmas time we went to the American Girl Store to get a Christmas gift from a friend…that place is a little girl’s dream…she was hooked!}

Gwynie got here some Heely’s for her Doll!

I couldn’t resist this little Softball outfit…it’s just too cute!

Nana & Paw Paw got in town just before lunch and that meant it was time for more presents!

 

Gracie got to choose which restaurant we would go to for her birthday lunch.  She originally pick Gattitown, but since she was having pizza at her birthday party the next day she decided to go to her new favorite place…

  The girls are loving this place.  I will take it over Gattitown ANY DAY!!!

So after lunch it was time for Gracie & Nana to make her birthday cake.  I have so many pictures of them making the cake together that I decided to make it a separate post.  You can read all about the cake HERE.

After a full day of fun we had one last stop for dinner.  The adults got to pick this time and we chose Mexican food.  About half way through the dinner Lance told the waiter that it was Gracie’s birthday {in Spanish, which was pretty sneaky because he didn’t even have to make an excuse to leave the table because she had know idea was he was saying}. After we had finished dinner we were waiting about for the birthday song when all the waiters came out of the kitchen shouting and singing.  They walked by our table and Gracie just froze!  She was beyond embarrassed.  But then they just kept walking to the table behind us where another person was celebrating a birthday.  She was relieved and said she was glad she didn’t have to wear that giant sombrero {just wait little one}.  So when the waiters came out of the kitchen again a few minutes later she knew exactly who it was for!!!

Feliz Cumpleanos, Gracie!!

I think Gracie had a great 7th birthday!  I can’t believe I have a seven year old, crazy!

Gracie’s Birthday Lunch At School

Starting in Kindergarten (just last year) we began a fun tradition of eating lunch with Gracie at school on her birthday.  Her birthday was on Saturday this year but we went ahead and brought her lunch on Friday to celebrate.  Her lunch request was Chick-Fil-A…Chicken Nuggets with BBQ sauce, French Fries and a Root Beer, to be exact.

At Gracie’s school, when you have a guest come to eat lunch with you, you get to choose a classmate to sit with you.  Gracie had known which of her friends she was going to ask for some time now.  Turns out that her friend’s mom ended up coming to eat lunch with her too so she had to choose a different classmate.  She chose a little boy that she knew wasn’t going to be able to come to her birthday party…I thought that was sweet!

We ended our time together with some Book Fair shopping!  She also got to bring cupcakes to school to share with her class as a special birthday snack.  I think she had one cool school birthday celebration!

Gracie’s Spring Softball Pictures 2010

Gracie’s softball pictures came in the mail today!

She looks so cute! She really LOVES softball and I think you can see that in her smile! You can’t tell in the pictures but it was SUPER windy that day!  The photographers did a great job making the wind work in their favor.

 Go Tigers!!!

Okay…just before I went to publish this blog post I came across a slight problem with the picture.  Notice anything funny about the title?  They misspelled softball.  I guess I will call the photographer, hopefully they won’t mind printing a new picture.  For their sake I hope this is just a one team error.  It would hate for them to have to reprint all the other softball team’s pictures too.

‘Love Your Neighbor As Yourself’ Monday

This past Friday, my family and I attended The Rock & Worship Roadshow.  The concert was awesome!  During the concert Bart from MercyMe took some time to discuss the charity that the The Rock & Worship Roadshow is supporting and asks those that attend the concert to support also.  This weeks installment of ‘Love Your Neighbor As Yourself’ is dedicated to:

Compassion International – Rock The Cradle

You can read here how the lead singer from MercyMe, Bart Milliard, was inspired by his son to help children with medical needs.

Compassion International is a non-profit organization whose mission statement is “Releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name”. In response to the Great Commission, Compassion International exists as an advocate for children, to release them from their spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enable them to become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults.  I strongly encourage you to visit their website as it is overflowing with information.  You can learn how Compassion International works, where they work, their programs, their AIDS Initiative and their Malaria Intervention.

This year Compassion is starting a new program called the Child Survival Program.  This program aims to help pregnant mothers and young children until they reach the age of 5 when they are old enough to enter in to the traditional sponsorship program.

“Nearly 25,000 children under age 5 die every day, mostly from preventable diseases.”  To prevent these diseases pregnant mothers and infants are provided with prenatal care, access to assisted births, health screening, nutritious food and supplements, and the loving embrace of a Christ-centered church. 

How we can help Compassion serve our neighbors:

*Keep Compassion International in Your Prayers

*Keep Our Neighbors That Have, That Are And That Will Be Helped By Compassion International in Your Prayers

*Financially Support The Child Survival Program

*Sponsor A Child

*Tell Others About The Child Sponsorship Program

*Follow Compassion International’s Blog

*Follow Compassion International On Facebook

If you have any questions about Compassion International or ways we can serve our neighbors in love, please leave a comment to this post and I will do my best to answer your questions and get your the information/resources you may need. God’s Peace.

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself.”  ~Galatians 5:13-14 NIV

Lance’s Softball Tournament

Today Lance had a industry softball tournament.  It was an all day thing so the girls and I decided to go watch him play a couple of games.  We loaded up the car {had to take so much stuff because the weather was pretty unpredictable…gotta love Spring in Texas} and headed down into Dallas.  He ended up playing 5 straight games and they went undefeated and won the tournament!!!  We stayed and watched to first two games, here are a few the highlights:

Saying Hi to Daddy!

Out!

Out!

Trying to grab a WAY overthrown ball. Not an out…but impressive!

Gracie giving Gwynie a mini softball lesson!

  

They had a couple short breaks between the games. After the first game one of Lance’s coworkers remembered that he had a plastic bat & ball in his bag.  He was sweet enough to get them out for the girls and they had a blast!

 

Just look at that face…she means business!!

After we watched Lance play his second game he used his break time to walk us back out to our car.  On the way the girls spotted the trophy that would go to the tournament champions.  They thought it was just the coolest trophy they had ever seen and wanted to take their picture with it! 

 

At the time the blogger in me REALLY wanted to get a picture of Lance & the girls with the trophy but I didn’t want to jinx anything so I don’t have one.  When Lance got home that afternoon they were so excited to find out that Daddy’s team had won the trophy!  They kept asking where his trophy was and why he didn’t bring it home.  He tried to explain that the trophy was going to be put on display at his office because the whole team won the trophy, not just him.  Not easy for kiddos to wrap their heads around.  Ha!

It was a really neat day and the atmosphere of the tournament was so fun and laid back. Five games in a row would have been a bit much for the girls, but I am glad that we got to see two of their wins.

Congratulations Daddy & Denbury Resources!