Celebrating Seven

I know it's incredibly hard to believe, but my baby girl turns 7 on Thanksgiving this year:

We celebrated with her friends the weekend before, with a Pancakes and Pajamas party!

It was incredibly fun to decorate and plan for this little shindig. We asked all the girls to arrive in their cutest jammies, ready to eat a pancake breakfast.

Everyone got to "decorate" their own pancakes with different toppings. The chocolate chips and whipped cream were definitely the most popular!

Then they got right to work making bracelets.

I had a friend from church come over to help me with the party, and one of the other moms stayed for a while, too. But 7-year-olds are fairly independent! They did some coloring (design your own pajamas, of course) and lots of playing and giggling and screaming in a mass of pink controlled chaos.

When it was time for presents, it was so sweet to see Lauren with all her little friends gathered around her.

I am thankful that she still loves getting princess toys and stuffed animals, along with lots of books and art supplies.

A group shot with all the party girls:

Daddy and Jon were banished for most of the girl party, but came home just in time for the pinata.

Amazingly, it didn't open until the very last string was pulled. Then it was a mad dash for the candy!

Time for cupcakes, and singing happy birthday to my sweetie.

It was a delightful, exhausting, fun party, and--most importantly--Lauren had a blast. She was actually sick on the days leading up to the party, and we came very close to cancelling, but I'm so thankful it was able to happen!

Lauren had an extra little celebration at school, too, on the day before Thanksgiving break. We brought cake pops to share with the class--my first attempt!

Lauren has an excellent teacher, and in her class it is a tradition for the birthday person to bring a book as a gift to the class. Lauren got to unwrap her book and then answer some "birthday questions." :)

Since it was the day before break, Lauren's birthday celebration coincided with the class Thanksgiving party. That meant Jon and I got to be there, and we got a picture of her whole class together with their turkey crafts.

Two birthday parties and she wasn't even officially 7 yet! Oh, and speaking of birthdays, someone else had one in between all of Lauren's celebrations... :)