Rease turns 8!

I can't believe I have a child this old!  Where have the past 8 years gone?  Rease my sweet oldest daughter is growing up and we loved celebrating her birthday!  It's the year for a friend birthday party so we got busy planning what kind of party she wanted.  Turns out, she wanted everything to be rainbow themed - so that's what we did!  

We had a bunch of her friends from school and the neighborhood over for games and cake and ice cream.  My wonderful friend Melissa came over to help me out with the houseful of 20 kids that came!  We played the balloon game, baby food hot potato (the kids' favorite), 3 legged races and wheelbarrow races.  The kids had a great time and it was easy and fun for me to plan it!

 Present time with so many kids is always a process.  But of course the birthday girl got lots of great gifts and had a blast opening everything.  I captured her reaction when she opened this favorite gift of hers - a kendama.  She has been wanting one for months and was super excited to get it!

Then it was cake time.  

Making a wish and hoping it comes true!

 This is the inside of the cake - rainbow just like she requested!

 The last gift she got that night was from me and Josh.  We waited to give it to her until he got home from work.  She has been needing a new bike and I found this darling cruiser with a basket and bell on it - she loved it!  Can't wait for all those summer days to come to ride all over the neighborhood!

Overall the party was a huge success.  And Rease continues to grow up and get more beautiful every day!

My favorite things about Rease at age 8:

1. Rease is my biggest helper around the house.  She loves to help feed, change and play with Baby Beck.  She has gotten into the routine of getting Beck up in the morning and getting his bottle for him so I can have a few more minutes of sleep.  She is so sweet to help me out!  She also has become really good at doing her chores around the house and it helps me out so much to have kids old enough to clean up!  

2. Rease is really really smart.  Her teacher at school is always telling us how impressed he is with Rease and how well she is able to catch onto new things.  Her favorite is math and she has a mind for getting it.  She learned all her addition, subtraction and multiplication and is working on her division to pass off before the end of the year.  Mr. Woolf said that no one else in the class has passed off multiplication and only a few have done both addition and subtraction!  What a smarty pants she is.  I hope she continues to love to learn!

3. Rease is the best oldest sibling.  While there are fights between the kids, of course, Rease is really such a great friend to each of her brothers and sister.  She is willing to help, comfort, love, boss, and just be a friend to each of them at separate times and I really love her for that.  Her and Rhen especially have a bond between them and do everything together.  They're friends with each other's friends and mostly they are best friends to each other.  Many nights they lay awake at night talking, reading, telling stories, laughing, joking or just being silly.  That's just the way it ought to be for sisters.

8 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:
Weight: 79.37 lbs - 94%
Height: 55.04 inches - 97%
BMI:18.4 - 85%

We love you Rease!  Happy Birthday!