Another Birthday

Our first little one is no longer so little.  We celebrated her 7th birthday at the beginning January.  We don't have friend parties every year, but this year was a year to have one, so she chose to have a "pajama party" with several friends from school and church.  That's basically a sleep-over party without the sleep-over part.  We invited 10 girls, and all but one actually came.  It was a bit chaotic in our small space, but the girls seemed to have lots of fun, which is what's important!  Everyone wore their pajamas (including me).  The girls made their own little pizzas, then decorated pillow cases and watched a movie (Thumbelina, Lexi's current favorite in our home movie library).  After that we had the cake and ice cream and presents.  We were planning to paint fingernails, but I was feeling a little overwhelmed after the pillow decorating (which turned out to be a bigger project than I anticipated), so we skipped that.  Most of the girls were quite reluctant to leave, to I count that as a success.

The following day we had the family over to celebrate both Lexi & Uncle Chris' birthday- they are just 2 days apart.  Lexi chose to have spaghetti, garlic bread and salad for dinner.  And then we had another cake, lighting the candles twice (7 for Lexi and 26 for Chris) and sang twice.

Lexi's 7 year old birthday interview:

Favorites:

color: white
food: pizza
vegetable: zucchini 

drink: milk
school subject:  science 
thing to do: color
movie: Pocahontas
game: duck, duck, goose
book: Holly, the Christmas Fairy
restaurant: Five Guys
holiday:Christmas
animal: lioness

Tell me about your friends:
Um, Jeanelle's my favorite.  She loves penguins.  We don't really have that much time to play.  We always sit together.

What do you like to do when you’re not in school?
Watch TV, color, play with my zhu zhu pet.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A paleontologist

If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go?
Florida- because I really want to see Laura and we never get to see her in Florida.  And I want to go there.

What do you love about each person in our family?
Dad…he's friendly
Mom…she loves me
Ella.... that she lets me play with her

She is doing well in school and is one of the top readers in her first grade class.  She loves to go to school and is very proud of her 100% attendance achievements.  In fact, when I give her the option to stay home (for example, on a snowy day when school is still in session) she'd rather go to school so she can keep up her perfect attendance.  She is a wonderful helper in so many ways- preparing dinner, setting the table, taking down garbage/recycling, taking care of Ella, cleaning the bathroom (yes! she does that!).  She is obedient and follows rules.  She is a good little teacher, as well- teaching our family during Family Home Evening and teaching Ella all sorts of things and setting a good example.  She has boundless energy and loves to laugh and of course has the most amazing blue eyes.  She wants to be baptized next year when she turns eight, but is a little nervous about it.  Her fears have progressed from the fear of having to go under water to the fear of being watched by lots of people.  We love our sweet Alexis!