SHE'S SEVEN!!

I cannot believe my oldest daughter is 7 now! How can I have been a mother for 7 whole years? And yet, how can it have been only 7? =) Marina was so cute today as she said that 7 was a special number because it was only one away from 8, when she'll be baptized. Ahhh.

But we've been busy lately. The SPED department at USU had a social last night, so my friend Alli and I grabbed my girls, had dinner together at Wendy's, then went bowling with the rest of the SPED crowd. Well, a lot of them anyway! You'd never guess the girls had just met Alli that afternoon, the way Jessie was running up to her (and all over her), and generally treating her like a long-lost favorite aunt. =) The girls were a little shy about meeting the kids of the professors who showed up (my professors have YOUNG kids! And only about one of the professors is relatively young.); but the girls really didn't have trouble talking to Ben, our head of department and killer instructor, since he was bowling on our lane with us. Fun stuff! And appropriately enough, Marina beat the socks off the rest of us in our group. Go birthday girl!

I let the kids sleep late today since they were up late bowling, and then I simply took them to school . . . and later picked up Marina after school since it was her birthday, she wanted me to, and I didn't have class today. I'm such a pushover sometimes! Ah well! Jessie and I had fun getting ice cream before we got Marina, and then they both had fun playing with Marina's little friend who came over to play. We just had a real simple party, with the girls grabbing a neighbor boy who was playing outside when it was cake time. And yet still, just playing party director was exhausting! Marina got the prettiest locket from my parents, and we were able to put in pictures of Jessie and me before the girls went down to their dad's tonight. Here's hoping they get to see their new baby cousins (twin boys) that their aunt just had this week!

And THAT concludes the saga of Marina's birthday. Now here comes Christmas! And Thanksgiving! (Grin!) Bring on the turkey!!