THE Birthday

So as I said, we didn't have parties for the girls, but Brooke still got to do a little celebrating besides SeaWorld. First, on Monday, we had her opening ceremonies at Softball. Basically they call all the teams out to run the bases, calling each player by name. They had the high school team there as well as the Aggie team. ..... Ugh. Ok...lemme back up a little more. Over the weekend (on Sunday) Brooke got to go to an Aggie Softball game free of charge. It was Youth Softball day and she got to watch the game (which was exciting I heard! - Brad took her) and then after the game they called all the Youth out to play games with the Aggies, get a signed ball, poster and more. She had a lot of fun! And got to see a full game played out.

(after the game, playing games w the players)

Brooke is in pink - #4 - below, holding hands with the other girl in pink (our coach's daughter, apparently they've made fast friends as of late)....

So, then Monday, back to Opening Ceremonies. Where was I? Oh yes... so they had the local high school teams there and the Aggie Softball team there. Brooke thought she was super cool b/c she recognized some of the players now. Anyway, they called each team out, calling the players names out and paraded around the field.

Then if they weren't playing they got to go have a free hot dog and drinks and go home. So we booked it to bible study to try to make it in time for a little celebrating there, where she got a chocolate cake and a few presents. :)

Tuesday morning (her actual birthday) she woke up to a bed full of balloons. (this would be sleepy Brooke ;)....

Then went to have her ceremonial donut cake breakfast. We've been teasing her that at 7, we start actually going/counting backwards on birthdays, so she did not think it was funny when I put a 5 on her 'cake' instead of a 7. LOL

Real candles next and making a wish.

And I had to include this picture of Brenna I captured... of her giving Daddy the mean look after he tried to sneak a drink of HER milk. Haha! Priceless.

We got a Brooke a few small things that she had been seeing around wanting. So she got to open those up before school too. And I made the charm bracelet for her with special charms significant to her. Well.... I didn't MAKE the charms of course. But I put it all together, adding in the clips and jump rings, etc. There's a #7, piano, softball and glove, a cross, a big sister, a family charm, and a dolphin (for SeaWorld).

Then later in the day, I took cupcakes up to her school, where they sang to her, spun her around in the birthday chair 7 times and she got to pick a prize. Then she handed out the cupcakes (and Brenna did the napkins..haha). The only bad part was that HER teacher was helping with the STAAR test so she couldn't be there. :-(

After school, we had to go fast, doing homework in the car, to make it to Brenna's school for her Open House Night. Which, oddly enough, wasn't at night, but whatever. However, just as we were pulling in the parking lot, my phone rang with a tiny little voice asking to speak to Brooke. I handed her the phone, knowing it was her BFF that had moved away a couple of years ago (gosh! Has it been that long?). It was so cute to hear the one sided conversation and Brooke was excited to get to talk to her again.

We waited and let her talk for a bit but finally went in to Brenna's school and she showed us a few things she's been doing. She wouldn't show me any 'hard' jobs though, but Brooke liked seeing the 'new school' and Brenna liked showing Brooke how they do things now.

First, here is Brenna's..... "MOMMY! I do NOT need your help! Back off!" look...

(that's Brooke's big fat Nancy Drew book next to her on the table in the below picture. Huge book...she'll read in a few hours.)...

Then, straight from Brenna's school we had to go home, let Brooke change into softball gear and race to the softball fields for her first game! (No, we hadn't even eaten dinner at this point yet!) All the girls played really well. They were all hitting the ball from a pitcher (not a tee) and getting on base and scoring! Each 'inning' they actually scored more than they got out so they switch sides after the girls got 5 runs. The Americans (Brooke's team) did end up winning, which is great, but more importantly all the girls did well and had fun!

getting her first hit...

making it to 1st base..

and scoring!

And afterwards, I brought some cookies and juice to share the accomplishment of a great game and to celebrate Brooke's birthday one last time.

Finally at 8pm, we headed home with a pizza to go for dinner. Whew! It was a long but superfun day. And who am I kidding... all of our days are like this now. And probably will only get worse from here on out with the new job and more activities lined up. But overall, I think Brooke had a fantastic birthday! And she's still not done. Her Grandma is going to be taking her to pick out a watch for her bday present (something she asked for) and taking her out to dinner and then her other grandparents are coming up for the weekend to see a softball game and celebrate a little more. What more could a 7 year old ask for in life? :)