Alyssa is 8

Alyssa had a birthday yesterday and is now 8 years old. She is so beautiful. I can't believe she is getting so big so fast. I have enjoyed every second of her life. Even the bad times because they have made her and me stronger. We had a party at the park. She only invited girls to her party because she didn't want any boys there. There were a few boys that came and one that was okayed. She was so worried that nobody was going to come but she really had a perfect turn out, at least for her mama! Not a LOT of kids but enough to satisfy her. Here are some pictures of the fun that we had throughout the day.

My three beautiful girls before the party started. Alyssa was so cute. She kept asking, "When are my guests going to arrive?" What 8 year old talks like that? I guess my daughter does! We got there an hour before the party was supposed to start so I would be ready before everybody got there. Well, that was a little much because it took me about a half hour to set up and the girls said they were done playing by then, so we had to sit around for 30 minutes. It was okay though, they got all hyped back up when the party started.
My beautiful birthday girl!

Her butterfly cake that Mommy made.

Following the leader... the oldest in this case is the leader. Normally Samara takes over the leader position but it was Syssa's birthday. We've been talking about how EVERYONE gets a turn to be the leader but Mara likes to be the boss. Gotta watch out for that one.

Alyssa normally likes her hair down but I told her since we were going to the park and since it was going to be really hot outside that she would have to have her hair up. She told me that she wanted pig tails in buns. This is how it turned out.

Building a sand hill.

One of the activities that we did, along with playing at the park, was to make necklaces and bracelets. This is Mara modeling her necklace.

Syssa modeling her necklace and bracelet.

I didn't get a picture of Nattie since she wanted to go play so bad.

I got a parachute a while ago when I taught at the Mother's Day Out at our church. I love it. I decided it would be a perfect activity for our birthday at the park. Here are all the kids playing with it.

Alyssa had so much fun, actually the one that had the most fun was probably Nattie. She was hilarious and did such a good job.

Lift it up and go under.

Blowing out the birthday candles. I didn't know whether or not they would light since the wind was blowing, not too bad, but enough to where it kept blowing out the candles. Thank you Meems for holding up the lid to the cake so that Alyssa had candles to blow out.

I didn't post any pictures of this but before blowing out the candles on the cake I had all the kids decorate their own ice cream cone cupcakes. No ice cream involved. You take an ice cream cone and put candies in it. They don't have to go up to the top. We put 10 skittles in each. Then you frost the top of a regular sized cupcake. Then, you flip it upside down and put it on the ice cream cone. Next you frost the other side of the regular sized cupcake and put a mini cupcake upside down on top of the regular sized one. Then you frost all around all of the cupcakes on the outside and the top. Then you can put sprinkles on it. We put melon rings on top, like the cherry on top. I told them not to eat them until after we sang happy birthday and the kids listened very well. We sang happy birthday and they dug right in. I got the idea off howdini.com if anyone is interested. That's where I got the idea for the butterfly cake too.

Nattie eating her ice cream cone minus the ice cream.

Syssa chowing down with one of her friends.

Mara and a few more people at the party eating their cake.

Meemo embroidered a shirt for Syssa and she LOVES it. It has a fairy on it and it says "Raindrops are like Fairy Whispers". It's so cute. Thank you Meems!!!

She got really good birthday gifts and lot of love! Thank you everyone who made this party a success. Especially Meems and Micah. Love you Alyssa so glad you have been entrusted to our family! I love having you with us and can't wait to see how you learn and grow this next year.