My baby is 8!

It does not seem possible that my baby girl is already 8 years old. I remember thinking that people who had "older" kids like I know have was ancient. I just didn't think I'd ever get out of the toddler/preschool years having had my kids all 3 years apart. But, just like that--my baby is 8!

Kinley had a great birthday weekend and she learned how to stretch it into 3 significant days. She had a friend party on the Saturday before her birthday, a family gathering on Sunday and a fun day at school on her real birthday.

The day started with her first basketball game. With her dad as her coach, she decided to make him look good and scored 8 points in her debut. She is loving trying out new sports and doesn't really miss dance.

Later that day, she took 5 friends ice skating and we picked the single coldest day of the winter. We started out at an indoor rink, but I won Mother of the Year award when we got there and realized open skate was closed. The girls were such troopers in the cold and several of them learned to skate for the first time. Then, they came back to our house and did crafts, ate pizza and played til they were all exhausted.

Sunday night was her family dinner and a time to finally capture some cousin photos with Sydney and all 3 of our kids. My good friend Tirsa and her 3 kids joined us, so it was another fun night.

On her birthday, I helped in her classroom and brought special birthday cookie dough cupcakes (on top of all of the other Valentine's treats they had) and I think every kid had a tummy ache by the time I left. She was such a ham as she passed out the cupcakes and explained that there was a surprise inside. Her teacher told me that she looks forward to seeing Kinley every day and wondering what she will come up with to make her laugh each day. That about sums up Kinley! She has grown up a lot this year and yet, her basic goofy, spunky personality will never change. She is self-confident, but sensitive and that's a pretty good combination to have.  Love this girl!

Her favorite cookie pie

The frozen four

Treats at school!