Sweet Symantha is Seven!

Although it was a little hard for me, this was the first year we did not do a big party with all ages of family and friends invited to Symantha's birthday. We discussed some ideas of what she would want to do for her party and she decided on Build-A-Bear workshop, which meant she could choose 4 friends (and Hailey!). She chose 2 friends from school and 2 from church, which worked out to be a nice combination. We packed up the van with a bunch of very silly 7/8 year olds and headed to Bellevue!

It was such a fun experience - the perfect number of girls, and I had nothing to do but take pictures.... only a few, of course:) The party planner does a great job of steering the girls towards the amount that each gets to spend in choosing animals, accessories and so on. They go through the whole process...

Derek had some fun with them while they were giving their animals baths. None of them knew there was a pedal underneath that you use your foot to push to make the air come on and they couldn't figure out how to make it work. Derek had his foot on it and he told them they had to say a magic word to make it come on. They all started trying words, and then discovered whenever they said, "Please" it came on. So the whole time they would take turns and come up to it, lean over and say "Please!" loudly to make it come on. It wasn't until almost time to go home that all of them figured out there was a pedal underneath! These are the ways the grown-ups get to have fun at the party.

Symantha and her friend Alicia with their twin bunnies. At the end, they do a little parade through the store and then they sang Happy birthday to Symantha. She loved every second of the attention, of course.

We left Build-A-Bear and headed to a little shop called "New York Cupcakes" to do the rest of the party. The 6 little girls fit perfectly around this round table and it was such a cute sight. All pink and girly, with fancy cupcakes.



We sang happy birthday, ate cupcakes and opened presents here.


It was by far the EASIEST party I've had to do, and I loved being able to just enjoy it and not coordinate so much! Not that I haven't loved doing big birthday parties for the girls.... but this was the perfect celebration for this year.

Happy birthday, Symantha Brooke!