Gracie Turns SEVEN! (The Celebration, Part Two)

For Gracie's Birthday Celebration, Part Two, I took a gaggle of girls and a couple of very tolerant boys to see the new Disney Pixar film, Up. The vote was unanimous -- Up is one of the best movies ever! We laughed, we cried, we learned lines to repeat incessantly later on -- a good time was had by all. After the movie, Gracie's little friends blessed her with very thoughtful gifts. Since we'd already done a gift exchange at her family party, she was so surprised by the generous gestures of her sweet friends, and so excited!


After the movie and gift exchange, two friends went on to a prior engagement and three friends came home with us. Once here, the girls played Barbies and dress-up and gave each other makeovers, while the boys vacillated between playing with Legos and playing the Lego Star Wars video game. Afterwards, each child made their own pizza for dinner. Dinner was followed by the "Happy Birthday" song and a second round of cupcakes.


Matthew's friend went home about 8:00 P.M. and I attempted to get the remaining kids settled down for bed by turning on a movie. After an hour of too much giggling and games still being invented, the kids were sent to their respective beds and sleeping bags. Matthew conked out right away, but the room full of giggly girls was going strong. After a half-hour of reminders to lower voices and work on sleeping, I turned on another movie hoping focused little girls would become sleepy little girls. My plan did not work. All three girls, though focused and considerably quieter, did not go to sleep as I hoped, but instead, stayed up until the movie's end.

At 11:00 P.M., lights were shut off, and everyone was sleeping by 11:30. I, on the other hand, could not get to sleep until 2:00 A.M., which made the giggling and goofing around at 6:00 A.M. not the happiest of surprises. Since the rest of the house still slept for hours, only the girls had homemade chocolate chip waffles with whipped cream before returning to their play. Both of our little girl guests were returned to their parents by 10:30 A.M. and Gracie spent the day gushing about what an amazing time she had.

Gracie and Her Girlfriends