My baby is SEVEN!

And so begins the weeklong celebration of her birthday! Here is a shot of her a few days before her birthday! She is so big! I thought she looked rather stylish-so I snapped a shot.

So here is how the birthday-weekend went:

*Friday...Lauren went to school. She brought treats and had fun passing those out. Matt and I both took the day off so when she was off we picked her up, and we went to say hello to her Pa Pa Leo at work. Then we went to get her birthday pictures taken at JC Penney. (I can't download them so I will have to wait a week until I get them, then I will scan them and post them-they turned out sooo cute!!). Then we went to see the movie of her choice-Gnomeo and Juliet. She loved it and it was, um, alright. Then we went home for a dinner of Ramen Noodles. It was off to bed early for her real birthday.

Growing up, my family didn't have a ton of money...yet for every holiday and every birthday my parents went out of their way to buy us more than we needed as well as going out of their way to make the day super special. My mom would always (and still does) make signs. I am happy to carry on the tradition...and since my handwriting isn't as great as hers...I used stickers:

I used to love to wake up to run to the table to see the set-up that was there for me. This year I was quite proud of what I put together for Lars:

I had a pink-theme, if you couldn't tell.

Close up:

And here she was in the morning, in her bootie-short PJs.

*Saturday. After waking up to the presents above and opening them with the family, she bathed and got ready for her friend party at the West Valley Fitness Center. We had pizza, played, and had cake and ice-cream. I wish I would have gotten pictures of everyone and everything...but these will have to do! Special thanks to my sister Sarah for coming JUST to help me wrangle all the kids...wh0 actually didn't need much wrangling at all...(so we just played some Dance Dance Revolution instead). Here was the DARLING cake that they had for us!!

They have this play grocery store at the Fitness Center, I think all the kids enjoyed it. Here is Jamie and my cute niece Madeleine.

Here is my other niece Bella and Jamie shopping too.

Here is my neighbor Chrystie and Jamie at the checkout. Jamie really wanted to be the cashier, but he was a patient customer instead.

I told him to show me his "I am having fun" face. What an adorable boy.

Not to be out-posed..here is the birthday girl herself, beautiful Lauren!

And now really pose Lauren, yep, that is my girl! If Lauren likes a boy, he is INSTANTLY her boyfriend. Well, at least she CALLS them that even if there is no mutual feeling or agreement for such a title. We were both pleased as punch when her recent BOYFRIEND, Toby actually came to her party! He was such a cute and well behaved little boy!

And he posed arm in arm with Lauren with NO coersion at all! They are both students together in Mrs. Lance's first grade class at Valley Crest Elementary. Matt is such a handsome fella, even if he is in a kiddie chair! Seriously, how lucky am I?

After her party, we went back to our house for a quick nap..then we went to a birthday party for one of Matt's cousin's kid's birthdays. They had it at Bouncin' Off the Walls. It was pretty cool to have our very own inflatables that even the adults could ride down. Even I went down this bad boy a few times. Here is a shot of Matt and the kiddos.

We had pizza again, and cake and ice-cream again. This is Jamie with another "I am having fun" face.

After that party, we took Lauren to her choice...BONSAI. It is a Japanese steakhouse. YUMMMY!!! THEN we came home and finally relaxed, I tried to unpackage and put away her new treasures. Jamie was helping me and HERE is his TRUE "I am having fun" face!!! This will be blackmail material when he has his first girlfriend, I am sure!

Last year I took a picture of Lauren at the end of night. I had to snap another one, after seeing this when I went to kiss her goodnight. Obviously, she was POOPED. She was asleep on the floor!

I can't believe that my baby is seven, although I barely remember my life before her. She is just so precious to me! She is smart, and beautiful, and funny, and energetic, and sweet (it is my blog I can brag if I want to!!).

*THEN finally ending on Sunday. We went to church, then we went to Sams Club to get her cake and to have a delicious $1.50 hot dog for lunch. Then we cleaned the house real quick and had the family over for cake and ice-cream and present opening! I was really bad and didn't take any pictures. Thanks to my mom and dad, Ashley, Victor, Zander, Sarah, Poopie, Leo and Tina, Greg, Alex, Bella, Maddie, Kristen, Dave, and Ethan for coming over to complete Lauren's birthday celebration. She got such nice gifts and everyone was super generous as always. We have the best family and it was great to see everyone again.

Well, that was her birthday for 2011. I hope that she had a great one and that she always knows how much she is loved.