Elizabeth is 7!

The oldest had a birthday this week. I think it was a good one for her. It all started off when we were invited to celebrate alongside the Nelson boys--her fellow late-January-birthday-cousins. My sister fed us very well and supplied the cake. The kids all had fun playing with their cousins.

Here are the birthday kids:
(Zack, Elizabeth, Jacob & Ethan)

Since it wasn't a friend-party year for Elizabeth, and I had been promising her I would take her ice skating after Natalie got to go, she got to invite one friend to come with us for a little birthday excursion. She invited her best friend Sofia from school. This was Elizabeth's first time ice skating. I was a little worried she might have some trouble, especially since she still hasn't really mastered the roller blades she got for Christmas two years ago. But, she did great! She was so proud of herself for getting the hang of it quickly and kept saying, "I can't believe I'm doing so well on my first time skating!" She was very determined and didn't even want to hold my hand after awhile. Sofia had been before so she did fine. I hadn't been skating since before the kids were born and I had a blast, too.!

Elizabeth & Sofia

Here they are skating together:

So cute.

Then, her birthday rolled around. Elizabeth took some pictures around the house of the decorations:

She also insisted on decorating her cake again this year. She even made the cake pretty much all by herself. Unfortunately, I tried to take a shortcut with the frosting and it didn't turn out so well. That's why the frosting looks kind of runny.

We had her birthday dinner (black bean soup and corn on the cob--bless that girl for having such an easy favorite meal!) and opened presents. She got some of the things on her list, including a snow hat and a new shirt. She's pretty easy. She also wanted her very own dresser, which is coming soon.

Here's the loot:

Nail polish

Natalie got her this little roly poly playground.

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find any!

She also got the whole Little House on the Prairie series:

Nate liked it, too:

Speaking of Nate, here's what he did when he realized that the present he picked out wasn't for him:
Birthdays can be hard for 2-year-olds.

Giving Daddy a hug after reading his nice card:
It was a fun night and the birthday girl was all tuckered out:

I still can't believe that my Elizabeth is 7. One more year and she'll be 8! Yikes! I'm suddenly feeling all of this pressure. Am I teaching her what she needs to know before she officially becomes a "big kid" and starts facing "big kid" challenges? Some days I wonder.

Mostly I'm just glad that I have her. She is our oldest child, our guinea pig, and she is so patient with us. She loves us unconditionally even when we screw up as parents. She is so full of love and enthusiasm for life. She is also quite sensitive and so thoughtful and giving. She has already picked out a present for me for my birthday (it's not until April!) and it is in a shoebox under her bed. :)

First grade has indeed been a year of firsts so far. The first boy that asked her to be his girlfriend. The first boy (different boy) that said a really mean thing to her. Her very first citizenship award:
Then there was the friend who spilled the beans about Santa Claus. There have been the adjustments to all-day school and harder work, which we are still trying to work out.

Still, she is doing great. I am so proud of her and the choices she makes. She tries to do what's right. She still loves to learn. Even though she doesn't like her math homework from school much ("They make me write! I don't like to write."--this from the girl who is constantly writing for fun) she still loves it when we give her tough word problems. It is so fun for me to see the way she works out problems. I hope she keeps liking math. She is as much of a bookworm as ever. Right now she's into American Girl books and Magic Treehouse books. She likes science, too. I just so happened to check out a couple Bill Nye the Science Guy DVDs from the library and the kids loved them, especially Elizabeth. We've watched almost all of them. She is always begging me to do the home experiments. She also loves any and all kinds of crafts. Poor girl, stuck with a mom like me. She loves being outside and she loves her family.

And we love her.