Kate's 8th Birthday!

Our beautiful Kate turned 8 on July 23!  Kate has grown into such an amazing girl with a big heart, huge personality and the ability to shine in any situation.  We love her so much and thank God each and every day for blessing our lives with Kate-Kate.

Kate woke up at 6am on her birthday and quickly went right into opening presents.

Another Funko Pop....Kate's new obsession.

We gave Kate a loft bed for her birthday.  With this loft bed, she is excited for many sleepovers and secret hideouts.  My hope is to engineer a drape that can go around the top bunk so she and her friends can have a "clubhouse".  I will have to brainstorm ideas with my very handy husband.   

In the evening we celebrated Kate's birthday with homemade lasagna (Kate's request) and yummy cake.  Gramma and Papa joined us for this special dinner.

We love Papa and Gramma!

 And of course, Kate requested a silly picture.

The day before Kate's official birthday we hosted a party with her friends.  She had 4 friends come over for a fun-filled pool party.  We played pool games, did a scavenger hunt to the pinata and made ice cream sundaes.  It was an awesome party!

  

 Ping pong game (collect as many ping pong balls as possible)

 Inner tube races

  

Ball squirting races

Kate and her best friend, Camilla

(Camilla's family is from Italy and so we bought the girls matching Italy shirts.) 

Scavenger hunt...Will always makes the best clues!

 Pinata time

 Kate blew out her birthday candles in a pan of brownies, which we put at the bottom of the ice cream sundaes.

Yummy ice cream!

Happy friends

Goofy friends

Present time

Great party, wonderful birthday, tons of happy memories!

Breakaway 2017

This past week was our 5th time participating in our church's annual vacation bible school, Breakaway.  This years theme was "Walk this Way" and traveling around the world.  This was also Maggie's first year in the "big room" (MPR) with all the older, elementary-aged kids and bigger activities and experiences.  It was an awesome week!

Maggie's group

Kate's group

The church gets completely transformed for the week. 

Enormous bounce houses and slides are the main attraction

We have a dance team...

 ....and drama team

Maggie and her best friend, Caitlin

Kate's group

Action shots from the week:

Everyday the girls would come home with new face painting

One awesome part of the week is that the kids are challenged to raise money for The Water Project (https://thewaterproject.org/).  This is our 2nd year putting on a lemonade stand in our neighborhood.  The girls raised $120.03 for The Water Project, selling lemonade and cookies in 2 hours!

On the last day, the girls were called on stage to talk about how they raised their money for The Water Project.  They were so excited to tell their story!

Well, another great year of Breakaway has come to an end....until next year...!

Show Biz Kidz 2017

Kate and Maggie just completed a fun-filled 4 week musical theater camp at the Woodland Opera House.  Kate has been attending the camp, Monday-Friday, 9-noon each day.  Maggie has been going 3 days a week for an hour each time.  The camp ended with 3 amazing performances at the historic Woodland Opera House with Maggie performing 3 songs and Kate performing 5 songs.

Maggie sang "Good Ship Lollipop" and is wearing a red shirt and pig tails. (Middle of picture)

Kate sang "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" from the Lion King.  She is also wearing a read shirt, raising her arms in the back, as a fierce lion.

"Do You Want To Build a Snowman?" from Frozen.  Kate did a fantastic job singing her solo in the song....."do you want to build a snowman...".

"Singing in the Rain"

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

(Kate is sitting, bottom left)

Final bow

(Maggie is siting, bottom left and Kate is not visible in the very back)

Dedushka and Grammalene came to see the girls performance.  We always love it when they visit and they even got to spend the night!  We were thrilled to have them here!

We are a happy family!

Before Dedushka and Grammalene had to leave, they gave Kate an early birthday present.

Funko Pops!!!!  7 Harry Potter Funko Pops!!!

These are Funko Pops and currently Kate's passion! :-)

Now the kids are busy at our church's VBS camp, Breakaway.  Pictures from that and birthday celebrations to come next week!