celebration...

Happy 7th Birthday to Kennady!
Our birthday activities:
When asked what type of cake she wanted, Kennady told us that she really just wanted apple muffins. So, for breakfast, she got a candle in an apple muffin.



Then, she got ready for school and off she went. She was very excited to take in a treat to share with her school class. This was the first year she has been able to celebrate at school since we did homeschool for kindergarten. Then last year, school started so late in the year that we were still on summer break for her birthday. So, celebrating at school was a big source of excitement. She came home with a folder full of notes that each of her classmates wrote for her. There were several cute and sweet message, but by far the funniest message was written by a little boy in her class:



BJ and I picked the girls up from school about 15 minutes early and headed into Tempe. BJ had to pick up his books on campus for the start of his new semester. The girls thought it would be really fun to see Daddy's school so we all went in Daddy took us on a little tour. The nice lady in the bookstore even gave each girl a package of gummy bears. Addy came up to BJ and whispered, "How come only boys go to your school?" Ha Ha! Obviously some girls do attend, but an overwhelming percentage of engineering/technology students are male. ...just cute that she realized it.
Afterwards, we stopped by The Black Mineral Market at Arizona Mills Mall and gave Kennady $5 to spend on whatever she wanted. Anyone who has spent much time with Kennady recently has seen her rock collection. She is very proud of her collection and will carefully explain the significance of each rock to anyone willing to listen. She very carefully deliberated what she would spend her money on and settled on a stone ring, two tumbled gemstones and a notebook made from dried leaves, which was actually very cool. Then, when we got home, she was excited to see the treasures that David Burk had sent home with BJ for her birthday. He sent her some of his rock collection...including a peice of petrified wood, a large chunk of obsidian and most impressively a geode. She was so excited when she held the unimpressive looking rock and realized that it was cracked and it opened to reveal beautiful quartz crystals lining the inside of the rock. Thank you David for the incredibly thoughtful gift! The girls also enjoyed playing kids karaoke with Kennady's sing song machine.



About a week ago, BJ made brownies for a Sunday evening treat. While Kennady was waiting for them to cool, she actually fell asleep. Knowing that she would be disappointed if she didn't get a brownie, BJ woke her up after the other kids were in bed and told her she could come have a little brownie. It was so fun to spend some time with just her. I don't even remember what we were talking about, but she sighed and said, "I'm glad I'm me." I'm glad you're you too, Kennady! Thank you for coming to our family. Happy Birthday to you!