Millie Turns EIGHT!

Our big girl turned EIGHT!  Hard to believe, but it also seems just right.  She's SO eight and eight really is great.  She's truly loving life right now!  Once we shut down her dreams of getting a phone for her birthday gift, she said the amazing barbie mansion was next on her list.  Nothing has ever made me so happy!

It was Millie's turn for a special birthday yard message!

I love her goofy grin right now.  Those big teeth have changed her so much this past year.

Always big growth for this one.  From 8 year pediatrician appt: she is 54.5" tall (96th percentile) and 70.5 lbs (87th percentile).  Only 3.5" until she can get rid of that pesky car booster seat!

After a couple of hours with the Barbie mansion, it was time for a very special birthday sleepover....AT A HOTEL!  She wanted a more intimate party this year, so we only invited her best friends Dylan and Sage.  But this sweet pic is with her ORIGINAL best friend. <3  BFFs for life!

Dylan and Millie: champion swimmers! Sage was out of town until later in the evening, so the girls just enjoyed the pool for awhile.

Syd invited her friend Sawyer to swim for awhile, but it turns out she doesn't like to swim.  LOL dolls to the rescue!

And some bubbles outside kept them busy too

Pool hair, don't care - Happy birthday to MILLIE!  Our girl is kind and empathetic; a good big sister and friend.  She has phenomenal style and an appropriate amount of confidence.  She loves to stay busy and have friends over to play with.  She's constantly cartwheeling and hand-standing, dancing, and staying active.  She loves treats, mac-n-cheese, and ice cream...oh, and slime!  She adores putting on cozy clothes the second we come home.  She loves our cats and is really very sweet with them.  She enjoys school for the social aspect but not necessarily the academics.  She is unique and super cool and such a good girl.  I really don't want anything to change about her at this very moment in our lives.  WE ARE SO GLAD YOU'RE OURS, MILLIE BEAR!

Probably wishing for either a phone or candy.  The ice cream cake was her one strong request!

silly girls

Oh gosh, I watched Syd try to get on this mermaid tail float for a good 20 minutes.  Once she FINALLY succeeded, she let me snap a pic...

...and then she started showing off. ;)

And finally, Sage joined the party and all was right with the world!  They swam some more...

...painted nails, applied makeup, giggled and chatted and acted like such big girls in their own hotel room.  We had no problems with them!  We were in an adjoining room and would check on them periodically, but they were happy to just hang out and act like teenagers. ;)

Pretty sure they didn't fall asleep until midnight, but aren't they so sweet?!

The next morning, we broke out the matching swimsuits!! So cool, right?!

Sometimes they let Syd play with them, which I appreciated.  Poor little sister.

And by 2pm we were home for rest time with the cats.  Overall, a huge success!

Since Millie's birthday, they have played with this Barbie house all day, EVERY DAY.  It pretty much saved the summer from getting boring!  It has been so glorious to watch their imaginations bloom and listen to their pretend skills at this sweet spot of ages 6 & 8 years old, respectively.  I feel like this is going to be a very memorable summer.  I'm certainly going to miss this kind of innocence!

Speaking of glorious...Jasper continues to crack us up.