Ellyse's 8th Birthday!

Oh Justin Beiber.  If you only knew how you've affected the life of our little 8 year old. 

Here's her friends party.  We all made microphones out of used up toilet paper rolls and tinfoil.  They got to decorate theirs just to their liking.  I was truly impressed with the creativity of all the girls!!  There wasn't a microphone I didn't like.

We played a "how well do you know Justin Beiber" game.  They did alright.  But, I'm glad they just did alright.  They don't need to know that much about him. :)

We also played a "hot potato" type game but with the microphones.  They had to pass the microphone around until the JB song stopped and then had to sing the next few lyrics if they were the ones caught with the microphone.  We had a few party poopers but a lot of them came up with some creative lyrics. :)  Or they just sang happy birthday to Ellyse.

Here are the favor bags.  They each got two JB tattoos.  Ellyse and Allie made off with several more than that somehow. They put them all up and down their arm.  When we were at the grocery store some lady in line ahead of us commented on them.  I was a little put off if she meant it derogatorily.  I mean c'mon.  They'll be gone in like 2 days. Take it easy.

 Presents were a hit.  As usual.  She got a magic 8 ball and it was a hoot trying to get the girls to try and understand what all the answers meant!  They all loved it, especially Ellyse. What a great gift idea for this age!!

 And the cake.  Must say it's the easiest one I've had to decorate up until now.  We did cut into it before snapping a photo though.  There's suppose to be 4 candles on each side. Oh well.

We had grandparents over the actual day of her birthday and gave her our gifts.  She kept trying to fanagle them out of us the day of her friend party though.  We kept them so she'd have something special to look forward to on her actual birthday.  It was on a Sunday this year and so we really couldn't do a whole lot of special things that day.  Presents and grandparents were it. And churh singing to her helped too!

Oh how we love you Ellyse!  You bring such a calm into our lives.  You have a loving and tender heart and are such a great big sister for Allie to look up to.  Every time we're apart for a while, I long for you and your smell.  I know that sounds crazy but to me, you've always smelled a certain way. Let me clarify, you smell good! :)  And you have a smell that gets into things like your "mickey," and pillow that I crave smelling because it's unique to you.  We're soo grateful that you are in our lives and love you with all our hearts!!  Happy 8th to our getting-so-big Lesee Lou!