Klinkers in Kentucky: Ava is 7!

Ava's turned seven on January 12. She woke up to an Elsa and Anna balloon bouquet, a present on the table, and donuts for breakfast (per request).

Her present was from Grandpa Ken and Grandma Joy. It was a My Lego Friends Beach house. She squealed with delight and all the girls ran upstairs to work on it for the next half hour. We did do a

little school work in the morning (I know...mean old me making her do work on her birthday!), but then

I surprised them with a trip to Chuck E Cheese. You would have thought I was taking them to Disney World, they were SO excited! It was the perfect time to go too because it was during the week around noon, so there were only about 5 other kids there (one of the perks of homeschooling). We got pizza for lunch, they played games, and it took no time at all to pick out the prizes

they wanted to get with all their tickets.

Maximus sporting his panda shirt for the birthday girl

Max's first ride down a slide

Pizza! See how empty all the booths are?! It was great!

Dancing with Chucke

Rose ran off to play more games before I could get a picture of all of them together

After about two hours at Chuck E Cheese, we took Ava to her last ballet class of the semester. Rose told Ava's teacher that it was her birthday, so she got to wear a birthday crown in class and the girls all sang to her. She was more than delighted!

Ava got some phone calls throughout the day from Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents and loved Facetiming them from my phone! It was funny to watch her walk around talking on the phone like a teenager...a preview of what life will be like in the all too near future. Ahh!

She picked lasagna, edamame, rolls, strawberries, and strawberry milk for dinner

and dirt pudding for dessert.

We opened presents...more Lego friends...and let her stay up an extra 20-30 minutes since it was her big day. I actually love doing this with our kids. It is an easy way to get to spend some one on one time with them and enjoy their individuality! We gave each of the girls a "stay up late" ticket in their stocking for Christmas and they used those up as quickly as possible. Maybe we will have to give them more for Valentine's Day.

Ava was so cute on her birthday. You could tell that she loved having the day be all about her, but was very humble about it. I think she smiled all day long. I wish birthdays could last for a whole week!

On Saturday we had her party. She wanted a Frozen theme, which was fun, because, believe it or not, we haven't done one yet. She invited 4 friends: a neighbor from our old house, a good friend from church, and twins from our homeschool group.