My oldest daughter turns 8!

Christmas break has officially ended for us and we've now been back in school since Tuesday. I would be lying if I said that I loved getting back to the school routine. Getting up at 5:30AM Monday-Friday and waking the kids up at 6AM is not the business for me after spending the past 2 weeks staying up late and sleeping in with no where to be. It was heavenly and refreshing.

The day before school started again, my oldest daughter / middle child turned 8 years old. I feel like I just brought that bald little baby girl home from the hospital thinking where is all of her hair? My babies are supposed to be born with a thick head of dark hair! That wasn't the case for her. She's been living outside of the box that I imagined her to be in. You know a preconceived idea of what type of personality she will have. Instead she burst out of that box with confetti and sparkles and never looked back. That's my girl. Big giant ray of sunshine riding on a unicorn chasing rainbows.

My 8 year old little lady told me that she's close to 10 now. It really blew my mind. Wasn't my son just 8 and now he's 10! Hold still time! It's going faster than I can keep up with and it makes me sad and happy all at the same time. Sad because I'll never get those days back and happy that in the future I won't have to find a zillion little pieces of paper cut up all over her floor because she was creating something. She has a huge heart of gold and thinks she already has her life planned out. She wants to travel the world, feed the hungry and adopt children. Also, probably be a vet too. I would not even be surprised if she becomes a millionaire. She's always trying to find stuff to sell and think of businesses. She's out for a profit! In a lot of ways she's a lot like me. In the 5th grade I started my own hair wrapping business at school. I charged by the inch of hair and wrapped girls hair at recess. I was good at what I did too!

As I sit here and drink my coffee while the rain drizzles against the windows, I already know that 2017 is going to be a great year. It started with her turning 8 and enjoying a family party at my house. When it comes to parties, 99% of the time it is NOT anything Pinterest like and I don't even care. It is real life around here. Bounce houses, pizza, soda, finger + junk foods and making a mess at home. Store bought everything too! My confession is that we ran to the local grocery store bakery and she picked the cake out from the display and it made her heart so happy!  Kids do not care about perfect. They just care about fun and that's all that matters. Heck, I even took these pictures with the flash on. Nothing fancy, just real life and I want to share that with you. 2017 will be a year of real and truth.

Her cake is a diner cake from Vons and the mini cupcakes are from Vons too. I picked up the Paw Patrol cupcake shields from Party City and stuck them in the mini cupcakes. The metallic gold number candle is from Party City too. The cake stand is from Target Dollar Spot for $3 and the gold charger is from Michaels on sale for $1. Easy as that!

She was surrounded by so much love and excitement and I wouldn't have it any other way. It made me happy to see her happy even if I did slave away to pick up the house and get everything together for her little paw patrol party. I'm just so proud of her!

Now as for me, we're getting ready for a family mini vacay next week and then my youngest turns 4 years old on the 26th and on the 29th my husband turns 30! Stay tuned to see more of my life and I'll be sharing more  revelations, birthdays and trips really soon! Oh and we can't forget some amazing DIY stuff +  bedroom makeover starting on this coming up Monday!