Birthday Weekend

We had so much fun celebrating Jordan's birthday last weekend! Our morning started with the opening of a new birthday outfit...then the birthday girl was off to school.

I picked her up after a couple of hours so that she could go get her hair cut....then it was on to Olive Garden to meet up with Dad for lunch.

It's a family tradition that for 8th birthdays, the birthday kid gets to go alone with Mom and Dad to a sit down restaurant. What a rare treat to just be with Jordan and enjoy her great personality. She was so excited for our lunch date and had talked about it for weeks!!! Funny incident...when we were driving back from her hair cut, she asked me if when we took Ashton out for her 8th birthday dinner, did we just sit in awkward silence and stare at each other. Is that was she thinks people do when they go out to eat? After the meal, she told me she was relieved that it wasn't "silent, " and that we had plenty to talk about!!! (I have to thank my amazing friend for coming to the rescue and staying with the 2 little kids who were sick...for some reason, sickness and Jordan's birthday go hand in hand...something about January!)

Another tradition for Jordan's birthday is a present treasure hunt...her gifts are hidden all around the house with clues leading to each one. Her siblings love it too. Of course, she was kind enough to let Cole help out!


As you can see from the pics, this year's gifts kind of had a theme- Jordan is a sporty gal who loves to be active and have her own sports equipment! That works for me since I have always loved sports.

The last gift we gave Beans was her own email account and boy, was she excited. I had sent out an email requesting birthday emails to her new account...she was thrilled to have 30 messages in her inbox when she opened it! I was so grateful to family and friends who took a minute to send a reply....makes me thankful for all the people the kids have in their lives who love them.
Jordan's not a big fan of cake, so she chose ice cream for a birthday treat! And of course, Whitey's is the best!
The next day was her b-day party...sandwiched between 2 basketball games and more sickness...another dear friend helped out at the birthday party since Tod had joined in the fun by getting sick, too! Anyway, Jordan had decided months ago on a bowling party and what a hit that was! She has such a cute group of friends- so calm and well-behaved which is saying a lot for eight 2nd graders, plus two 4th graders and a preschooler! They had a blast and the bowling provided the entertainment with no clean up required. Perfect. It was one of my favorite (and easiest!) birthday parties!!


(We borrowed the doughnut cake idea from a facebook photo of CG on his birthday!!)





So happy birthday to our Jordan Marie. She is quite a girl. Some things to remember about her at age 8:
- She is so funny. She does funny things and says funny things and just makes us all laugh all the time. She's got this goofy, funny side to her that is really great.
-She is a great reader and a great student. She loves art and especially her art class at school.
-Jordan loves sports and really tries to improve...right now she is playing basketball...and waiting anxiously for softball to start up.
-She doesn't love to share and really wishes that she had her own room. She loves to shut her door, listen to her music and make up her own dances. She needs her alone time!
-She is really looking forward to getting baptized. One of her favorite gifts were her scriptures from Grandma and Grandpa. She reads them diligently and she tries to be good. When she makes a mistake, she honestly tries to correct it and move on.

I love her so much! Can't believe she's already eight!