Super Seven

Birthday month continued in the Snarr household with our celebrations last week for Regan!  We can't believe she is officially 7!  This girl knows how to party and she had informed us that we were going to celebrate for 3 days!!!  And that is just what we did.

We started on Saturday morning with a trip to the zoo.  It was so fun to be there as a whole family!  That hasn't happened for a long time.  It was a hot, humid Iowa summer day, but we loved it.

The highlights were of course, the train and the carousel.

On Sunday morning (her real b-day), she donned her traditional tiara, received her traditional balloon and feasted on traditional cinnamon rolls.

She made sure that everyone in the house knew that it was her special day.  It did happen be Father's Day, too....so she let Tod in on just a bit of the celebration.

Regan was SO excited for present time!  She finally got her own scooter and her own boombox!

You can't ever go wrong with cash!

We had to do a quick photo session before church.  This girl loves pictures!

And yes, she did wear the crown to church along with her new dress (she made it clear that she wanted a dress with a belt!).  After church, we had invited a few families over for birthday dinner.  Regan's menu choice was funeral potatoes with ham.  Very unique!

I love that on birthdays, you get to feel special.  We make sure that it is ALL about the birthday person because that hardly ever happens in our bustling household.
The next day brought beautiful weather (thankfully) and a pool party at our good friend's pool.  It was such a fun birthday party!  Regan knows lots of people and everyone likes Regan....it works out well because lots of Regan's friends have older sisters Jordan's age...so everyone was happy!

She wanted a cookie cake for this birthday bash!  Very yummy!

Tod stayed home with baby Luke so that I could really concentrate on watching all those swimmers!  It was such a fun afternoon and everyone came home tired!

Boy, we sure love our Regan Roo so much.  She is growing up so fast and is just the sweetest girl.  Most of the time she is so laid back and just happy with life.  She is in her own little world a lot of the time and it seems like a very joyful place!  She did so great at kindergarten this year and made leaps and bounds of progress academically.  She is one social girl and would love to have a friend over to play with all the time!  Regan loves to dance and twirl.  She is spoiled by her older sisters, adored by her little brother and probably my best helper with baby Luke.  She loves to help me with just about anything.  Regan is my little side kick and can usually be found right with me!  Happy Birthday Seven-Year-Old!!!

Excellent Eleven

Our Ashton turned 11 last week, and we had a lot of fun celebrating with this great girl!  Our birthday fun started on Saturday night with her friend party.  A few weeks ago, my friend made an amazing monster cake for our church cake auction, and Ashton decided right then that she must have one for her birthday!  My friend was kind enough to re-create her masterpiece, but this time with pink frosting.  It turned out SO cute and just seemed perfect for Ashton.  And it was delicious, too!!!

Our first event was mini-golf and the girls had a really good time.  They just wanted to play for fun- no score keeping, no strict rules- they were just silly and crazy and mostly liked trying to hit the balls into the water  and then fishing them out.  Did I mention that 11 year old girls are really silly?

Tod came along too with the other kids so they could join in on the fun!  (I didn't get many pictures of that group, as I was trying to keep the gigglin' girls together!)

Then it was back to our house for mini-pizzas, trampoline fun, presents, cake and ice-cream and a late night movie (Diary of a Wimpy Kid- Dog Days!)

These girls are such a cute, fun bunch- witty, bubbly and just all around good girls- so glad Ashton has them in her life....good friends are priceless.

On Ashton's real birthday, the next day, we started with a cinnamon roll breakfast.

Then it was time for gifts...and the one thing she really wanted was an Ipod Nano- so she was one happy girl when (thanks to her dad) she got one!

Ashton is always so good at showing gratitude and being thankful.  She was thanking us all day long and she was so cute with her siblings to show so much excitement for the gifts they got her.

(When I took Regan to pick a gift for Ashton, she kept saying "Ashton is just the type of girl that likes anything you get her-so it doesn't even matter what we get."  That is so true!  That girl is so easy to buy for because she does like everything!)

Here she is already for church in her new birthday outfit!  Can't believe how fast she is growing up!

After church, we had a big birthday meal with some of our favorite friends.  Ashton chose lasagna with garlic bread for the menu.  Yummy!

And we finished off the rest of that amazing cake!

It was a perfect weekend celebration.

(And the next morning, we had to fit in one more Ashton birthday tradition- breakfast at McDonald's!)

There is so much good to say about this girl.  We just love, love, love her.  She is kind and cares deeply about others and their feelings.  She is supportive and a cheerleader for her friends and her family.  She looks for the good in others and finds it!  She is helpful and unselfish and smart.  She loves sports, books, music, art, movies, animals, and people.  She is full of life!  Happy Birthday Lu.  Here's to another great year full of many adventures (middle school, eek!!!).

School's Out

School has been out for a couple of weeks now, but I wanted to post these pictures from the last day.

What a great year it has been!  We are all excited for summer, but sad to say good-bye to spectacular teachers (the very best, this year!) and fun friends.

Can't believe that our Ashton is done with elementary school!  (Can you tell it was very humid that day?)

Jordan and her cute friend dressed as twins to celebrate their last day!

This little guys is in for a big change with siblings around all day long!  I think he will love the extra attention.

We are looking forward to a GREAT summer.  At this point, I think if I had to make one more sack lunch, I just might lose my mind.  But around here, we really love school and come mid-August, we will all be more than ready!

For now, it's hooray for summer!!