Lauren and family's day-of-FUN!

If you don't understand the Friends reference in that title... I am sorry.  Go watch reruns of Friends.  Man, I miss that show!

For Lauren's birthday we decided to do all the things she wanted to do for the day!  We started out with breakfast of her choice, waffles with blueberries and sausage.

Then she opened her first gift, a new outfit in her favorite color:

She is so big I can hardly stand it!  

Then we headed to the play-place of her choice:

Good old "pump it up"!  Probably my least favorite play-place on the planet, but going to open jump at 10AM on a Monday morning was much more bearable!

All the PIU pictures are in black and white because the light is beyond horrible in there! 

This was just cracking me up!

Then we headed to the mall, where the birthday girl chose Johnny Rocket's for lunch!

After which we headed to get her ears pierced!  I was truly shocked when she came up with this idea a few weeks before her birthday, because she typically avoids any discomfort at all (I have no idea where she gets that from).  But, she was pretty excited!

Until they got started...

The suspicion began with the dots being marked on her ears...

She managed to hold back the tears.  It was nerves!

The second ear required a little more concentration to get through. 

And then they were in!  And she was a happy girl again after that!

Then we headed home for the younger two to nap while Lauren and I headed to Toy's R Us to use her birthday money from Aunt RaRa and her $3 birthday coupon!  Then she was able to play with some of the things she had opened the day before as well as her new finds.  

Then it was on to a dinner of spaghetti, her absolute fave!  And more cake.

And then more gifts, including a big surprise!

She literally danced around and declared it to be "the best day ever"!  

Music to my mama ears!  =)

Then she was off!

Someone else was pretty excited about that bike too, because it meant now she gets to ride the old one!

She did really great right away!

And that was that!  We had a wonderful day together.

Happy birthday, sweet Lauren!  We love you "all the way to heaven and back"!

Mother's Day

Come the second week of May, we have the Beeler-trifecta. Typically, Mother's Day, Justin's birthday, and Lauren's birthday all fall in the same week.  This year they were three days in a row.  It was exhausting.  :)

On Mother's Day, Justin's parents were visiting and we invited his sister's family over in the morning for brunch before church. We celebrated Tyler and Lauren's birthdays, which we both the following day!

My silly Paige:

Almost 8-year-old Lauren:

I love that she still isn't worried about her grown-up teeth when smiling! I can remember being SO self conscious about them as a kid, and I hope she continues to be confident through her smile!  Praying no one makes her feel bad about them in the meantime... I think that was what started me on the smile-with-my-lips-tight phase of my life.

Oh, and my Jaelyn:

That girl kills me. In a good way. ;)

Lauren blowing out her share of the candles...

I didn't get anything nearly as embarrassing of Tyler. 

Darn.

The only picture taken of me on Mother's Day, by my hubby... bless him for trying!

Which just reiterates my point that having a "good camera" does NOT mean you will take good photographs.  But that is another ranting-blog-post all together!

That night, we had the Swopes over for our Sunday night ritual! It is so great to spend time with them on a weekly basis!  Just love their family!  

Lauren loves them so much, that she wanted to have her cake while they were there instead of on her birthday the next day.

Don't worry, there were plenty of leftovers for the actual birthday.

And the next week after that!

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!!!