So, a few weeks ago, our biggest girl turned EIGHT years old (I still can’t believe it). Her birthday this year fell on a Saturday so I had a little birthday party planned for her and her friends on the weekend. In the week leading up to Saturday, though, I happened to invite M1 & M2 and their mom over for dinner and it turned into an impromptu swim session/birthday dinner. It was also our first swim of the year at our pool!

I had the pool heater turned on but I don’t know if it was working properly or not .. the water still felt a bit cold to the kids. It didn’t hamper the fun, though!

E had speech therapy on this day and her speech therapist baked blue birthday cupcakes with her as a little birthday treat so we even got to sing happy birthday to her with candles after swimming.

Someone enjoyed their cupcake…

Here is E on Saturday morning with our traditional birthday balloon bouquet!

So apparently we can’t get enough of M1 & M2 in this house hahah. We had the girls over for a sleepover the night before and all 4 of them (everyone minus baby A) were already awake and opening presents before Hubby & I got up.

Distracting everyone with sticker sets while making breakfast.

Birthday pancakes!

Later in the afternoon, it was finally time for E’s 8th Art Birthday Party! We invited a mix of school friends and church friends and I think everyone had a great time. It reminded me a lot of those “Wine & Paint” type of parties that adults have … but obviously without the wine. We had juice boxes instead hahahaha. I have a confession to make right now, too. Every year when I send out E’s birthday invitations, I have this underlying fear that no one will show up. I don’t know .. I guess it’s still an insecurity that I feel on behalf of my daughter. I know her autism makes social skills extremely difficult so when she comes home and tells me so and so is her friend or she wants to invite xyz, I can’t help but wonder if she’s just imagining that they’re her friends? But seeing E in this room full of girls who are her same age, who chose to be here on a Saturday and obviously enjoy her for everything she is … it made me so happy!

10 girls all showing off their new masterpieces!

After painting, we all walked a block down the street to one of our favorite pizza spots. I’ll admit, there was a moment when we all sat down to eat and I took a look around and thought – what the heck did I just get myself into? This could go seriously wrong LOL.

Thankfully, we had all had a great time! We actually got compliments from several strangers for how well-behaved and adorable our little group of girls was. As you can see, the Elsa love is still strong … Elsa birthday cake 🙂

Happy 8th Birthday to E! <3