Gretchen's Birthday Celebrations!

Yesterday, my baby girl turned 7! We have had lots of fun celebrating her over the last few days! This year, I decided to forgo the birthday party, and keep our celebration low key, and I am so glad that I did! Her birthday was stress free and all about her and our family. 

My parents came up Friday and took the girls out to eat and to Bass Pro while I spent Friday hosting a Spring Premiere Party with a few friends. We had about 40+ people in my house, and I didn't get any pictures from the event! I just had a blast shopping and hanging out with friends. 

DJ had recruiting events Friday night and most of Saturday, but Saturday night, we were able to head out to Olive Garden for Gretchen's annual birthday dinner! We've been taking her to OG for her birthday since she was 2 years old, and we've made it a fun little tradition!

I promise Gretchen was happier than she looks in this picture- ha! She looks so angry! She does these weird little poses when we try to take pictures, and I think we were trying to talk her out of looking like she was praying, or this was probably in between when she didn't really know what was going on! 

The big girls were so well behaved while we were out to eat! 

Adalyn on the other hand was a hot mess and I had to take her out of the restaurant while we waited on our food, and DJ had to take her out as soon as we were finished eating! 

I snapped these pictures while we were waiting on our check. The big girls were acting crazy!

Reggie kept turning around and sticking her booty out for the picture! She just giggled and giggled. 

After dinner, we headed across the street to Cherry Berry. Another birthday tradition that we started when we moved to Tulsa. 

I let Gretchen wear her crown since we were celebrating!

Addy wore one too, but it kept falling in her face! And somehow it ended up in the toilet, so now this cute little crown headband is in our trash. 

We all loved our ice cream!

Gretchen has some great men in her life.... her daddy and mine!

I cannot believe that she is 7 years old! 

DJ and I with the birthday girl! It feels like just yesterday when she was born!

Once we got home, she opened her presents. 

We decided that all of the grandparents, and us would go in together to buy her a big birthday gift. 

With her birthday being right after Christmas, she really didn't need too many toys!

Do you think she was excited?!?!?!?

Gretchen got the 2014 American Girl doll of the year, Isabelle. She also received Isabelle's ballet outfit, and my mom and stepdad bought her a soccer outfit for her doll. 

All of the girls were excited to play with the doll. 

Monday was Gretchen's actual birthday. She had birthday cinnamon rolls before school. 

She insisted on putting candles on them and blowing them out!

After breakfast, she was ready to school in her appliqué shirt that she picked out, her M2M bow, and her "Frozen" necklace. 

On Sunday, I let her pick out whatever design she wanted for her shirt and she chose a "Frozen" theme number 7. The crown has metallic gold and silver, and the shirt has light pink, blue, and silver snowflakes. 

DJ went Monday morning and picked up doughnuts for Gretchen's class. She picked out Ninja Turtle for the boys and crowns for the girls. I'm not sure why the Ninja Turtle's ended up with the biggest nose ever, but the kids loved them!

Taking doughnuts down to Gretchen's class is another perk that I get since she goes to school where I work! DJ and I both took the doughnuts down and passed them out to her class. 

I ate lunch with Gretchen in the cafeteria and we rounded out her birthday celebrations! 

After school, she had dance, and we picked up pizza and the girls ate leftover doughnuts!

We had so much fun celebrating our oldest honey pie! Again, i'm so thankful that we didn't throw a big party for her this year! We are taking the girls to Disney World in March, and part of the deal is that we wouldn't throw birthday parties for the girls this year.  I just really enjoyed the stress free celebration of her. Doing little things she wanted, not making a huge fuss, and not having endless amounts of toys. We celebrated in simple ways, just the way we celebrated on the day she was born.