My baby girl turns 8!!!

Yup, that's right...8!  I can hardly believe it!  We decided to do things a little bit different this year.  Usually we let the kids have a birthday party with some friends but since Kassidy is such a big girl now and into big girl stuff we decided on a girls weekend.  Grandma and Grandpa helped us pull it off and boy was she surprised!!!  About a week before the trip we gave her her presents.  One coupon was for a trip to the mall with daddy to buy a new outfit for a special trip.  That got her thinking.  The next coupon was for a trip to St. Louis with mommy to visit Aunt Beth.  She has been talking about flying on a plane recently so she was very excited!  We left the fact that Grandma was meeting us there for a surprise later.

Here she is with her new outfit on (you'll see it in the next pics) all set to fly on a plane!

Surprise!  Grandma makes it officially a Gailey girls weekend!!!

                                                                                   
So excited to ride the bus.  She has been studying communities in school, urban, suburban, etc.  It was a great way for her to see first hand how people live and travel in a city.
                                                                               

Beth Ann and Grandma planned for us to go to the very top of this building to a restaurant called 360 where you could see all around the city.  It had awesome views of the arch and was super yummy!

Kassidy really loved this waterfall and insisted on touching it a bunch:)  I must admit it was pretty cool!  There were tiny little strings hanging down to help the water go straight down 2 floors.

B-day dessert...homemade Kit Kat bars!  It doesn't look like it here but she really loved it.

Digging in with both of the bars at once:)  She loves chocolate as much as I do!

On our walk back to Beth's apartment we strolled through the park where Beth and Kassidy were super silly!!!  We went back the next day to take some more pics since they didn't all turn out with flash.  You'll see those down further.

What 8 year old girl doesn't like shopping, right?  Definitely not this one:)  Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Beth really spoiled her this day with lots of new clothes!!!

Lunch break!

Nothing is better than a mani/pedi after a long day of being on your feet!

Don't they look pretty?

Kassidy's girl did a special design just for her birthday:)

Enough said...

Second time strolling through the park

These two are really quite the pair when it comes to being goofy:)

Beth Ann gave us a special behind the scenes tour of the TV studio she works at.  Here is the set of their morning show.

And cooking show.

And news studio.

Future broadcaster maybe???

A trip to St. Louis wouldn't be complete without a stop at the arch!  We didn't go up in it but it was amazing how tall it was once we got right under it!

Underneath the arch they have a museum.  This next pic shows different monuments and compares their heights.  I learned a lot here!

Final pic with Grandma before we headed home.  We were sad to leave each other!

We had a super fun time during our girls weekend:)  Thanks Beth for showing us all around the town, letting us stay at your place, taking us to the TV station, and all of Kassidy's new stuff.  Thanks Grandma (and Grandpa) for helping us fly Kassidy to St. Louis, all her new clothes and jewelry, and mani/pedi.  We really enjoyed being together with you both!!!!

To celebrate Kassidy's b-day at home we went to Red Robin with the Gardner clan.  We always have such a great time with them:)  They even had a balloon waiting for her!  After dinner the staff brought out ice cream sundaes for the kids and sang their happy birthday song.  Kassidy was embarrassed but did enjoy the attention!

The next day was her actual birthday.  Just a quick happy birthday before school then a quick brownie dessert after dinner.

Kassidy has really grown-up this past year.  She is a huge help around the house, with her brothers, and also the dogs.  She has come a long way in reading which has been a blessing.  She doesn't struggle as much as she used to with sounding out words and now enjoys reading more chapter books.  Her writing has also improved.  She loves to color and write fancy letters (like bubble letters or fancy ones like Mama does!).  Kassidy tries very hard in school and has received straight A's both times this year so far!  I'm a little worried though because she already brings things home that I don't remember.  They are definitely all learning so much this year in second grade!  She has moved on from baby dolls (sadly) and is more into listening to music and crafts.  Sometimes it's hard to remember that she's only 8 and not give her too many responsibilities!  The biggest challenge right now is her little arguments or comments to Kaleb.  Siblings will bicker and fight for sure but hopefully less often in the future!  Kassidy enjoyed basketball cheerleading this past winter and taking tap each week.  We will have another recital this June.  I'll have to make another post after well visit next week with those details.

Well, it was definitely a long birthday weekend for Kassidy and she enjoyed every bit:)  Thanks to everyone who sent cards, called or texted.  You all helped make her 8th birthday a very special one!!!  We love you all and miss those of you who are out of town!