Ceci is SEVEN!

I'm pretty sure Ceci will go off to college and I'll still picture her as a toothless 3-year-old. I deceive myself into thinking she is staying small, and that I'll always be able to carry her around. But then I see a picture from our year in France when she really was 3-years-old and I stare in amazement at how big she is now. Has she really changed that much during this so-called transition time? And then this past week it happened. A big adult tooth broke through and began to grow in the beautiful space that has been there for three years. I'll miss that toothless grin. Luckily she has her other big tooth to lose...that buys me a little more "little" time.

We had a great day celebrating Ceci. We took muffins to art class where the girls showed off their guinea pigs, painted, and then ran and played with the other kids for a long while.

After lunch we had her birthday treasure hunt and were first interrupted mid clue when we found a sick mallard duck sitting on our driveway. We tried to corral it, catch it, and finally settled for getting it to rest in a shady spot. Next we found a rat who was unfortunate enough to live in our garage and eat our poison, and it lay dying from desperate dehydration. Tennie ran to get it water, and was quite upset to see another living creature die. Geoff kindly removed it to its blackberry bush grave. After much delay, and amazing patience on Ceci's party, we opened the treasure of many presents. After that we went out for some gelato.


It was 104 degrees outside so Ceci went straight for the nearby fountains. Tennie joined in. Adele thought of the long car ride home and declined.


Geoff and the girls rode a little train.


Ceci came home and played Barbies with Geoff (quite fun to listen to) while I made some pizzas and salad, and Geoff's mom made a delicious lemon creme pie (Ceci's birthday request). Yum!

Ceci literally dove right in!

Ceci is pure sunshine in my life. I am so grateful for the privilege of being her mom. Seven great years...and looking forward to many great years to come!