My baby turns 8

This is my beautiful 1st born Alyssa, she turned 8 (can you believe it?!?!?) on Thursday. In our church, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" turning 8 is a big deal because you have reached the age of accountability.  You are able to be baptized and become an official member.

Anyway, I really wanted this to be such a special, memorable birthday for her so we pulled out all the stops, thanks in part to my new addiction Pinterest.  My first sweet idea was to start a new tradition of a new birthday outfit which she is wearing in this picture.  Who doesn't like a brand new outfit especially on your birthday.  She was so excited to open this and wear it to school!

 Very first thing she woke up to tho was a balloon avalanche which I failed to take a picture of but was something like this, and Mr Loftin and I were laying in bed and heard her say "Whoaaaaa that was awesome" along with giggling from her and Bells!!!  Which in turn made us giggle with excitement!

And I wish I would've captured it on camera as well but with two littles in tow sometimes you just forget.  She has been dying for Mom to come have lunch with her at school for some time and I finally decided what better time would there be than her birthday, so that just what I (We) , Melayna, Sam, and I did!  We offered to take her to lunch when we got there but she wanted Mom to stay and eat at school and let me tell you I felt like a rockstar I loved it.  Apparently kids think you're really cool when your not at home, I don't know, because all my primary kids were coming up saying hi, giving hugs it was quite nice actually.  If you ever need to feel good about yourself go eat in the cafeteria its very cool and strange how cool they act like you are.  K, I'm way off subject but seriously tho it was a lot of fun and I will be eating there more often now!

Then came the preparations for the party.  We (I) should've started this at least a week before but you know how things go.  I decided kinda last minute I didn't want to do the party favor we've mostly done before which is candy and trinkets of some sort crammed into a bag and send you on your way, thanks for coming!  Which btw is totally fine and good. but like I said I wanted this one to be extra special, so Lys and I got onto you guessed it.... Pinterest and found the cutest Gumball Necklace for our party favor @ itswrittenonthewalls we wanted to make and it looked easy enough so we got to it!  And this baby girl of mine was such a great helper!

Who knew right?  Gumballs and Ribbon and wala!

Models

turned out kinda cute!!!

Here is the assortment!

Found these cute favor purses at Hobby Lobby for cheap!

So our party was a Glam party and we did it on her actual bday after school and  did  hair , makeup and  nails and dress-ups.  Which at this age is perfect because they don't get to do it every day yet and what little girl doesn't like to be a little pampered and dress up like that right?!

My funny husband (Mr. Loftin) took on the role of photog and was cracking me up, telling the girls to do all these wacky poses like (Deb from Napolean Dynamite) and Zoolander

I guess this one is like Gangsta thug life?  Not sure but they are hardcore cuties all the way!!! (Check Melayna out) Hah!

side note: please note Melayna keeping in full character  with her costume.   These are Alyssa's Besties at school the twins (Paige and Preslee) and Faith or Faithy like Alyssa calls her (who we are so sad is moving away at the end of the month).  They have developed the sweetest friendship it has been so neat to watch.

Ok so I didn't pull out all the stops exactly.......I know I know.

present time!

The two pics above are of the cute shirt we ( Bells and I) made for her!  On it is a picture of the two of them and the caption reads "I love being with u" totally Bella's choice and so cute and perfect.  We found these T-shirt transfers in my desk drawer back from when Ryan was playing ball for Oregon and I being his biggest fan would sometimes make T-shirts to wear to his games, so we found 1 left in the pkg and I mentioned to Bella maybe she could make sister a shirt for her bday and she was all over it!  Took a minute to remember how to do it again since that was almost 10 years ago but I figured it out and was so excited and she loves her shirt!!!  I love meaningful gifts the most!

I scored this on  Black Friday and was pumped!!!  It's an electric scooter and  I just feel bad we have all this snow and ice out here because it makes it hard to use this or the girls new bikes they all got for Christmas!  Oh well Spring will be here in T-minus 3 monthsish right?!?  We also got her tickets to the "Hip-Hop Violinist" Lindsay Stirling who she is pretty pumped about, seeing how I fibbed to her her before Christmas and told her they were all sold out, HaH!!  So sneaky!

These two loves of my life went out Sat night for the traditional birthday daddy daughter date and ate at Tepenyaki, lyssa's favorite and had a ball together!!