Birthdays and Baptisms...

We celebrated our sweet little girls birthday today ~ she is such an amazing little person.  Our little Casserific...short for Cassie the Terrific... is eight today and soooo very happy. 
A family tradition we've had for quite some time is that the birthday girl or boy gets to enjoy breakfast alone with Mom and Dad...Perkins is the restaurant of choice for all the little ones!  Must be that scrumptious hot cocoa and pancakes with whip cream and sprinkles.  I just love this time we have with them.  I think I might just look forward to it as much as they each do.  The only drawback...it is sheer torture for the ones left behind; I always feel just a smidge guilty for not taking them all along, but this is really such special treatment for the one celebrating their day.  They usually start asking if we get to go days before their big day, I find this question is asked more than any other, so this is definitely a keeper as far as family traditions go...
Getting the "Royal Treatment" at least once a year is imperative when you are a little Prince or Princess!!! 
Saturday is another big day for her, one she's been looking forward to for a very long time!  BAPTISM day...we took her out this morning and let her choose a beautiful new white dress for her special day ~ If you are looking for gorgeous little dresses for an amazing price, hit Costco -- could not have found anything better, I was thrilled!

Her Daddy took the day off and our entire family went to Sleigers, well it is actually called something liked Thousand Springs Pool or Hot Springs or Resort???  Not exactly sure, but to our family, it will always be called Sleigers.  What a fantastic day!
 I'm tellin ya we have a bunch of little fish...they are just swimming all over the place; jumping off the low diving board and then the high dive, flying down the water slide and making their best attempt at walking across "the log". 
The little girls prefer swimming around with their floaty-noodle-dealy-bobs...but just before it was time to go, Cassie mustered up some serious courage and made her way down the water slide and then on over to the diving board.  What an accomplishment for her!  How I wish I had photos to share...next time I'll have to sit out just to photograph all the fun...today I was too busy enjoying all the fun with my hubby and kiddos!

A huge thanks to Grammy and Poppa (my mom and dad)...for Christmas they drew our family name and gave us a day out swimming...we also have a day of bowling compliments of them.  Fun times!!!

It seems hard to believe we only have one more little one to be baptized after Cassie...how time flies!  Just a couple more years and then it will feel as if we've blinked and they'll all be grown up.

I am grateful that we have these happy days to enjoy each other...I know these will be the times they will remember...our crazy drives, our lunch from the coolers, our cheering each other as we accomplish something as fantastic as overcoming the fear of leaping from the diving board...so many memories, so many happy times!!!  I love my family...I really love being the Momma!

Family ~ that's really what this life is all about!!!