Squanner had a birthday last week.  I can’t believe that she is 7.  I have mixed emotions about my baby growing up.  On the one hand, I love that she is getting bigger and that she is learning and growing and becoming her own person, albeit a –things-have-to-be-done-the-way-they-are-supposed-to-be-done, and sometimes a bit bossy—person. (I really don’t know where she gets that.)  I love the freedom that comes with having kids that are a little bit older, but there is a part of me that wonders where on earth the time has gone?  How did my babies grow up so fast?  Does that make me old now, too?
  I guess I have to accept that she is growing up, as she tells me in her I-really-can’t-believe-that-I-have-to-be-the-one-that-has-to-explain-this-to-you, voice, “Mom, I can’t help that I am growing up!”  
  Here are some pictures from her party.
  
  
  
  We don’t usually do big parties with friends, (too much work!) but I try and get them a bouquet of balloons every year.  There is a little party store by my parent’s house that I like to go to.  Their balloons seem like they last a little longer than balloons I have gotten other places.  I picked them up Friday night, the day before her birthday and I was a little worried that the latex ones wouldn’t be as high the next day since I got them a little early.  I don’t think I needed to worry.  This is what they look like today.
  
  These things are 2 weeks old!!  They just won’t die!!  You can’t see them all, but there are 5 latex balloons still hanging around. (We lost one about a week ago.)  Latex usually only last a couple of days at the most!  I asked Squanner if I could just pop them and she was very emphatic in her response of no.  I’m getting tired of looking at these things!  Seriously!!  Die already!!