Happy 7th Birthday Little Miss Mae

So, we branched off from the traditional party at our house 

for Little Miss Mae's birthday this year....

She seemed pleased with our alternative surprise party, though.  

Her BFF, as she refers to her,

(Best Friend Forever---for those of you not familiar with the term!)

got to ride home on the bus with Little Miss Mae.

This was the first time she has gotten to have a friend ride home with her from school,

so that in itself was a pretty big deal.

Then we let her open some gifts and then headed out to her favorite place to eat:

Red Lobster...

She ordered crab of course! 

 Sampa and Meemaw joined us from Washington state for the big event.....
 As it turns out, and was no surprise,

little Sammy took right to Sampa!
 
Yes, Sammy is named after his Sampa, 
and this trip was Sampa's first time to meet his new (and only!) grandson.

And although the restaurant gave us a table to seat 8, 
 the girls all wanted to clamor in the little booth next to our table with Meemaw!

 

The girls shared a little birthday dessert at the restaurant,

 and got to "pet" a live lobster!

Then we picked up Little Miss Mae's BFF's little sister 

and brought all the girls back to our house.

They had fun playing with clay;

they danced,
Little Miss Mae opened more gifts,

 and she was especially pleased with the 
"Happy Napper" gift from her BFF.

 Pretending to "nap" was a great party activity!

 More cake was served...

 And the next morning, 
Little Miss Mae's official birthday,

she got to open more gifts-

a gardening set from Grandma Tree will be perfect for the season.

 New clothes are always fun!

 Little Miss Mae got lots of books.

 

And K-Rae was especially pleased to be included by getting a new book from G-G too.

 Sampa took even more photos than Mom!

The Lock Ness Monster is Little Miss Mae's current favorite topic,
so these books were a hit of course!

Hmmmm....looks like Christmas morning!

Little Miss Mae got to celebrate at school too,
with special cake pops made by Auntie Kara.

Here's a pic of Little Miss Mae and her aide at school.

Little Miss Mae is modeling her new t-shirt she got for a birthday gift

from Mama and Dadda.

Yes, yes....much to Grandpa's chagrin, 
we're now cheering for the JETS,
and we are sure going to miss having Tebow here in Colorado.
And I'm not sure how Auntie Kara is going to get a marriage proposal 
from him when he's all the way out in New York!

Mom and snuggle bug Sammy survived another jam packed crazy full weekend,
and then crashed for some much needed rest!