Malia's 8th Birthday Celebrations

Malia had been telling us she really wanted a surprise birthday..meaning she wanted us to host a big gymnastics party or a Lazar tag party or something along those lines like a lot of her friends do. We don't do those kind of parties, primarily because they are ridiculously expensive. We opted to surprise her by taking her and the family up to Brookings Oregon for the week-end. We had several gift certificates for hotel and food up there so away we went.

We of course stopped at the Paul Bunyan pit stop and spent some time in the gift shop. It seems we have a ton of pictures of the kids with Paul and his Ox babe or sitting on his boot, this trip of course was no different. Malia had to have her picture with Paul Bunyan as she stood next to his boot.

Janelle and Malia at one of the restaurants we ate at. We had a great lunch, got completely stuffed and enjoyed cupcakes and singing to Malia here. The sun glasses were something she really wanted as a gift as well, and she seemed to wear them non stop for the week-end.

Malia and her brothers, Austin says this picture is face book worthy and is going to be his new profile picture, Zachariah says no it will be his. Austin was really tired as well from all the swimming and Marco Polo playing we did in the pool (it was indoors) together as a family. We had a lot of fun and truly enjoyed celebrating Malia and the joy she brings our family.

We stopped at the aquarium on the way home and had a little surf time too. Malia wasn't sure about this but was a sport and jumped on the board.

Royce had no hesitations and jumped on the board to show us all how it is done..with style of course.

Our beautiful birthday girl in the birthday hat. We had lasagna for dinner since that was what Malia requested for her birthday dinner, along with garden salad and garlic bread. We enjoyed a cherry cheese pie for Malia's birthday dessert.

Malia loved all her gifts and the surprise of going away over night, we had a lot of fun and truly enjoyed the time together as a family. Malia was delighted that we got to swim, that was one thing she really wanted to do for her birthday week-end as well. We are so blessed to have Malia and all that she adds to our family. Malia is a delightful, happy little girl with the sweetest little spirit, we love her more than words can express. Happy 8Th birthday Malia dear!