Happy Birthday Ainsley!!!

Hard to believe Ainsley is going to be 8 tomorrow!  She had a friend birthday party yesterday and I saw an older side of her that FREAKED me out.  I'm not quite ready for what's coming in the near future.  She was a little excited since she hadn't seen any of her friends the whole summer!  She decided to invite only her really good friends, which was great for us!  3 was totally manageable :o).  We went to see Maleficent and then came back to open presents and have strawberry shortcake.  Unfortunately, Ainsley got her first headache, but thanks to Ibuprofen, it passed quickly and she could enjoy her sleepover with Ginger :o).
Anne-Sophie, Ginger and Naomi

 In her happy place

She had a few birthday festivities before we left for California....Grandma took the girls to the American Girl Cafe and Aunt Liha took her to get a pedicure!

 Her toes are still looking good!

I feel like Ainsley grew up a lot in just the past couple weeks!  Her new gym camp wasn't going well and we were out of gym's to try and I suggested we go back to her old one and she was up for it.  Monday was her first day back and she was on cloud nine.  I could tell she was feeling confident and super happy to see her friends.  She learned a lot on this little gymnastics journey and she is better for it.  Things changed a bit at her old gym for the better, so I hope to be there for a really long time!
What can I say about Ainsley....she is my thinker.  We can talk and talk when she is curious about something...she'll fire question after question and I love that about her :o).  She's our stinker....poor thing takes after me and got BO at age 5, but thanks to our lemon tree, it is manageable.  She is super physical...loves to play take-out and is usually upside down in our house (I can no longer beat her in a handstand contest...not even close!) and goes a little nuts if she doesn't have that outlet.  She has the greatest giggle and laugh.  She is still the troublemaker!  We were reading old Christmas cards the other night and 2 of them mentioned her picking on Reggie-I'd like to think this is improving, but it is hard to tell since she has 2 targets now.  She is so sweet with babies and has such a mother instinct-she will drop everything to hold one.  She loves to cook with her Grandma's (I wish I could provide her with that opportunity more often, but I do not have that gift).  She is very protective of her brothers, intervenes when they are upset and tries to make things better (when Reggie lost his wallet, she gave him $5 of her own money!).  She is still our little teacher, although now she is starting to teach K gymnastics :-o.  Ainsley is a special girl with lots of love and laughter and I can't wait to see how she grows and learns this year :o).
She is 51 1/2 inches tall
She is 61 pounds