Mattie is SEVEN!

I'm not really sure how this happened. My sweet, precious baby girl turned SEVEN last week! Mattie girl is still keeping us on our toes as much as she did when she surprised us all two weeks early, seven years ago. She is inquisitive, hilarious, and a bit precocious. At seven, we are treasuring every bit of little kid we still get out of our beautiful girl . . . I will take all I can get of the snuggles, hand-holding and calling me "mommy." Mattie still loves her stuffed animals above all else (and everything animal), and plans to be a vet when she grows up. Mama's macaroni and cheese and watermelon are her two favorite foods, and she is devouring books!

Since we were going to be at the beach for her actual birthday, we celebrated early with an afternoon outing to the American Girl store with three of her special friends (Sadie, Rory Cate and Ada-Grace).

I love this sweet expression, looking so grown up!

Mattie LOVES gifts, surprises, celebrations, decorations and anything to do with her birthday! I have learned it works best to celebrate her from the minute she wakes up on her birthday until the sun sets. We can't delay too long on the present opening, or it is torture for everyone involved :)

We had a birthday breakfast for the birthday girl followed by present opening . . . .

Then headed off for her favorite beach birthday tradition - The Track in Gulf Shores has kids rides, go karts and an arcade. Mattie LOVES it.

Last year, Ben was scared of most of the rides, but this year he didn't hesitate once!

The big go karts are everyone's favorite!

I love that you can barely see Ben's head over the steering wheel!

Mattie LOVES the crane game. She begs to play it all the time. ALL THE TIME. So we let her play for her birthday (with her tokens), with the warning that she probably wouldn't win. She didn't last year, and it was pretty devastating for her. :)

And lo and behold if she didn't win on the very first attempt! Everyone in the place was cheering for her! A birthday miracle for sure!

And finally, my silly girl excited for her cupcakes after dinner! 

It was a great day to celebrate being SEVEN!