Rylee's 8th Birthday!

 We had so much fun celebrating Rylee's birthday this year and Rylee loved turning 8! 

We started off her celebrations the weekend before her birthday. Our tradition for turning 8 is they get to pick a date out in the city. Rylee wanted Wendy's for lunch and to go to Uptown Jungle (a fun park) in Sandy that we went to a couple years ago. 

We got Rylee some Wendy's and then went over to Five Guys for Ben and I. Rylee loved the fry sauce dispenser there 😂 It was a long drive, made longer by the fact that Rylee got carsick for most of the ride. Getting food at Wendy's helped her a lot. She wanted to listen to Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians on the way out. 

Then it was over to Uptown Jungle!

She started off doing their area with different climbing things. You wait in line for a harness and then they have different climbing areas that you can do. 

Then she ran around the play area for a couple hours. Ben went and did some basketball and different things with her and she found some kids to play with. She had a total blast and kept telling us how much she loved the place. 

After Uptown Jungle, we went over to Eric and Alison's for a surprise birthday party for my grandpa. We planned to do Rylee's birthday date to coincide with the party because we really wanted to attend. Rylee was super excited to go—when she would tell people about her upcoming date, she would tell them all about how she got to go to her Papa's party rather than mentioning the fun park or Wendy's. The party was fun, it was really nice to catch up with some family and to be tehre for my Grandpa. 

Rylee wanted an "animal" theme for birthday, so the night before I set up some streamers, balloons, and put party hats on some of our stuffies. She loved it. 

We had her open our presents before her party, since they get a "friend" party when they turn 8 (and a family party for their baptism). Ashtyn spent a lot of time leading up to her birthday making her different presents and she loved them. 

Rylee has been wanting a Kindle for over a year now, but we felt like waiting until she was a stronger reader was the right move. She was super excited to get her Kindle and now we have a hard time getting her off it to do anything else.

And homemade donuts! 
We had an Activity Days activity at the park the morning of her birthday. I made the donuts, we ran over to the park for the activity, and then we came back to enjoy the donuts!

Rylee picked her invitation on Canva from the different templates. It was not what I was thinking and definitely not one I would have picked, but she loved it, so we went with it. 

Rylee wanted to do a swimming party at her Grandma Lindi's pool. It was great, because all the kids had fun and I didn't have to entertain a group of kids for two hours. I loved it and so did Rylee. 

Our decorations were minimal because it was outside at someone else's house and the wind did come up a little. 

Rylee wanted an ice cream sandwich cake and Ben helped me decorate it, I was happy with how it turned out and Rylee loved it. 

Happy birthday Rylee! 
I only got the end of the singing because I had left my phone outside.

Opening presents!

And swimming! 

The kids all had a blast. When parents showed up, we had a hard time getting the kids out of the pool because they were having so much fun. 

After the friend party in the afternoon, we stayed at Lindi's house and had family come over to swim and have pizza. It was a fun evening and Rylee loved having a friend party and then spending time with family. 

It was a great birthday. We are so glad Rylee is part of our family and loved celebrating her in a way that helped her feel special and loved 💗