Happy 7th Birthday!

It's Rose's birthday today, and we started off by opening presents. Doug made shortcake from scratch with sliced fresh strawberries and real whipped cream for Strawberry Shortcake for breakfast! We eat dessert first on our birthdays :)

Rose has been wanting a Nintendo DS for quite some time. I got to use one a couple of weeks ago, and I got hooked. We figure it will come in handy on the flight back and forth from China.

She got a diablo, and that cat thinks it's her new cat toy.
And grandma Mona got her this nifty fun Ant Farm. Of which Doug will be totally responsible for because I have images of ants escaping...
I'm borrowing my sister's camera since mine is broken. Here are some photo's off of her memory card that I thought were cute. Rose in the hat was taken 3 years ago when she would have still been 3 y.o.
This one cracks me up!! It's so typical of my mom, hugging a big honking box of potato chips. This apple sure didn't fall from the tree, hee hee.
Happy Birthday our dear Rose Rose, Rosebud, Petunia, Bob, Rosie, Bart, Rosita, Zhao Chong, Mei Gui and Sweet Pea!! Mom and Dad love you so very much, you bring us so much J O Y !!!!

Instead of a birthday party with friends, we decided to stay at a hotel overnight near the Mall of America, go swimming, hit the rides at Nickelodeon Universe, play in the Lego store, visit American Girl store and I'm sure a million other things. Sunday we hope to attend Passage to China at the MOA, her school is singing (she's not -we had to sign up about 2 months ago, and at the time we didn't know what her birthday plans would entail).

Now I'm off to Weight Watchers...after eating strawberry shortcake...doh! And it looks like nightime out because a storm is brewing and the sky is rumbling and it's eerily still otherwise. Just like her 5th birthday when at the beginning of her birthday party, it hailed horribly and tornado warning sirens went off and we had to herd all the kids and parents into the basement...