Seven Years Ago, Yesterday....

at 11:57 PM, on Easter Sunday, in the year of the Rabbit, I gave birth to Sophie (Sophie Loafie LuLu Bell for short).

To celebrate this momentous occasion I present to you - Our Day In Pictures!

At 6:00 AM it was present opening time. At our house, there is just no need to wait.

The birthday breakfast was chosen. Teddy bear pancakes were on the griddle. The one on the left is the one Sophie chose for herself, not because it was a great representation of a teddy bear, but because, "This one looks like a sea turtle!"

Artistic license DOES apply to pancakes.

We went to the place of my employment to pick up the birthday cake (explanation follows) and took some pictures around our creek/waterfall area that is on our campus. Isn't it pretty?

The chef that works at our cafe at work is named Elio, and he rocks. He occasionally makes these fantastic cake creations to feed to the ravenous hordes. I had noticed an insane chocolate creation on Monday and asked if I could buy the entire thing before he cut it up and sold it. It was beautiful and as Elio said, "made with 4 different kinds of European chocolate." (Oooh, la, la!)

He sold me the whole cake for 12.95.

I love him.

Then we were off to our favorite chiropractor to get all straightened out for our day of fun and frivolity.

He's a very serious guy and my kids just hate him, as I am sure is evident from the picture above.

Um...I tend to get lost in Tacoma although I have lived in this area for over 5 years. BUT, we did find a really cool side street that offered up a fantastic view of the construction of the new Tacoma Narrows bridge. (The old one is the green one and the new on is.....oh...yeah...the one with the crane on top.)

We finally made it to our destination of Point Defiance Park. It is beautiful there. Sophie was really able to center her Vulcan mind meld powers and "encouraged" the young boys to push her sister and her back and forth on this contraption.

We walked through the beautiful Japanese gardens.....

And stared into murky reflecting pools. (The water was really not that color.)

Then we went walking along this great path along the water. All down the sidewalk for almost a mile are poems and things. This one is my favorite.

We gave up on the poetry sidewalk and walked along the beach. There were big cliffs of trees and ferns and green that were blocking the sun at this point in the walk. Sophie has on my sweater and is shaking the sleeve down her arm. She is not pumping her arm in the air in a sign of victory, but she could have.

I love this picture. I love the silhouette thing. I love the blues. I love the ferry. It really just sums up the day.

This is "the cake"! Holy crap it was good. Hooray for Elio the chef!

I hope her wish comes true.

Happy Birthday Sophie!