Our girl is 7! Her birthday was last Friday the 15th, and we had two full days of celebrating. Everyone here is still recovering, and I’m getting over a bug that left me with a fever upwards of 103 last night. Friday morning we were at school for her class’s birthday circle, then we left school for a day at Ikea (she asked for a new desk for her birthday) and Emerald City ComicCon. Saturday morning was her Wild Kratts-themed birthday party, and Saturday night we went to Monster Jam.

At ECCC we mainly stuck to artists’ alley, and the highlight was meeting Agnes Garbowska, one of the artists who works on My Little Pony and DC Superhero Girls. H got some signed  MLP prints for her room.

Her birthday party on Saturday was amazing. She wanted a Wild Kratts party, but there aren’t actually a lot of Wild Kratts-themed supplies out there. We’ve been so busy with work that I didn’t have time to make custom goodies and decorations, so I went with a general animal exploration theme.

We put out the sturdy Learning Resources magnifying glasses I love, animal print goody bags, and mini flashlights.

H and her dad hid little plastic animals all over the yard, and her party guests used the magnifiers and flashlights to go on a scavenger hunt through the yard. Whatever animals they found they could keep, plus the magnifiers and flashlights. Those were the party goody bags.

We also brought in Animal Encounters, a wonderful family-run company that rescues and raises animals and does mobile petting zoos. Its ethically run, and the kids had the best time meeting all the critters.

And then after the kids went home, we passed out for a few hours, got up, and headed into Seattle for Monster Jam.

I honestly have no idea what I watched, but there were a lot of trucks making a lot of noise. Our seats were so high up at Century Link Field that I could’ve touched Mount Olympus. We didn’t stay the whole time–after about an hour H had had enough, but she still declared it the coolest thing.

Sunday we stayed in our pajamas and didn’t leave the house all day so we could recover. It was an exhausting few days, but such a great way to celebrate this kid’s birthday, and her first birthday in Washington.