Go get her!

I am thankful for peaceful play.

The Big Day.

I don't feel old.....except when I think about me having an 11 yr old now... it makes me feel a little old. But that's ok. I love watching my Baby Rootbeer getting older.

We celebrated her birthday a day late. She kinda had a busy day yesterday. She left for school at 8:45am and I didn't see her until 9:00pm (a friend had invited her to go boating with them after school). And that was just for a few minutes before she rushed off to a friends house for a late night. But that's ok. She has been going through kind of a hard time with some friends so I thought it made her day to get invited somewhere with a new friend.

So we had cake and ice cream and presents today. She got Sea Monkies and Bubble Gum and everything else she asked for. She was extremely modest and didn't really asking for much and so we were able to get her the few things that she did ask for.

I am grateful for finding new things...like these candle that I had never seen before where the color of the flame matches the color of the candle. She loved those!

I wasn't thinking

Usually I have the whole thing planned out ahead of time and I know exactly what I am going to do and how I am going to do it. But here it is the day before her birthday and I just realized that I need to make a cake today. =/ I asked her what kind of cake she wanted and she told me a My Little Pony cake (which really surprised me because she doesn't ever really even play with them). So I thought,ok easy enough. I should have just made a regular cake but I decided to make my own fondant frosting (which I have NEVER done before). I just randomly picked a frosting recipe and hoped that it would turn out good. With a little practice I think it would have been much better, but it had lots of cracks in it and lots of wrinkles. oh well. It was still fun to try.

I am thankful that little kids don't seem to mind the imperfections.

One year older

Can it really be that 10 years ago on this day that I greeted my first child after she entered this world. That I stepped into my first day of parenthood. Trying to accept all the joy and worries that come with it. I look at her now and I can see a teenager hiding there. Everyonce in a while I get a glimpse of a more mature face. But it is only there for a moment before I see the young child again. It is kinda strange and it makes me sad, but proud (if that makes sense). I know that all too soon she will be grown. I think she is getting tired of me asking her to stop growing and getting older. But, hey, what can I say....at times I want that little baby back in my arms with her bright blue eyes stairing back at me.

Anyway...I should have posted a picture of her for this post since I am jabbering on about her. Well, tomorrow is the big day for her party. She wanted a circus party and, for the life of me, I couldn't find any circus party ideas....they all turned out to be more of a carnival. So we switched it to a carnival theme. So we had to get everything ready...including the cake she wanted. A clown cake. (I am not a big fan of clowns so I really wasn't looking forward to doing one). In fact she drew a picture of it for me and said I want it to look like this. I want the cake to be in the shape of a clowns body. I thought 'oh dear...what have I gotten myself into.' So it is going to be one of those pull-apart cupcake cakes. And as I am frosting it, it starts to look like it is a clown wearing a turbin.......oh dear it is going to end up on cake wreakers if I don't fix it! I did get a good laugh out of it! Maybe that is just because it was late when I was making it and I was getting worn out with all the preparations for the party.

I am so very thankful that Ashlyn is part of my family.