Ashley, a whole decade old!

Happy Birthday to you
Ashley
Ten whole years!
We can hardly believe it!

Ashley has been planning her birthday party for over a year, hoping that I would let her have a sleepover party. We decided since she was only going to invite a few of her closest friends that that would be ok. She was thrilled. So, first came the invitations.

I think they turned out pretty cute.

Next came the decorations.

I made some popcorn bags out of white paper bags I had...

and some fun festive pinwheels to decorate with and to send home with each girl.

We had large lollipops to send as favors as well since Ashley had requested LOTS of candy and choclate to be consumed durning the duration of the party.

We were set for a great time!


First, we had them each make their own pizzas.

After dinner, Ashley opened her presents and I love this picture of Nicole's face as she realized Ashley just got the Justin Beiber CD. I wish you could have seen those girls dance to that song Baby. It was pretty funny. It was Ashley's first time hearing him, but I think it helped for her to see how much her friends loved him and knew those songs by heart!

Next, they each made a sundae...or at least a huge bowl full of toppoings! It was funny to watch.

After sundaes, the girls each made little booklets. It was a fun craft, and they each got to choose how their own would look. We gave them each a pen to go with it and the spend the next little while running around jotting things in their new notebooks. It was cute to see.

So, now that it was pretty late, with just a movie left, we thought that they would all get tired and hopefully some would even fall asleep. We started the movie around 9:45 I think. You would have thought that maybe they would be a smidge tired...

Somehow, though, the movie idea didn't work like we thought (the "we" meaning Larkin and I.) The girls were wide awake through the whole thing and even more hiper when it was over...Larkin and I were worried it was going to be a LONG (or should I say LONGER) night. After we hid all the rest of the candy and chocolate, hoping they wouldn't find the rest, we asked them kindly to please stay in their sleeping bags and if they were going to talk, to do it quietly. That lasted 10 minutes tops. After a couple trips downstairs, and the clock past midnight, Larkin and I fell asleep, not to be awoken again until 7:00am, thankfully. It sounded like they went to sleep as well, around 1:00 in the morning...not too bad, I guess.

That morning, we made scones and "special drinks" (orange julius)

and the girls had fun playing together.

It was the best party ever, according to them, so I guess it was a success. It is atonishing though, the noise level, just a few happy girls can create. In fact, our 5 year old alone can reach that level, a "talent" (for lack of a better word) I'm afraid comes from her mother...

We are glad to have a ten year old in the home and so happy that it's Ashley.
Happy Birthday!