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| Trying to cheer me up on a difficult day, Canaan went out and got things to make me dinner. |
| And it was awesome. Pan seared steak with herbs and garlic, and root vegetables sauteed with fresh herbs. yum. |
| Loving on the new puppy. |
| Pretzel went for her surgery to be spayed. When we picked her up she was very poor and sad. Silas went and lay on the floor beside her for a long time because he said he knows how it feels to have surgery. Sweet boy. |
| Maggie's Ninth Birthday!! Hooray!! Maggie got to have a party this year, mostly due to the fact that she finally has enough little friends to have a party with! We had nine little girls altogether. It was a sleepover party. Her theme was the movie Tangled. |
| Rapunzel's braid wound down the banister as you came into the house. Hannah and Canaan and I used five large skeins of yarn, and it probably took well over an hour for the three of us to unravel and braid it all! But it looked cool when it was done, and we decorated it with flowers like Rapunzel's hair in the lake scene with the lanterns. |
| Our first activity was to make paintings. In the movie, Rapunzel loved to paint. I had little canvases and easels for each girl, and palattes and metallic and pearlescent paints. |
| I prepared everything for the party weeks ahead of time, but when it came to be party time, of course Hannah was my party director! And I am so thankful for her. She coached the girls on making their paintings. They all did a great job! |
| Time to eat! We decided to do fondue, sort of like something you might find at the Snuggly Duckling perhaps. We had a cheese fondue with lots of veggies and bread chunks and pretzels to dip. Then we had cake, which was pound cake, and a chocolate fondue with strawberries and marshmallows and other dippers. |
| She seriously would have eaten five cupcakes if I had let her. |
| They were all such sweet little girls and they all got along so well together. We were also happy to discover that some of the girls who we thought didn't know each other, actually knew each other through school or living in the same neighborhood! Cool! |
| One of the highlights of the movie was the floating lanterns. I ordered nine floating lanterns to set off. I was a little nervous about what happens to the lanterns when they go up. I was concerned about the fire, and I was also concerned about where it would fall and about littering. So Art had the idea of putting kite string on them, which was a good idea. We had one lantern that got away from us and boy did it ascend fast! If we didn't have the string, they would have gone up too quickly. |
| The lanterns were purple and yellow. The only problem we had was that it was raining that night, lightly, but still raining, so that kind of put a damper on them a little bit, but they still lit up and floated. The girls went crazy running around and having a blast. Canaan, who is the World's Funnest Brother, also brought out some fireworks and tried to hit the lanterns with Roman candles. I think they all really enjoyed it. |
| Then we came inside and the girls sat down and did hairstyles like Rapunzel, with braids and tons of flower clippies that I made to decorate their braids like Rapunzel's. I also got some colored hair extensions and attached them to clips. They seemed to like those. There was also beads and string for bracelets. Hannah, again, was the Best Sister in the World and not only styled the girls' hair, but let them play with her hair as well! |
| My gorgeous girl! She makes my heart sing!! |
| And so does this one! |
| The girls played and had a great time. We watched Tangled and ate popcorn and then they played and ate some more. The ones staying for the sleepover camped out in the living room and watched movies into the night. |
| The next morning we had blueberry pancakes and chocolate chip pancakes. Canaan made his famous candied bacon. Not sure if the girls were impressed or not! So, it's been a long time since I planned a birthday party, but I guess I wasn't too rusty because everyone seemed to have a good time, especially Maggie, and that was the point. I can't believe she's nine years old already! When we brought her home, I used to imagine what it would be like when she was nine or ten years old, and it freaks me out that it is here! And what a lovely, young lady she has become, against some great odds. She is beautiful inside and out, and I am so proud of her. |
| If you think you've burned your bridges, perhaps it's time to start swimming. |