The DeLorme Family: Ashlyn's 10th Birthday

Our amazing, beautiful first born daughter turned 10 years old earlier this month. I can not wrap my mind around the fact that she is now ten years old! My how the time flies. She was so excited to finally be in the double digits. She is such an amazing girl and I can't express how blessed we are to have such an incredible daughter. She is so incredibly smart and she is excelling in school like always. She is such a caring and sweet girl. She usually does a great job being the oldest of all the kids and helping her younger siblings and cousins. She has a huge heart and really cares for others. I am so proud to call her my daughter and watch her grow into the amazing girl she has become.
Ashlyn's birthday fell on a Monday this year. On her actual birthday, we just held a small family party after school was out. She decided to mix it up this year and wanted to go Fargos for her birthday dinner. We had a nice time eating pizza and celebrating our special girl. After dinner, we went back to our house and had the homemade chocolate cake that she requested. She got to open her presents from all of us. It was a very nice, low key way to celebrate her very important day.

The kids table at dinner

Celebrating with some orange soda

These two are too much sometimes

What a happy birthday girl!

This is the cake I made Ashlyn this year. She insisted that it be chocolate. I made it all from scratch. It stuck a little when coming out of the pan, so it was a little sloppier than I would've have liked. However, it was made with lots of love and it was really tasty!

Lots of presents!

Ready to blow out the candles. What a beautiful daughter we have!

The kids all love watching the birthday child open their gifts.

Last year, Ashlyn did not get a birthday party with friends because we had just moved into our new house days prior and I couldn't make it work. She didn't not let me forget this for an entire year. Even though life is beyond crazy for me right now, I wanted to make sure that she got a really nice party this year. She wanted to have a tea party last year, and decided she wanted one this year too. I started planning her party months in advance. Ashlyn and I had a great time planning all the little touches for her party. I wanted to make it very special for her.

Ashlyn ended up having seven of her closest friends come to her party. All the guests were asked to wear their favorite dresses. When the girls arrived, my sister taught them to make origami flowers. They all had a great time learning to fold paper. After the flowers, the girls got to decorate hats for their tea party. I made the hats out of paper bowls and plates. I put out all sorts of flowers, sequins, and glitter and they went to town decorating. Glitter was everywhere, but they had so much fun decorating their hats and I loved seeing the different designs they created.

After some craft time, the girls were ready for the big event: the tea party! We had a great spread full of yummy tea party delicacies. I was not sure how the girls would like tea, but they all loved it and drank a lot of tea! Most of them said they had never been to a tea party and they all really liked it. The best part was listening in on their silly conversations while they ate and drank. Once they were full of tea and food, we played some tea party bingo. Ashlyn opened her presents, and then the girls full of sugar, ran around the house for some time before their parents arrived. Ashlyn said it was her favorite party ever and I am so glad that she finally got the tea party that she has waited a long time for.

The fun wasn't over yet though. We let Ashlyn invite her three closest friends back over that evening for a slumber party. This was her first time having more than one friend spend the night. The girls were all so well behaved and the did a great job of entertaining themselves and they all got along great. I think they were all even asleep by 10:30 or so. I think her first slumber party went very well.

My gorgeous 10 year old

The beautiful new dress her Gram bought her

Ashlyn in front of the food table. My friends and I made the paper flowers above the table a few weeks prior. They are now hanging in Gracie's room and I love the way they turned out!