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!

Her paper flower she made

The food table before the food was put out

The table all set and ready to go

Another view of the table

The girls making paper flowers

Getting creative with their hats

Lots and lots of glitter was used

Looking beautiful in their fancy hats

Time to eat!

Ashlyn ready to blow out her candles

Opening presents

Halloween

     We were excited to spend our first Halloween in our new house.  We closed on our house just after Halloween last year, so this was our first year spending it in our new neighborhood.  A few days before Halloween, we carved the pumpkins we picked at the pumpkin patch.  The kids quickly lost interest, and Ella was the only one who actually carved hers.  My sister and I got stuck carving all the pumpkins.  They turned out neat though and I was quite impressed with how quickly we were able to get all the pumpkins carved.
     Halloween fell on a weekday this year.  This kids got to dress up and wear their costumes to school.  They also had class parties.  I was able to come to Dawson's class party which was a lot of fun.  I am glad I got to be part of his party.  After school, the kids came home and ate our yearly pumpkin shaped pizza.  The weather this year was a lot cooler than it has been in years past.  The kids had to bundle up more than usual to go Trick or Treating.  Our new neighborhood is just full of kids.  We had heard from many people to prepare for a lot of Trick or Treaters.  I decided I would pass out candy while Joey took the kids out.  I bought a ton of candy and was prepared for a lot of Trick or Treaters.  Since it was so cold, Dawson and Gracie only lasted about an hour or so.  They came back and had such a fun time passing out candy to Trick or Treaters.  I think they liked passing out candy more than they liked getting candy.  Ashlyn was on a candy mission, and stayed out for over two hours.  She came home with a ton of candy!  I think we had about 50 Trick or Treaters this year.  I think if it would've been warmer, we would have gotten a lot more.  We were left with a lot of candy, some of which I can take to work.  The kids said they had an incredible Halloween.

Pumpkin carving

Working on my pumpkin

Ella worked so hard on her pumpkin

This is the Bowser I did for Dawson.  We had it lit on the porch on Halloween, and we got a lot of compliments on it from boys.  

Jameson's Luigi

Ella did the skull

Pizza time!

Luigi fueling up

Pizza time!

Gracie went as Rapunzel since she has such long, blonde hair.  Ashlyn went as Hermione Granger from Harry Potter.  Dawson of course, was Mario/. 

He loved his costume

Such a pretty princess!

Unfortunately, you can't get the full effect of her costume with her coat on.  

Crazy kids