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Do We Really Have a TENager?

That cute little picture will make a little more sense when you read the rest of the post. Somehow, it didn't get included in my original upload and it is a pain to rearrange the order of the pictures once they are up.

We celebrated Emily's birthday this week and it was tons of fun. The only thing I don't like about when our oldest child has a birthday is that it makes me feel a little older too. However, having a TENager (I stole the phrase from Rick's Uncle Troy) is definitely something I'm up to. We are so blessed to have this wonderful young lady in our family. She provides a strong positive example for her brothers and sister and she is a joy to all of us.

So, here's what we did to celebrate Emily's 10th birthday. We spent the morning at the beach (Kent Park--it's just a lake--maybe even man-made--boy, do I miss the ocean). We packed a picnic so that we could stay longer. Ricky was excited to try out his new lunch box for school. We have been promising him all summer that we would help him practice for all-day kindergarten with a few lunch box picnics, and this was his first one. He did great and felt so special.

At the beach, the kids built some magnificent sand structures. Emily spent a lot of time on a sand castle with a moat.

She got a little frustrated with Andrew's "help," but once we had a picture, she didn't really care much what happened to the thing. There was a huge group of day care kids that showed up about 1/2 before we left. They thought her castle was cool and before we left, we deeded it over to a few of the boys who had been hovering around. As we were walking away, they were sharing their grand ideas about how to make it bigger, etc. By the time we were almost to the car, I turned around and saw the castle had already been obliterated.

Ricky and Andrew dug a big hole in the sand.
Makayla made a "swimming pool" for Andrew.

After our day at the beach, we came home to make birthday cake and Hawaiian Haystacks for Emily's birthday dinner.

Emily got some cute presents, but my favorite was the sponge curlers that were requested on her birthday list. I had pink curlers just like these when I was her age.

After dinner, presents, and cake, we got a phone call from our good friends, the Davis's. The kids loved talking to them. Emily, especially, felt very special that they called on her birthday. She said, "Talking to Alison brightens my day"--as if her birthday wasn't already bright enough.

The next evening, Emily had her two good friends over for a sleepover. Unfortunately, I was too busy organizing the festivities to take any pictures.
We ate Papa John's pizza, watermelon, and pink lemonade for dinner. After that, I took the 6 kids (our little Mergenthalers plus two friends) to the pool to swim for a couple of hours until bed time. Makayla and Emily went down the big water slide for the first time and loved it (again, too bad I didn't have the camera around for that).
We came home and put the little ones to bed. Then the girls watched the newish girly Disney movie "Princess Protection Program" while eating popcorn, cake, and ice cream. After the movie, I sent them down to the basement to do their slumber party thing and I went to bed. They stayed up until around 1 a.m. playing Clue and talking. In the morning, I made them banana and brown sugar muffins with fruit and hot chocolate. That's the only thing I took a picture of.
Overall, it was a great birthday, but, as I'm writing this, I have a group of grumpy kids to look after. I should not have let Makayla stay up to watch the movie. And, I think having friends over to play is a good distraction for everybody. The boys were disappointed when they left and now they are all telling me how bored they are and badgering me with questions like, "What can we do now?" I told them they are always welcome to clean the house, but I will be taking a nap today.

Comments

Debbie said…
Happy Birthday Emily! It sounds like you had a fun day. We love you and miss you :) love Tyler and Carter
August 7, 2009 at 11:33 AM
Chalonn said…
Happy Birthday...we love parties and staying up late...but man, the kids make it a nightmare, the following day..when will we learn! BTW-I love your haircut....really, really LOVE!!!
August 8, 2009 at 9:59 PM
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