Happy 12th Birthday, Aly!

Natalie always complains that she never gets to go to her cousin Aly's birthday parties. Aly's birthday is at the end of March, and invariably we are returning from Spring Break or something like that, so never have that weekend free. This year it worked out that I wasn't working. Since Natalie still isn't swimming right now, she didn't have a swim meet. Eric still had a soccer game on Saturday, and church school and a friend's birthday party on Sunday, so Patrick stayed home with him. Alex, of course, had sleepover plans as he does every weekend.

I was very happy that the girls allowed me to take this photo of the three of them. They are growing so fast and I want to remember when all three of them are together. I'm the oldest child in my family, followed by Melissa and then Cynthia. From left to right, Emily is on the far left--Melissa's daughter and the oldest of the three, having turned 12 last October. Aly is in the middle, and she is Cynthia's daughter and the birthday girl. Natalie is of course on the far right and my daughter, and she won't be turning 12 until August. Emily is the tallest, followed by Aly then Natalie. Emily and Natalie are sitting up on barstools here and Aly is standing a little behind them, so she only looks shorter. They are being "fierce". I rather liked the "attitude" in this pose.

This is a group photo of the girls at the party minus one that had to leave early. Some of them are also being "fierce", with my daughter of course front and center. I was really happy that Aly allowed all of these photos, because she shies away from the camera like Natalie does. Cynthia did a lot of planning for this party, looking for games to play, getting prizes, etc. We were happy to see Aly looking at these and other pictures after the party with a smile on her face. I was happy for the pictures and Cynthia was happy that Aly enjoyed her party after all the work she put into it.

The games were all so much fun, both from the participants' point of view and from my point of view. One of the games was "Foil Fashion" where three teams each got a roll of aluminum foil and they had to create some sort of fashion on a designated model. Melissa and I got to be the judges. Aly's team lost only because their creation fell apart. They had held it together with staples that didn't hold. By the time I took this picture, only the hat was left. The other teams held theirs together with tape. We were going to choose the middle creation in this picture, at first, because the dress they made was so cute. They used a jump rope as a belt and the outfit came complete with earrings and an unusual mouth accessory through which their model stuck out her tongue. We ended up declaring the outfit on the right as the winner because their creation was more creative because of the asymmetric one-shoulder design and the tapered train in the back.

My sister and her husband John just had a pool put into their backyard. It's been a drawn out process, but one that they feel was well worth it. Some of the games were inside and quite a few plus the eating was outside. It was such a beautiful day--perfect for a party.

This is a picture of Aly before she blew out her candles, looking embarrassed but still clearly enjoying herself. Some of the other games involved humming certain songs (that Cynthia had written on a card) that their teammates had to identify. One game involved using a straw to transport M & M's from one location to another, with the winner being the team with the most M & M's at the end. This was definitely a good one to have outdoors since there were M & M's all over the ground. Poor Aly was the only one who was not able to transport a single M & M. We even gave her another straw in case the one she had was defective. Another game involved the girls looking at a tray of items then trying to write down as many as possible with the winner being the one who remembered the most items.

After most of the games, the girls all changed into swimsuits and got into the pool. They were mostly in the hot tub because the pool was still a bit cool, although one girl went directly into the pool and stayed there because the hot tub was so full. They also toasted marshmallows and made S'Mores. John had an incident where the outdoor fire pit got too hot and wouldn't cool down. The guy that built it is a neighbor and when John called him, he came right over and used a temporary fix.

Natalie had a lot of fun and made friends with Aly's friends. I tend to be shy around big groups and I love that my daughter is not. I'm also happy that we were able to celebrate with Aly this time.