Gwyn's 11!!

     I can't believe I've been a parent for 11 years!  Gwyn should not be 11 years old.  But she is.  She's only going to keep getting older.  There are good things that come with age too.  I love that I can have normal conversations with Gwyn.  I love that we can read some of the same books, watch some of the same movies, listen to some of the same music.  I love that I don't have to fix her breakfast for her or dress her.  I love that she still does ask me my opinion about what she wears though.  I love that she can think through things and make good decisions.  She is turning into a young lady that makes me very proud.
 
    Gwyn wanted to go to the meadow on her actual birthday.  She was very excited to share this special place with Mimi and Papaw.  They played in the water.  Gwyn spent quite a while arranging rocks into a wall.  That's one of the ways she's always played.  I remember her lining the Little People up in a line across the toy box.  The Little People are gone, but she still plays like that sometimes.  While we were at the river, we saw a lot of butterflies.  The girls really enjoy trying to get them to light on their fingers.  They don't actually do this very often, but when they do it's quite exciting!  Of course the butterflies don't cooperate very well with photography and children so that exciting moment doesn't usually get captured.

     Gwyn's special gift this year was a Kindle Fire.  She was VERY excited to get her own tablet.  She's been asking for one and saving her money for a long time, but between the grandparents and us we were able to surprise her!

     Gwyn chose to eat at Buca di Beppo for her birthday dinner.  We sat at the Pope table and she got serenaded.  The food was good and as usual was too much for us all to eat.  Then we went home to eat Chocolate Bomb Cake.  This cake could also be called Death by Chocolate.  It's pretty intense and we were all pretty miserable after stuffing ourselves with pasta then cake.  But it was a sacrifice worth making to celebrate Gwyn.

 
    Gwyn's friend party was Hello Kitty themed.  We had it at Oregon Ridge.  Even though the beach is "closed" we planned to have a sand castle competition and play anyway.  Nine of Gwyn's friends got to come and celebrate.  They all had fun building their sand castles.  I made Jason be the judge and we gave out prizes.

     Then the girls all took their swings at the pinata.  I refuse to spend $15-20 on a cardboard thing that is going to get hit with a stick and then thrown away, so we made one out of party hats and filled it with chocolate coins.  In retrospect the weather was too hot for chocolate coins, but they sure had fun hitting it.

 
    The rope from the pinata got used to play tug-of-war.  It was a nylon rope and not intended for tug-of-war, so I think a few girls got rope burn.  But again, they had fun in the moment and no one was bleeding so I guess that worked out.

     Finally Gwyn got to open some more presents.  Her friends really gave her a lot of very nice and thoughtful gifts!  I am so thankful that Gwyn has made good friends here!

     So all in all Gwyn's birthday was fun, both the actual day and the party day.  She says it was one of the best birthdays she's had and that's what matters, that she felt special and celebrated on her 11th birthday.  Happy Birthday Gwyn!  We love you!