Happy Birthday Ashley

Ashley turned 8 on Wednesday. She has been so excited that it was hard not to be excited with her for this birthday. As soon as she woke up, she wanted to open her presents. What? Your kids don't go immediately to opening presents in their pajamas?

She really does read the cards. She got The Nightmare Before Christmas on DVD and before she even realized what it was, Jon was jumping and calling out, "I want that!"

Raggedy Andy! Now Raggedy Anne isn't a loner. Sometimes I wonder how that girl fits in her bed with all the stuffed animals she piles on.

Later in the day I took treats in for her class. She didn't want cupcakes this year, because she, "ALWAYS has cupcakes." After a few ideas, we settled on baking brownie batter in ice cream cones and then frosting them with stabilized whipped cream. The entire time I was making them, I worried about transporting them. Obviously the idea was not completely thought out. I did manage to get them to school with virtually no disaster, which was amazing. The rain on the whipped cream as I was running into the school wasn't such a good thing, but it didn't wreck anything. Ashley was very happy with it, so that was that.

Saturday was party day. Originally, we were going to have a Spiderwick birthday party, but Ashley changed her mind. Then, we were going to go to the orchard. It is a good thing we settled on a small party at home. It poured on and off all day long. I had ordered some journal projects back when it was a Spiderwick party to use as field guides, so the girls made journals and girled them up.

Then, they played Hullabaloo and had a great time.

Time for cake and presents.



Now we just have to finish getting over this sickness and prepare for our visit from Grandma and Grandpa Warner and Aunt Katie for Ashley's baptism on the 22nd. Sami was sick on Tuesday and a bit on Wednesday morning. We thought it was done with that. Saturday, Trent started feeling ill and stayed locked in our room for the duration of the party as a result. Saturday evening Jon got sick. Ashley decided to join the group on the way home from church today. I hope everyone gets better as fast as Sami and Jon, who is already feeling better, did. I really don't like it when everyone is sick.