Olivia's 11th Birthday

Olivia turned 11 on August 1.  It is unbelievable to Joe and I that she is 11.  We clearly remember bringing her home from the hospital, taking her car seat out of the car and into the house, and then looking at each other and saying "now what?"  As we enter into the tween mood swings, we still look at each other and say "now what?" !!  Olivia once again wanted a big slumber party for her birthday (9 girls), followed by a family party, and the overall theme was her ongoing obsession of Sock Monkeys.

The girls started with an all out water war in the backyard.

The girls then moved on to pizza and chips.  It amazed Joe and I how much tween girls can eat!

The girls then had fun playing something that they created during dinner - a super hero trivia show, complete with Olivia as host.  This gave Joe and I great joy to see the girls acting as girls and not like teenagers!

Olivia with her fantastic birthday cake - vanilla cake with a chocolate ganache filling!  Sock monkeys of course!

We surprised the girls with a unique candle that had a big flame that turned into about 12 lighted candles that rotated while the song Happy Birthday played.  It was a hit!

Another scene that I know we will not see at age 16 - somehow they began to challenge each other to eat the cake with no utensils.  Let's just say that many napkins were needed for clean up!

Olivia and her friends with the traditional contest of creating a costume with toilet paper, foil, and duct tape.

While I enjoy the signs that they are still young, here is a sign that they are growing older.  All of the girls spent considerable time painting and decorating their nails.  The night ended with them watching a movie before falling asleep around 1:30am (which is earlier than previous years!).  We followed that with a donut breakfast before the fun ended.

After a quick clean up of the slumber party, we moved on to the family party to complete Olivia's birthday weekend.  Olivia requested a burger bar, her favorite shrimp cocktail, and a chocolate buttermilk cake.  Olivia had many gifts to open between both sets of grandparents and Joe and I.  This picture perfectly captures where Olivia's laughing style comes from!

The cell phone.  That is what Olivia talked about for months before her birthday.  Wanting a cell phone to check Instagram and texts and email.  Wanting one to play games and listen to music.  Joe and I put the magical phone in the bottom of a gift bag, topped with lots of little gifts (socks, a purse, temporary tattoos, etc.).  Before opening presents, Olivia looked disappointed at her pile since she did not see a gift in the shape of a phone, but she was too polite to complain about this.  We gave her the assorted gift bag as her last present to open.  At first she had a look of sadness, even though she never said anything.  When she got to the phone on the bottom of the bag, she seemed to first be in disbelief and then ecstatic.  She didn't let go of the phone for the rest of the day, loudly singing along to Taylor Swift with her headphones in.

Family picture time!  Happy Birthday Olivia!  We hope that you have a fantastic year!