Birthday Fun

Paige turned 9! How in the world do I have a 9 year old!?! Time truly goes by too fast but I have loved being her mom and watching her grow and develop into the beautiful young lady that she is. She truly partied it up and had a party the Saturday before her birthday with friends and then one with family on her actual birthday. This year she decided on the theme of arts and crafts and that is exactly what she is all about these days so it was perfect for her.

For her friend party, the girls first started off making bead bracelets while we waited for everyone to arrive and wait for Nate to get the pizzas for lunch. Then after they ate, they did a lilac painting. I showed them step by step pictures that I found on a website. They first painted a greyish background, then used skewer sticks to paint the stems, and Q-tips to paint the flower part.

They then played a fun dice game with candy.

And last they decorated cupcakes for dessert. While they were decorating since we were running out of time, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Paige and they got to see her open up the presents they got her.

Paige is sure lucky to have such great friends and she had so much fun with them. She hasn't been with friends that often with online school so it was fun to have a social event.

What a cute and fun group of girls!

Then we had fun celebrating Paige again on her birthday. Anna and Scott's family came over along with Nona and Pops and we had egg salad sandwiches (one of Paige's favorites) for dinner. Then we did a sunset canvas painting with palm trees. I printed out a picture of the end result and then we all kind of did our own thing. It was fun to see everyone's creativity. 

These two had more fun with the water and painting their plates but they sure had fun making a mess. :)

Then we played the dice game that she played with her friends.

Then it was cake time! She asked for a chocolate cake from Costco this year which I was absolutely fine with. It is one of my favorite cakes and I didn't have to make it. The only candles we had were sparkler candles and they kept up scaring her which is the face in the picture on the top and they were pretty hard to blow out but she finally did it.

She then got to open presents and was even kind enough to let Baylor open the first one. After that though Baylor had a hard time with the fact that her sister was getting on these presents and she didn't have any.

Baylor got Paige a big bag of her favorite candy- watermelon sour patch and the top three pictures are a series of the sweetest interaction between the two. She got so many fun things and she is truly so loved.

I have loved every minute with this sweet birthday girl! She is so incredible and so close to heaven. I love seeing her sweet testimony grow with experiences, learning, and her just asking questions. She has already had answers to prayers and that has helped her relationship with Heavenly Father grow. She loves to learn new things and excels at school. She truly is a great student and a great example. She is the most incredible big sister. She constantly helps me with Baylor and is always doing things with Baylor and making her little gifts or creating some activity that Baylor can do. She has probably taught Baylor more things than I have. She loves to do anything crafty and loves to create. She has the most incredible, creative mind and can create anything she wants to. She is determined and likes to take lead but can also be shy and timid in new situations. She loves to dance and do gymnastics and would love to take classes if they weren't so expensive. She loves to explore new places and I always come home with rocks and shells that she has collected on all of our outdoor adventures. She is my little bookworm and once she starts a book she has to finish it in one sitting. She wants to know how it ends and just can't put it down even when it is bedtime and I tell her to just read until the end of a chapter but she sneakily keeps going until I ask her to stop. She is very detail oriented and likes to organize things on her own terms. She is very helpful. She loves to cook and one week did all the cooking of the meals for dinner. She especially loves to cook anything chocolate (I don't know where she got that from..) She has also recently started to take an interest in playing the piano and loves to figure out the notes in a song and plays it over and over until she can do it. Once she starts something, she is going to finish it. She truly is a joy to parent and I love her with my whole heart! Happy birthday sweet girl!