Carly Turns 12

Carly celebrated her 12th birthday on Friday, March 4.  Carly had a very full day – she went bowling during school hours as a reward to her homeroom class for earning the most money at the school carnival.  She had her piano lesson right after school and then we were off to the orthodontics to get prepped for braces.  Her appointment went a little long so she arrived a little late to her final activity days activity that afternoon.  Her leaders made a special treat to celebrate Carly’s advancement into young women’s.  We had less than two hours after all that running around to prepare for her birthday party.

Abigail was a huge help before and during the party.

Carly really, really, REALLY wanted to decorate cakes with her friends – a throwback to her last party at age 10 and just something she enjoys doing.  I dragged my heels on it for a few reasons:  not all 11-12 year olds care a lick about decorating cakes and could bore quickly, Carly has a few rambunctious friends and I could easily envision frosting wars breaking out, and preparing and baking individual cakes for a eight girls didn’t excite me.  Carly kept coming back to the cakes though so I went along with it, pleading with her beforehand to try and help me maintain control during the activity.

I saved myself some time and purchased a variety of pre-made colored frosting – probably not the most tasty, but a heck of a lot easier.  My issues with the possibility of impending chaos unfortunately had Carly policing her friends quite closely.  Thankfully, we were both able to relax and all of the girls seemed to enjoy decorating their cakes without any major incidents. 

You’d think our kids would be long over Minute to Win it games, but alas they are still a party favorite.  Abigail ran most of the games while I got some snacks ready downstairs.

Carly was very excited about her gifts.

We also played the Candy Ball game that my Mom introduced us to at our family reunion last summer.  It was a big hit!

We wrapped up the evening playing a new game dice game called 100s.  It sure got this group of girls screaming and excited – I’m sure the massive amount of sugar they ate during the evening had something to do with that as well.

The Fletcher family joined us on Sunday after church for dinner and dessert.  Having church from 1-4pm makes it hard to do much for dinner so we opted for tortilla soup since it could cook all afternoon in the crockpot.  Carly had had her fill of cake over the weekend and decided on 4-layer dessert and sugar cookie bars for her siblings with nut allergies.

Since Hannah’s birthday is only three days after Carly’s these two cousins often get to celebrate their birthdays together.

Carly’s final birthday treat was dinner with me the following weekend to redeem her free birthday burger at Red Robin – where the birthday girl got to eat my bacon.

Happy Birthday Carly!  We are so glad you are ours!