It was a surreal feeling to have a child turning DOUBLE DIGITS this year. How did this happen?? Our curly headed toddler is now so tall and *thinks* she’s so grown ;) Here’s how we celebrated her 10th birthday:
Brooklyn at ages 1-9…doesn’t feel like that long ago in some ways!
I surprised Brooklyn on her actual birthday (February 13th) by coming to eat lunch with her at school. This was my first time to eat with her this school year. Her face kind of fell when she first saw me, but I think after the shock wore off, she was glad that I came…and the fact that I brought a big cookie from Publix…haha. We sat at one of the tall tables by ourselves, and she told me about how her day was going so far. She is definitely growing up and has been going through a bit of a phase lately where she wants to have me around sometimes, but is embarrassed at other times. I try not to let it bother me because I know it’s just part of her getting older, even though it stings sometimes.
That evening, we had cupcakes after supper. Lots of sugar for our sugar-loving girl on her birthday ;)
I guess she needed a big breath even though it was only one candle? :)
After cupcakes, Brooklyn opened a few presents. We gave her some books and a couple of wooden things to paint for her room. She was excited and got busy painting them over the next couple of days (a tiger and a big circle for her wall). Abigail gave her a stuffed animal, and both she and Savannah drew Brooklyn very sweet cards. I think Brooklyn had a good day!
I loved both of their cards! Abigail drew a picture of Brooklyn and her playing soccer together, and I loved how Savannah drew Brooklyn and her holding hands.
This year, we did something a little different as far as a friend celebration for Brooklyn’s birthday. She wanted to invite a few friends to go to Altitude and then come back to our house for cake. She didn’t want to have her entire party at Altitude “because it’s too loud.” I agree, girl ;) And too expensive! (We saved a lot of money by just paying for the kids to jump for an hour vs. booking a party there.).
Anyway, she decided to invite 4 friends from her class (Audrey, Caroline, Whitney, and Addy), and all four could come! It turned out to be a fun group, and everyone got along well. I was a little nervous because Brooklyn hasn’t had a birthday party with friends in 3 years, and I didn’t know any of the girls that well or how they would interact. But they all seemed to have a lot of fun! The girls all came to our house at 1 pm, and then we drove to Altitude in two cars. Travis drove Savannah and Abigail separately, and I took Brooklyn and her friends in the van. It was funny to listen to all the random things they talked and laughed about. Brooklyn had a big time! We paid for a 1-hr jump pass for each of the girls, but they were actually allowed to jump for about 1 hr 20 minutes because of the time we arrived. They had a great time! It is also amazing to me how tall some of Brooklyn’s friends are! She has been saying for the last few years that she is one of the shortest in her class, and I guess it’s true. Pretty crazy!
Savannah was really sweet and stayed with Abigail most of the time. I was glad they had each other to play with while Brooklyn was playing with her friends.
It was Abigail’s first time at Altitude, and she was so excited!
I didn’t get many pictures of Brooklyn and her friends because they were running around so much, but it seemed like they had a great time. The girls were all so exhausted after jumping for about an hour and 10 minutes that they decided they wanted to finish 10 minutes early…haha. So we loaded up and headed back to the house for cake, chips, and fruit…
I let Brooklyn pick out her cake on Publix’s website, and she chose this design. I thought it turned out so cute!
Excited about her yummy looking cake!
Another funny blow-out-the-candles picture ;)
The girls were hungry after all that jumping at Altitude…
Brooklyn was really sweet when she opened her gifts and made sure to thank each girl and give her a hug. She got a necklace with her name on it, a book and Barnes and Noble gift card, a lion stuffed animal, and a mini backpack set that was really cute.
We ended the party with a scavenger hunt that had 10 clues since Brooklyn was turning 10 (that was her idea). The hunt led them to their goody bags to take home. They loved the scavenger hunt!! I definitely want to make a note to do that again for this age group. Some of the clues were a little challenging, but most were just right. Brooklyn said she wants to do a party just like this again next year ;) I’m glad she had such a great day!
We continued the celebrating at Cici’s house the next day. Cici surprised Brooklyn with peach dumplings for her birthday lunch…yum! She had frozen the peach halves in preparation last summer. Brooklyn was very excited!
We then had Greek yogurt and fruit for dessert…
Brooklyn was excited to get some new books, highlighters, and a couple of new shirts :)
Monday, February 20th was President’s Day, so Paw and Rae Rae joined us for lunch and gifts since the girls were out of school.
Brooklyn was excited about a new (bigger) soccer goal for the backyard, several new books, a fuzzy journal, and new dri-fit shirt.
She was especially excited about this huge pineapple squishmallow…
I got a kick out of Savannah and Abigail turning the big box into a rocket ship while Brooklyn was busy reading her new books :)
We had baked Hawaiian sandwiches for lunch and leftover cake/brownies for dessert. No need to buy or make another dessert since we had so much already!
Brooklyn is loving being 10 so far! We had fun celebrating her with family and friends.
