The day after school got out, Maren had her 11th birthday party (we are every other year for friend birthday parties). She wanted a cooking birthday party, so we started out by having each of the girls make a tea towel apron (or, hand towel, if you are not from England). These are super easy to make, but I still couldn't have helped 9 girls by myself. Luckily, Gramma Lana came to help with the sewing supervision.
They turned out pretty cute!
She opened presents.
They played a game involving saran wrap, candy and oven mitts.
And then they did some fancy decorating of cupcakes, using fondant, piping bags and tons of sprinkles.
At the end of the day, she was happy, so it must have been a success!
The next week was her actual birthday. She wanted some sort of animal cake, and the owl looked the easiest.
Dustin's sister and her family came in town the day before for a little family reunion and birthday celebration for his mom later in the week. So we spent Maren's birthday having fun with family downtown at the Church History Museum, eating orange chicken (her favorite!),
and getting her ears pierced!
She has done an awesome job of taking care of them and following all the instructions perfectly. So responsible.
That night we had all sorts of family over for cake and ice cream.
Happy Birthday Mimi!
Maren is growing up right before our eyes! She is an excellent student and worked really hard in school this year. She is a great friend to those around her. She keeps us smiling with her funny voices and jokes and silliness. She is very motivated for things that she wants, and she is not one to give up when she makes her mind up about something (hence, getting her ears pierced). She is an awesome example to her siblings and we love her so much!
We had fun with the Braithwaites being in town. We put the kids to work multiple times. They were awesome corn shuckers.
On Saturday, we spent the day doing service for Gramma Lana. We put some new bricks down around her carport, worked on a new path of bricks to her backyard, put a desk together and worked on some other things around her house and yard that she was needing done.
That night we celebrated her 70th birthday with a dinner and then an open house for her friends. There was no shortage of frosting on her cakes...
Her own gluten free cake.
It was a long day for this little guy.
We had a fun week with family, and when it was over, I needed a few days to recover, after so much planning of birthdays and birthday parties!
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