Stow Aways: April 2016

Okay, THIS is why I need to truly catch up on the blog and start writing in real time about what's going on in life. I know these blogs are already plenty long - mostly pictures, but I truly don't have memory of things unless there are pictures to remind me what happened/what we did. For April, all I have are mostly Harriet's birthday pictures. I'm sure there were other things that month, but I can't remember. So, Harriet gets a whole month to herself!

We started out the month with lots and lots of practice at the cheer gym. Harriet and Alexis were finally able to sign the front walkover wall and Erin signed all of them up to her back hand spring!

One thing that can be said about Harriet - she is a planner! She started writing these birthday plans several months in advance. It was quite the tall order. She and I decided that she really couldn't do a Hunger Games theme like she wanted because those movies are PG-13 and pretty grown up. Some of her friends might not have seen them, and their parents might not want them watching it at our sleepover. So, she graciously switched to a gymnastics theme and decided to take everyone to the trampoline park instead of ice skating.

I designed her cake to look like her multi-colored gymnastics mat that she practices on at home. I printed out photos of her doing a back walkover and stood them up with toothpicks on the cake. We thought that the age of 10 was just perfect for a 10.0 score at gymnastics!

She was pretty happy with how it turned out!

We had her friends over on a Friday night for pizza...

blew out the candles... Happy 10th birthday, my little darling! PERFECT TEN!

Opened presents...

Erin

Gilli

Aubrey

Olivia

Big Sis

Paige C. (who also shares Hattie's birthday of April 26th!)

BFF Alexis!

Paige G.

Mylee

took them all to the trampoline park - hoping to get them good and tired! (it didn't work)

Harriet and her friends... Gilli, Olivia, Alexis, Paige C., Mylee, and Paige G.

The whole crew, including Grace and Kayla (we let Grace invite Kayla along to keep her occupied.)

Then we brought them all home to sleepover!

SO MANY GIRLS! SO MUCH GIGGLING! SO MUCH STAYING UP WAAAAY TOO LATE!

Then, we fed them all again...

And managed to get all of their stuff back together...

Seriously- these girls and their marathon parties and sleepovers are exhausting. But I am so grateful that she has good friends who are trustworthy enough to have sleepovers with. They are the cutest and never get into any trouble. They just won't sleep!

More planning... Harriet made this at activity days and I thought it was pretty adorable.

And, her cat....

And, this random picture... I offered to take Grace and her friends out for ice cream. I try to get the teenagers together whenever I can so that they can be social outside of school. It is so hard to do when they are all so busy and have so much FREAKING HOMEWORK. I think Quintin was the only one who ended up coming. I sneaked this picture and they were all mad at me.

Sisters...

Then, we had Barbara, Earl, and Christine over for family birthday time and opened the gifts from my family too. She got sooo spoiled by everyone.

I love seeing her face when she is excited or surprised!

Daddy's girl...

On the day of her actual birthday, she took a gift over to her friend Paige because it was her actual birthday too! I love these cute birthday buddies :)

And, then, somewhere along the line, we started the tradition of taking the girls out for a birthday dinner (because... we haven't already celebrated 17 times!) Harriet usually chooses Dion's pizza or something like that. This year, she chose PARS! I could not believe it. She wanted to eat where I had eaten for MY birthday - at the place with the little tables and delicious hummus and chicken! I can't even... this girl is such a grown up sometimes, when I least expect her to be!

We lucked out and it happened to be a night when the belly dancer was working. The girls were mesmerized by her and specially her skills with her sword!