Molly's 11th birthday

Molly turned 11 on Friday, September 15th.  It was a school day.  For breakfast she wanted French Toast.  The day was looking to be busy so we gave her one birthday present that morning-it was a new bike, as she had outgrown her old one.  She wasn't really surprised since she had asked for a bike, had been to the store to sit on one so we'd know what size to get her, and she had accidentally seen it "hiding" in Justin's shop.  She would have preferred to have a surprise but she was happy about what we had picked out anyway.

She went to school and had a normal day there and when she got home Grandma Kay, Grandpa, Chloe, and Abby were waiting for her.  My mom had brought up the girls for Molly's birthday party that night.  Grandpa was not staying around too long, he had a hunt that weekend up near Strawberry so he was just stopping on his way through.  My parents gave her some clothes (that she had picked out when Grandma took her shopping), an American Girl activity book, and a soft new blanket.

At 6:00, it was party time!  It was her year for a friend party so we did that.  At first, she thought that she'd like to take a few friends bowling but once we looked into prices and tried to figure out who not to invite, she decided she'd rather do it at home and invite all the friends she wanted.  We originally planned on an outdoor late-night party with pizza, night games, and s'mores but the weather was not going to cooperate with that plan.  Go figure, the 14th was 70 degrees but the 15th plummeted 30 degrees so we went with Plan B which was inside games and a movie night.  This is who was invited:  Sloane Ellingford, Jackie Bingham, Faith Hendrickson, Chloe Walker, Caroline Turner, Abby Moyes, Tayvree Titus, Samantha Steiner, Regan Heywood, Kylie Bishop, Lydia Fredericks, Roxy Tobler, and Pallas Anderson.  Only Pallas couldn't make it.  It was a combination of cousins, ward friends, school friends, and soccer friends and I love how it blended so smoothly.  Everyone just played and laughed and had fun which each other and there were not any "cliques" made from the different groups.  It couldn't have gone better and I was so happy about that, for Molly's sake.

The girls arrived at 6:00 and we had pizza waiting for them.  While they ate, we played "Would You Rather" but instead of the girls answering what they would rather, I had them answer how they thought Molly would answer.  It was fun.

Molly planned the order of the whole party and the next thing she wanted to do was to open presents.  She got: boutique marshmallows and a unique roasting stick (which was super cute because it went with the theme of the first party idea), a stuffed tiger, her favorite box of cereal, a wooden "M" with some paints to paint it, a picture frame with a picture of her, Chloe, and Abby along with a decorated "scrapbook" of inspirational quotes, a homemade pillow made from soccer fabric, candy, an art kit, sporty headbands, an origami book and paper, stuff to make homemade bracelets, stuff to make glitter bowls, art supplies, colorful pens, and a Quench-It gift card.  All perfect for an 11-year-old girl!

Sloane and Molly

Molly and Chloe

Molly and Abby

Samantha and Molly

Molly and Kylie

After dinner, we moved back into the kitchen to make some candy sushi.  I had found some ideas online and spent all day making tons of Rice Krispies, cutting up little candies, and divvying everything up into baggies for each girl.  I had made some so they could look at mine and copy them if they wanted, or I told them to go ahead and come up with their own designs.  Some of the girls had a hard time working with the rice krispies because you did need to roll them tight but I think overall they had a lot of fun just being creative and silly-and filling up with candy.  I thought they turned out cute!  They took them home as their party favors which was great because I don't do party favors.

Some girls finished early and since there was a bit of a break in the rain, they headed outside.  Everyone else followed and they spent about 30 minutes outside-ziplining, playing soccer, jumping on the tramp, and trying to play Sardines.  They didn't last too long because it really was cold and no one had come prepared to be outside.  Plus it was damp and muddy in spots.

We ended the night with bingo, charades, and a movie.  The girls chose Enchanted.  We had tons of popcorn and plenty of candy to mix in with the popcorn.

We promised a late-night and a late night it was!  All the mom's came at 10 to pick up the girls but one mom forgot and didn't get her daughter until 10:45.  Whew!  Overall, it was such a great party and Molly was so happy that it went so well.  I am glad we were able to give her a party and that she was able to have so many of her friends over for it.

Her day was so busy and Justin didn't get home until well into her party so we had a few small gifts to give her the following morning.  Her favorite treats (Skittles, Milk Duds, and Sixlets) and a dice game called Farkle.  The rest of the Saturday was filled with her soccer game and Stockton's baseball games. 

We celebrated on Sunday with Gene and April.  It was a joint celebration with Molly and Cameron, whose birthday is on the 18th.  They didn't mind sharing it.  We had dinner and then the two birthday kids opened their presents.  Molly was given some more origami paper and a large book with different things she could make, a small beanie boo (from Cameron's grandma Nancy which was so, so nice of her), a pillow for her bed that says "just one more chapter," weird but true books, and her 11-year-old doll.

I was feeling a little bad that we didn't do a cake for her party (we had plenty of treats without it) so we made some cupcakes for Sunday.  You can't tell, but I tried to make the cupcakes look like a soccer ball.  A for effort, right?!

Happy Birthday, Molly!