Ivy's 10th birthday

Ivy turned 10 on Sunday, January 19, 2025. Double digits! We had been doing a cheer comp for the two days before but we celebrated her properly on Sunday and Monday, which was a holiday. We love our little caboose!

We were all happy to move to 11:30 church this year. The early block is great too, but it has been so nice to have a relaxing Sunday morning.  (Except for Justin but even his meetings start later than they ever did last year.) Ivy asked for French Toast for her birthday breakfast so I was able to spend the morning making french toast and buttermilk syrup and we had whipped cream, bananas, and strawberries to go along with it.

We got ready and went to church.  I had a leftover crown from the cheer comp the day before and I told her she could wear it as her birthday crown.  It wasn't too over-the-top for church.

We get home later so she decided on a "snacky" lunch.  We had a cheeseball (homemade since it's not Christmastime and I couldn't find one to purchase) and crackers with a shirley temple to drink.  Then Ivy spent the afternoon decorating her cake that we had made a couple days earlier and put in the freezer.

My parents came up that day (they were bringing Molly home from her time in Plain City). They also brought Abby and Lucy with them and Ivy was happy to have some cousins to celebrated with as well. I was a little behind on dinner so they played, visited, and watched football until I got dinner to the point that I could step away. Ivy wanted to do presents first. She got a make-it mini and necklace from Lucy. From my parents she got the clothes she had picked out when she went birthday shopping, a mini karaoke machine, and a marquee letter "I" that lights up.

Lucy and Ivy

She wanted a scavenger hunt for her presents from us. Brynn put it together this time. From us she got her three favorite-at-the-time, requested treats (tropical gum, skittle puffs, and cotton candy), a go-kart for the hoverboard, Wicked Legos, and a Wicked sweater.

Dinner was ready so we ate after that. Ivy is my third child in a year to request yellow curry and that makes me happy. It's so good. We even got Grandpa and Abby to eat it this time. Grandma enjoyed it last time we had it. Lucy wasn't quite ready to try it but we'll work on her. We had garlic naan bread and salad as a side.

Ivy, Lucy, Brynn

We cleaned up while the kids played and Stockton got the go-karts put together. Then we had cake and ice cream. Ivy was happy with her cake-she did a great job and it was super cute! She picked cookie dough ice cream to go with her cake.

Since we had no school the next day, we stayed up and watched whatever Ivy wanted. Can you guess? No surprise, we watched Wicked. Justin and Stockton were good sports to watch with us but it wasn't without some snarky remarks that made the rest of us giggle. They especially loooooved when all us girls broke out into singing anytime a song came on.

 

Gene and April and Brett came up the next morning. They gave her some nerd clusters, her birthday doll, and a digital camera. She also got a scrapbook in the mail later that week for all the pictures she takes.  We kind of had some lunch and she talked us into starting Wicked again so Grandma and Grandpa could watch it. We only got about an hour in and they had to go. I had piano lessons and Ivy had clogging that afternoon but she still found time to figure out the go-kart and put her Legos together!

They celebrated her on Tuesday at school. Mrs. Hall always makes this big poster and interviews the birthday kid. The moose antlers are a Mrs. Hall staple-I'm sure Stockton and Brynn got the same poster for their birthdays when they had her in 4th grade.

The last bit of celebrating was done the next Friday night. It was not her year for a party so she had a "hang-out" instead. She invited Ali from clogging over, they had waffles with all fixings (buttermilk syrup, strawberries, bananas, whipped cream), they  made up a clogging dance and the watched a little bit of Wicked. They had so much fun together, I'm very happy they have re-connected these past couple of years. (They were in the same preschool class but go to different elementary schools so hadn't seen each other since then. I was the one who put it together that they were friends all those years ago. Ali was at Ivy's 5th birthday party in 2020-they've grown up a little since then!)

Ali Robinson, Ivy