Birthday Weekend

Julia turned 11 February 27, Sunday. I made her cake Saturday. She chose this owl cake from Family Fun magazine. Didn't it turn out cute?! It was kind of a job to make. Not hard, just a lot of prep steps. I can never find plain chocolate wafers for cakes that need them, so always end up buying Oreos and scraping the frosting off. Then they had to be cut in half. The orange slices had to be cut. We were supposed to use circus peanuts, but I also couldn't find those at WalMart, Target or Vons. Crazy! Anyway. Julia and Austin decorated the baby owls. Cute, cute!!


I took pictures of Julia after church, on her birthday. Every day she chooses just the right earrings to complement her outfit. :)

I wanted a picture of all 4, since the last one was at Christmas. This is what happens: Julia was saying, "Mmmmm...I love my brother...!" and squeezed him tightly. Austin kind of liked that. Lauren tried to do the same to Caroline, who didn't like it!

Not sure what's going on here?? Caroline's sucking her Smartie [bribe!]. Austin is Muscle Man?

Awww...what a cute little bunch of kids. ;) Love their hands folded so sweetly. But you saw the first two pics above and know that doesn't always happen!

Julia with her presents

Brian and me with the birthday girl--Eleven years old already, wow! Brian's mom came for a couple days, and she took this picture.

Julia got lots of books, some clothes for Spring, Apples to Apples Bible Edition game. She'd played it at Awana and requested it. We played it that night together, and it was fun! She says it's her favorite game. She also got an outfit for her Felicity doll, and Elizabeth's accessories. She was surprised, and said, "How did you get those? I thought they were discontinued!" Hee hee--I have my ways. And told her as much. We did have some warning before Felicity and Elizabeth went into the American Girl archives last year. ;)

Sunday after lunch, we rushed Julia to Awana Bible Quiz practice, and Austin to Sparks-a-Rama games practice. Brian, his mom, and I went to the park next to church with the little girls. Lauren was practicing the monkey bars, and both girls liked Brian helping them across.

Grandma with the little girls.

Saturday night we went out for dinner to Olive Garden, as it's Julia's favorite restaurant. So Sunday we ate leftovers from there, for dinner. Julia blew out her candles when we sang, and then we ate that yummy owl! Lauren made the crown for the birthday girl, and watched closely to make sure it stayed on during the song. It did, but fell off shortly thereafter. :)

Happy birthday, Julia!