Girl's Birthdays: 2013

With our girls having their birthdays one after the other, we try to have a big enough celebration that each feels special.  This year we were thrown for a loop, though, when Felicity was sick from the day before her birthday until a couple days after.  It's already bad enough to be sick during the summer, but then throw in your birthday, too!  Poor Lissy!  So we ended up celebrating a couple days late, and then Felicity had her friends party a couple weeks later--we wanted to make sure everybody was feeling better and we were germ free before we loaded the house with giggling girls.  

But back to the birthdays...

 When I was at Michael's awhile back, there were cake tattoos in the clearance section.  I loved the bright colors and I knew Felicity would like it.  I'd never tried cake tattoos before, but I figured it should be fairly easy.  When we ended up combining the birthdays, I decided to make one big cake for the both of them.  I made a three tiered cake (never done that before) and frosted it.  Frosting is a challenge for me.  I can't get it smooth and I can't not have crumbs all over in it.  I've tried freezing the cake, I've tried smoothing a little bit of frosting to seal in the crumbs: bad, bad, bad.  So if any of you have any other ideas, let me know! The tattoos were smaller than I imagined, so the banner that goes along the edge didn't fit around the whole cake, leaving a nice gap in the back.  And my cakes weren't exactly smooth, and then the frosting was even less smooth, so it was wrinkly around the whole thing, just a bit of a mess.  But from the top it looks good!  And any cake with strawberries tastes good, right?  The girls loved it and that's what mattered.  We have 13 candles on it, 11 for Lis and 2 for Abby. 

 Felicity was still trying to make it back in to the Land of The UnSick, but she wanted to celebrate her birthday so bad. 

Abby was a little overwhelmed at all the fire on top of her cake. But she thought it was pretty cool.  No matches for that little girl.

And then on to the presents.  This is definitely Abigail's favorite part.  Well, that and the ice cream.

 New toys! Center of attention!  Abby's dream come true!

 

 One of Felicity's wishes was that Abigail would get her own horse stuffed animal.  Apparently the little sister likes to take the big sister's favorite horse.  Felicity's favorite White Horse was from her 1st birthday, we bought it the first weekend we lived on the Rez and she's been Felicity's favorite snuggler ever since.  And she wanted a distraction for Abby.  I looked and looked and finally found a decent horse, (even though it's not very realistic) and Abigail loved it.  And Grandma bought a horse stuffed animal for her too, which made her super happy.  But she still takes White Horse whenever possible.

Lissy wanted the LEGO friends set that had a horse stable and with horses and lots of cute things.  Aunt Melissa and Nicki chipped in because it was a little out of our price range, thank you very much, you guys! I have to admit I'm impressed with the level of detail in the set.  And Felicity loves it.  It was perfect for her to tinker with while she was starting to feel better.

The girls had great birthdays, despite being sick and waiting, waiting, waiting.  And now we have an 11 year old (gasp!) and a terrible twoer.  

Felicity has changed and matured so much in just the last 6 months, it's amazing to me how quickly they change from little kid to almost young woman.  She's grown in many ways.  She's been my right hand man the last while, I don't think I could get along without her. Even homework this year has been easier, maybe she is ready for junior high?  She is still super creative and loves making games for the whole family to play.  The other day she had all the kids organized into a Circus and they were happily playing away.  She's a great big sister and is getting to be a good babysitter, too. 

Abigail is growing, too, and exploring and demanding and giggling and singing to herself.  She's learning how her world works and sometimes doesn't work and it's a crazy ride to be around her.  She loves to talk--my sisters call her Gabby Abby--and she loves to laugh and sing and dance.  She was singing and dancing to"What Does a Fox Say?" the other day, and we were all laughing pretty hard.  Last night she dove into the bucket of flour and had flour all over.  I wasn't laughing as hard then, but that's a two year old for you.  They explore, they make messes. She's going to be our fashionista, she already helps Felicity pick out clothes to wear to school, and she loves to get her hair fixed.  I know, craziness. She does snuggle wonderfully well and gives sweet kisses if you're lucky.  

We love our girly girls and are so glad they are here to be a part of our family.