Last year…

Saturday, was our Emily’s 12th birthday.  It’s really so hard to grasp that this is the last year before she becomes a full fledged teenager.  I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that she’s not this little girl anymore.

Or this little girl.

Or even this one.

We began the morning like we do each year on birthdays.  We always wake the kids to the “Happy Birthday” song.  Emily being more of an early riser like Richard, has learned to just play possum in recent years.  (If you know how much I’m a not a morning person, you’ll know that while I treasure this tradition, it was not instituted by yours truly.)

Before she left for her basketball game, we surprised her with a cellphone gift card. (Her main gift, and it’s turned out to be quite a big gift, was to redecorate her room.) She was quite shocked with the phone as she figured she wouldn’t be getting one until next year, because that’s when Miles got one. Richard took her to pick one out after the game.  Not surprisingly, she came home with a neon green phone!

Later, she had 6 of her friends over for a sleepover birthday party.  And I just have to share this photo because it totally cracks me up! 

Smarty pants here blew with all her might right down the center of her cake. You can see she realizes what she’s done, that the candles are on the outside. She took the laughter well and proceeded to blow them out on each side!

As if I didn’t know it before, we realized just how noisy tween girls can be. Lots of squealing, screaming and running around!!  But they are a great group of girls and if the noises were any indication, I know they had a fun time. 🙂

I’ll share photos of Emily’s room makeover soon.  I even painted 2 large canvases with flowers to match her bedspread.  Before and after room shots are in order for sure. With several, fun projects that have been keeping me busy, I have lots to share. 🙂

I think this post receives “the longest time in draft mode” award.  I began writing it on Monday, but put on hold for some freelance design work and then got hit with a really nasty stomach bug Wednesday night. Despite feeling much better this morning, I quickly discovered, as I started to attack the mountain of dirty clothes looming in the laundry room, that I need to take it slower today than I had initially thought.

Looking forward to a sunny and healthy weekend!!

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