Happy Birthday!

 

After weeks of anticipation Korinne's 9th birthday finally arrived.  On the morning of her birthday she got to go to breakfast with Dad at IHOP. It was a dream come true.

 

It isn't a friend party year at our house but when Aunt Tiffany said she was going to be in town and thought it would be fun to have a joint birthday party for Abigail and Korinne with a few friends Abigail met and played with during the summer, Korinne jumped on that bandwagon with enthusiasm. Korinne and Abigail are a year apart and Abigail celebrated her 8th birthday earlier in November.  Tiffany gave me the assignment of inviting a few girls and said she would take care of the rest.  That, of course, was music to my ears.

 

I showed up expecting a few simple things but found a real PAR-TAY complete with helium filled balloons, owl inspired décor and take home bags for the girls.

Tiffany gets an "A" for her party planning skills and I get an "A" for my appreciation of said party skills. We make a great team.  :-)

 

 

The girls ate pizza, played with the dress-ups, and took pictures with props (I'll have to get those pics from Tif later) along with a few other games.

 

The girls had a blast. 

 

 Korinne spent the rest of the day playing and we got together again with Tiffany, Abigail and Grandma and Grandpa P that night for root beer floats and presents.

 

 

No one in our family really likes cake all that much, so we've kind of gone away from the birthday cake tradition. The kids now just pick a treat to have instead.

 

Korinne was excited to get some girl legos,

 

 

and new bedding for her room.

She also got a game and a movie from Grandma.  It was a fun day from start to finish for Korinne which truly made it a "happy" birthday.

Tuesday was the first day of "Beat the Teach", a reading competition at the middle school.  Last year as a 6th grader Britton read more pages than anyone else in the entire school during the 7 week event.  This year he is feeling the pressure to repeat.  Since you can only read books you haven't read before Britton has been saving up series and all sorts of books he has been wanting to read just so he would have new books to read for the competition. On Monday I took him to the library and he was like a kid in a candy store getting 14 books he has been dying to read.  Jenna is also participating this year, but she isn't out to win the whole thing so it is much more manageable.  Her goal is to actually "beat the teach"er she signed up to compete with.  All the kids really have to do is try to read more pages than their designated teacher, it's only Britton and a few others that take it to a new level.

I have mixed feelings about this competition.  It's all good right up until I can't have a conversation with my son for 7 weeks because all he wants to do is this:

On Tuesday alone he read 2 books and over 800 pages. 

 

Last Sunday morning I could hear Korinne and Jameson in the kitchen making something but figured they were just making oatmeal.  It wasn't until they were almost finished that I realized that they weren't making oatmeal, they were making a cake.  Korinne had her easy bake oven out and they put a little pan into that, and the rest of the batter into the oven. 

 

 

They are 2 peas in a pod, these two.  They have never been ones to ask permission, they prefer to just do something and ask for forgiveness later.  The cake turned out so I have to hand it to them, they did a good job, but baking a cake for breakfast?  Not my favorite thing for them to do. 

 

Jameson's cheesy smile is starting to look a little painful so Korinne is trying to teach him to open his eyes when cheesing it up for the camera.

 

There you go, Jameson. That's better!

 

Last Sunday Britton played a Paul Cardall arrangement of "I Love To See The Temple" for a special musical number during Sacrament meeting.  He worked on the song for a few months since it is quite challenging, but last Sunday he was ready to go.  Fortunately it is such a beautiful arrangement that I never got tired of hearing him practice it.  He was very nervous to play it in Sacrament meeting since he's never done anything like that before, but he nailed it and did such a great job.  For the rest of the day he received many complements and Adam said that more than a few people commented on his song during tithing settlements that day.  It's always nice to have that first big performance under your belt and Britton felt good about his accomplishment.