Cora's 11th Birthday

Cora's 11th birthday was August 19. She is getting too old! She's fast approaching my height, and her shoe size is half a size away from mine. That's saying a lot, seeing as I wear a size 9. That's big for my height. But enough about my Ichabod Crane feet. Let's talk more about Cora, one of last month's birthday girls.

Since her actual b-day fell on Sunday this year, we had her party the day before. She invited a few friends over for a jolly good time. They came over for a few hours in the afternoon, but not before I decorated the kitchen and set out a variety of snacks.

Here we have cream cheese, ham, turkey, and lettuce rolled up inside tortillas.

 It appears Cora took a candid picture of my back. I sure was busy!

Cora mostly took charge of the games she wanted to play.

They played Spoons . . .




And they played the fast-paced candy bar game that includes passing a die around until someone rolls a 6. That lucky person gets a chance to hack the giant Hershey bar open with a knife and fork until the next person rolls a 6 and takes a turn, etc.




Then they played the flour game.They compactly fill a cup with flour and carefully turn it upside down in the pan so it stays in the shape of a cup.

Then everyone takes a turn gingerly slicing a section off, trying not to make it collapse.



That's a penny sticking out of the top. Whoever makes it fall has to pick it up with her teeth.

See how cautious Cora can be.

 

After the games and snacking, we gathered around her doughnut cake. Lucky for me, Cora wanted this instead of actual cake.
I forgot to mention in Jane's birthday post how much turmoil my hands endured in the making of her cake. Mixing the fondant, kneading the food coloring into all the fondant, and rolling out and negotiating the fondant for hours on end made my hands and wrists burn like never before. That night I had to sleep with ice packs and take painkiller, and I whimpered myself to sleep. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have arthritis simply because I made that cake.
Not that I would have refused to make a special cake for Cora if she'd requested one. But it would have been lovingly frosted rather than painfully fondanted. =)





Right after we sang to Cora and started distributing the doughnuts, I realized Jane had missed the moment. She was upstairs with her neighbor friend, playing a game on the computer. I felt like a jerk for failing to notice Jane was absent, but the scene was a lot busier and louder than the pictures demonstrate. And how did Jane not hear us singing happy birthday anyway?!

Present time!

She'd asked for this Star Wars mug a few weeks earlier, so I surprised her with it. It's two-sided, like two cups in one. 

 

Cora the nun.

Sometimes I think our kids actually like each other...

She had a good party, then the friends left and we went to a family-friendly Chicks n' Giggles show in Kuna. (My sister Megan's improv comedy troupe, in case anyone doesn't know what I'm talking about.)  It was really funny, as usual. After that, we all met up with Meg and her friend at Arctic Circle for some eats. Then cousin Malory had a sleepover at our house, which was a fun end to Cora's day.

The next morning before church, she opened the rest of her presents. Later that evening, Grandma Ann and Grandpa Brad stopped by with a present. I baked yummy peanut butter cookies before they arrived, since the donuts were all gone. It just didn't seem right to have a birthday without a treat available to eat

We love our Cora. She's in 6th grade, her first year of middle school. She likes it. She's still taking piano lessons and doing really well with it. I love that she willingly practices without being asked. She's also playing the viola in orchestra at school. She's not liking that quite as much as piano.  =) 
She's responsible, kind, and smart. I like that she's willing to watch Jane and Oliver when I need her to. I think she really likes being in charge and having responsibility. I still can't believe I have a kid who is old enough to babysit. How did this happen??