B-day time for Jane and Cora

August 4th was Jane's 10th birthday! It was good. At least, she didn't complain any. . . =)
We had just returned from our Oregon trip two days before. Her special day landed on a Sunday.

She opened her presents before church. Here is one of the two Monster High dolls she got . . .

She likes this kind of stuff still (obviously). She can often be found creating elaborate habitations for her dolls. It's sweet to see what she comes up with.

Her birthday happened to be the day my Pocatello friend (Melanie) and her family were coming to Boise. Jane and Melanie's daughter (Jessica) became best buddies when we lived in Chubbuck. She was excited to have special guests drop in on her big day. They stayed at our house for two nights. It was so good to have them here. Mel and I got to hang out and chat while the kids played. We took them to the zoo on Monday. (Their kids had never seen a real live giraffe before!) The only bummer was that Jane and Oliver started school on that Tuesday and our visitors were still here. That cut down on some play time for sure.

Anyway, they joined us for Jane's birthday dinner of cheesy chicken chowder, rolls, and salad. Jane specifically requested that soup - her fave.

Then we had cake.

I found this idea via an "easy cake" Google search and went with it. The online example looked better because it was a round cake. But I don't have two circle pans. =/ 

I was bummed that I forgot to pick up a "10" candle. So I resorted to gluing number stickers onto regular candles. Not the look I was hoping for, but oh well. This is what I get for procrastinating/not thinking. I did like how the cake itself looked, and it tasted yummy. It was french vanilla cake with a raspberry filling. And the buttercream frosting I used was extra tasty.

Jane loves fruit filling in cake and other pastries, which is somewhat odd considering she doesn't like to eat fruit.

Now I'm getting hungry thinking of that cake. . .

 

The rest of the pictures from Jane's birthday were hopelessly blurry, so I will not be sharing them. =/

 

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Skip to Cora's birthday... August 19th

I knew it would happen eventually. Cora has one more year until she's an official teenager. Twelve. 12. twelve. What a weird word. Especially when you realize that's how old your first-born is. How did this happen?!

We had a fun birthday for her. We went to Roaring Springs, then came back to the house to have her traditional b-day donuts.  

That morning, before Jane and Oliver went to school, Cora opened her presents.

It looks like the bunnies helped her open the fancy new hobbit hole lego set.  She had fun putting it together while the other kiddies were at school. (We went to Roaring Springs after school until close.)

Cora had cousin Malory and our neighbor Zoey join us at the water park. Then they spent the night. My mom and step-dad came over for the treats. =)

Yay for birthdays! And hooray for another year of happy, healthy children!