Sophie's Birthday #10

We celebrated Sophie's 10th birthday on Wednesday. Brandon made her German pancakes for breakfast. While they cooked we let her open her family presents. We got her a violin. She's been begging for one for months. I remembered Sheri still had my old violin so I thought we could just get it back from her. Sophie bugged her to death until we got it, but then we realized they had converted it to a viola. I went to the music store to see about getting the violin strings to convert it back (Sophie did not want a viola), but it was going to cost me $85. We talked it over and decided we weren't quite ready to make that investment for something I wasn't sure she would stick with, plus she had found some violins on Ebay for $40. I figured they weren't the greatest quality, but to get a new case, bow, rosin and violin all for that price was a steal. Oh, and I got her the 3/4 size since I thought that might fit her better. Now she can try it out and see if she really likes it before we put too much money into it.

Nicole, Doo Sung, Cora and James sent her some money (which she loves), along with a Japanese/English dictionary. That will come in handy in a couple weeks when our exchange student arrives. Grandma & Grandpa gave her some more books in the "Blast to the Past" series, and another American Girl sew and stuff kit -- this time an owl!! She had to run up and get the bears that she made with the other kit they had given her.

After breakfast we worked hard getting ready for her party. Chloe wanted to buy some balloons for Sophie so I ran her to the store to get them. There were some tears shed when shortly after getting home one of them popped. She still had two, though, which tried to blow away during the party. Luckily, Kellie spotted them and the wind blew them back into just the right spot that Sophie could climb the fence and snatch them. She had some sore feet after that, though.

The party was a little crazy. To digress a bit, the day before I realized I had made a BIG mistake. I told Brandon he didn't need to take the day off, but then Sophie made it clear that she expected him to be here. She was very hurt. So after confessing my mistake to Brandon he said he'd see what he could do. He was able to take the afternoon off, and got here in time for the party. Yeah for Dad! Even though I had 3 other adults here to help, it was still nice to have him around. I took charge of sewing, helping to make stuffed owls. We had bought several different fabrics so the kids could mix and match and give their owls individuality. We also had an owl necklace station and they made owl hair clips. Do you think we overdid the owl theme a bit?

Sophie really wanted a pinata. The only owl pinatas we found were $40, and that was a little too much for something we were just going to smash, so she found a butterfly she liked. After freaking out about filling it with all that candy she told me she would buy the candy if I let her get it. I thought that was a fair compromise. She still got her junk food, but I didn't have to break my rule and buy it :) I did buy some super cute owl cookies, though. They were worth it. Brandon stood up in the loft and hung the pinata over the banister. That worked pretty well. The pinata was so hard, though, that Chloe broke the bat. They never did get it to break, so Lark just dumped the candy all over for the kids to catch.

She opened gifts, passed out the super cute owl cookies, and the party was pretty much over at that point. We wanted the Stephens to hang around since we don't get to see them very often, Makenley and Ellie found out their mother had had to go to the hospital so they were just hanging out waiting for their aunt to come get them, and Jessica ended up staying awhile waiting for her sister to meet her. That was nice for me to be able to take a break from "the party" and just hang out with everyone. Some of the kids went back and made a second owl during that time too, but I told them I was done!

After everyone was gone, and we let out bellies settle from the party food, we went out to eat. Sophie picked Pizza Pie Cafe. It was really busy when we got there, so we had to wait about 15 minutes for a table. I think she had a good day, and maybe with so many owls surrounding her she'll become a little wiser too!