Happy 10th Birthday Anna!

Anna, Ellie & Anna preparing for cake
Anna officially turned double digits on September 3!  After much deliberation, she decided to mark her 10th birthday with a karaoke sleepover with five of her friends.  We were also joined by former neighbor Anna who was recruited to help with the evening festivities.  It is safe to say that little sleep occurred, but a good time was had by all.

It just so happened that Anna's birthday present this year was a karaoke machine (this took care of the entertainment for the party).  An additional piece of the gift was a series of "tween hits" cds to sing with.  Imagine six 10-year old girls belting out various Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and Megan Trainer songs (among others).  That was a large portion of the evening.  The singing stopped when someone got the idea to climb the tree in the front yard.  At one point, five of six girls were at various locations in the tree.  They were willing to come down from the tree when Joe's pizza's were ready (fortunately Joe's arm recovered enough to make his famous pizza at Anna's request).  Pizza was followed by more tree climbing...until the ice cream cake (which Anna helped make) was ready.

Anna, Ellie, Sofia, Petra, Ruby & Banaue
The rest of the evening was followed by flashlight tag and a movie.  The girls did not really go to sleep until around 1 AM......after Theresa threatened to come and sleep with them.  It is no surprise that the girls starting getting up at 7 AM (there is nothing like 7 AM karaoke in the basement).  After a big breakfast (note that bacon was the most popular item) and more tree climbing, everyone headed home around 10 AM.

The most traumatized from the party was Storm the dog, who suddenly found himself surrounded by more attention than he knew what to do with.  He tried to retreat to the quiet underneath the guestroom bed.  At one point, we lost two girls during flashlight tag, only to find them giggling under the bed with Storm, who could not escape.  As a special treat for his patience, Storm was rewarded on Sunday with a car ride and special walk on a new trail. We decided that Storm loves other dogs and a maximum of 3 girls at a time.  Beyond that, he needs his quiet space.

How many girls can you find in the tree?
Anna's celebration continued into the rest of the weekend.  The highlight of Sunday was a Face time session with her aunts (Loren, Mary, Lucy & Terri) wishing her happy birthday - complete with a rendition of "Happy Birthday to you" from James and all of his friends.  Anna also got to enjoy a neighborhood barbecue followed by fireworks and sparklers (leftover from July 4th).  Labor Day weekend concluded with one final dip in the pool before it closes.  All in all, a great birthday weekend.




A big thanks to everyone who made Anna's 10th birthday special!  

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