Happy 11th, Kristina

Amid much speculation (about the nature of gifts) Kristina turned 11 years old.  After begging and pleading that I make her a person for her cake (can't remember what kind of person, right now) she settled on a dream catcher.  She was very patient because it took us (me) two days to make her cake (we just have too much going on).

The girls told us of the birthday tradition in Ukraine.  The victim birthday person sits on a chair and gets lifted the number of years they happen to be, in this case 11.

 That is Anastasia behind there helping...

 (kind of ironic that the older and bigger a person gets the MORE they have to be lifted,  LOL)

 And when in Rome.....  We introduced an age old American tradition of The Spanking Machine.

She received a silverware service for one (thanks Grandma Nielson--- she is very excited about this!) some hair accessories, clothes, some extra money to buy more clothes (Thanks Grandma J), and a gift certificate for mom to take her shopping to buy material and a pattern to make a new (desperately needed) dress.

We had fun on our little girls night out.  Pretty rare when someone gets mom all to themselves. Pretty rare for mom to get to dote on only one.  And we lived it up.  These are some of the clothes she chose. (Pardon her look, she doesn't like her picture taken)  She is a good little shopper and very frugal (if a little slow LOL)  We'll have to take a picture of her new dress when it is done.

Happy Birthday, Kristina!!  You can stop growing any time now.....




PS  forgot to add that she celebrated multiple times.  We took cupcakes to school, and cupcakes to Girl Scouts.