Y'all, I CANNOT get over the fact that, as of last Thursday, I have an eleven year old daughter! She's looking and acting like a preteen, and I just don't know if my heart is ready for it!
Brianna's birthday this year was definitely different than we imagined it would be. At the beginning of the month, I asked all the kids what they wanted to eat and do for their birthdays. We made plans, then all the plans for both Brenson and Brianna's birthdays got altered by a record-breaking winter storm. I think this is the first time that we've had ice or snow on Brianna's birthday!
Thankfully, my kids are great about being flexible and the changing plans for birthdays was taken in stride. As you'll see, Brianna had several things not work out the way we wanted for her birthday, but she was still a happy and sweet girl all day!
For her birthday breakfast, Bri wanted biscuits and gravy from Braums. We were happy that the roads were drivable enough for Chris to be able to make that birthday wish come true!
I may be the only one who really notices this, but Bri's birthday hearth looked kind of bare to me. One reason for this is because I wasn't able to get her birthday balloons this year :-(. I went to the store on the Tuesday before her birthday (and before a second round of snow came in that lasted all night and into Wednesday) and the store was closed due to weather conditions! I was genuinely surprised! We weren't able to get out on Wednesday, so no birthday balloons for our big girl this year. Also, two of Bri's gifts that I had ordered online were delayed by over a week due to winter weather and arrived several days after her birthday.
My sweet, smiling eleven year old!
Looking like the preteen she is!
After breakfast, we let Bri open the gifts that we had for her. She truly didn't care that some of her gifts were delayed . . . it bothered me more than her!
She had been asking for an address stamp with her name. She loves to write letters, so I bought her one!
She's gone through a major growth spurt this year and was in serious need of a new house robe. She loved this gift, and has worn it all day every day since she got it, haha!
Of course, she received the next piece in her Precious Moments Birthday Train.
I'm not sure what prompted this signature "Brianna" look, but there it is!
She also got a new pair of roller skates! Another effect of the aforementioned growth spurt is that her feet grew several sizes!
When I purchased the roller skates, I thought she'd be able to lace them up and use them in the driveway as soon as she opened them. Well, everything was covered in snow, so that was out of the question. She did, however, still lace them up and skate around my kitchen (wearing her new house robe) for a solid 30 minutes. No snow was going to get in her way, lol!
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Originally, Bri wanted to spend her birthday at The Gathering Place. Since we weren't able to do that, she decided she wanted to spend the day watching movies instead. First up, the live-action Mulan!
While the kids watched Mulan, I worked on lunch. Bri had a hard time deciding what she wanted to eat for her birthday lunch, and finally landed on meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy. The problem was that I didn't have any fresh meat, and she had decided too late for me to run to the store. I had some little salisbury steaks made up, so I asked her if we could do that instead of meatloaf. She's the only child I know who would make such a compromise for her birthday dinner, especially considering I've never served them salisbury steak before!
Along with the salisbury steak and mashed potatoes and gravy, we had rolls, salad, pasta salad, and green bean casserole. Several of Bri's favorites!
On Thursdays, we typically go to Grampy and G-Jo's house for a bible class. Grampy teaches the big kids (Chloe Jo comes, too), and G-Jo teaches the twins. It's wonderful for the kids to be taught the bible by their grandparents, and it's a nice break for me, too! We didn't have our Thursday bible class last week due to weather, and this week the weather prevented Chloe from being able to come. However, Grampy and G-Jo came to our house around 2:00pm to have class with my kids.
As soon as class was over, I had planned to have cake and ice cream. We had ordered the cake from our local grocery store, and Chris was able to go pick it up earlier in the day. Also earlier in the day, Mr. J had called me wanting to come that afternoon and give Brianna and Brenson their music lessons they had missed earlier in the week (once again, due to weather). I told him that it wasn't a good day because we were busy with birthday celebrations, and he decided to drop in with a gift and card for Brianna. He happened to stop by as we were preparing to have cake, so of course I invited him to stay.
As I was getting everything prepared, Mr. J and Brenson disappeared into Bren's room. A few minutes later, they appeared and Mr. J was playing a birthday song for Brianna on Bren's guitar. I think she was a little embarrassed!
Make a wish!
Then, we all sat down to enjoy our cake and ice cream!
Brianna opened her gifts from her grandparents and from Mr. J.
We are so thankful to have them close!
Mr. J being here for our little celebration was certainly not planned, but it worked out kind of fun. Brianna kept saying she was embarrassed, but I think someday she'll realize how special it was for him to come by like that. I, of course, have learned to just roll with it when it comes to Mr. J, lol!
Once everyone left, I quickly found Brianna back in her house robe enjoying a little down time.
I had gotten several birthday messages for her on my phone, and she really enjoyed reading through them. One of her favorites was from her friend, Gavon, who wrote "Happy Birthday Brianna" in the snow for her!
We all went outside for a little bit while the sun was shining, but Brianna, Chris, and I didn't last long.
The other three kids stayed out for quite a while. They said they wanted to build an igloo :-).
That evening, Brianna wanted to watch the 2016 version of Anne of Green Gables. I had never seen this version before, so I think I was more excited for it than Bri was! We had fruit, yogurt, and popcorn for dinner while we enjoyed the movie. It was soooo good!
It will be interesting to see how many of Bri's birthdays are snowy as she gets older. I hate that the weather affected several aspects of our day, but it turned out to be a good day anyhow. Happy birthday to my sweet and spunky eleven year old!
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