10

She's 10.
Double digits.
How did that happen?

We always decorate the dining room for each kid's birthdays.  Then, they get to wake up to streamers and balloons.  It's kinda a thing for the kids...

Gracie is a pretty fancy girl, so she picked Ci Ci's pizza for supper ON her birthday.  We love that everyone has a favorite and it's really cheap for our family to eat there!  :)
She hates fire, so here's her birthday candle that she made from a straw and paper.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACIE!

Gracie's favorite thing to do right now is roller blade. She got new roller blades, a few blank books she can write a story in and illustrate, knee pads, a helmet, a KU necklace, fingernail polish, and lots of money!  Her friends are still into American Girl dolls, so she bought a knock off one at Target, and a chair to go with her.     

Chad and I took our kids, and Gracie's friends to the skating rink that he and I used to go to for our birthdays, but it wasn't a hit.  I felt really bad.  Most of her friends didn't know how to roller skate and weren't really willing to give it a try.  It made Gracie sad.  And then a mean girl (13?) was really snotty and said some really mean things to Gracie.  So, we left and went to Bogey's for ice cream.

It was fun watching Gracie and her friends talk about how late they were going to stay up, and what they were going to do once they got back to the house.  Little did they realize, with two younger siblings in the house, it's not always easy to be as loud and giggly as you want with a mother coming down and "checking" on you every so often.  

 
But, they had fun.  They stayed up late.  They really made Gracie happy.  :)  And I'm happy that she's finally letting me take pictures of her again.