10 years

I'm not all full of melancholy yet, because her birthday isn't until next Friday, but yesterday, we had my older daughters 10th Birthday Party.  We had to do the party a week early because next week, my wife and daughters are going on a field trip to the King Tut exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. 

The theme for the party, as per my daughters request, was Phineas and Ferb, and while I am not a 10-year old girl, it appeared that a good time was had by all.  Luckily, the weather, which had been pretty nasty all week, cooperated, and my wife was able to supervise a few outdoor activities like spray tie-dieing some shirts, and playing a pass the hula-hoop game.

No jokes about how she's not much taller than some of those 9-10 year olds.



Due to all of the participants being Home Schoolers, the gift-giving was some of the best/most useful I have ever seen at a kids birthday party.  Several books(Judy Bloom!), a few arts and crafts type things, origami paper, colored duct tape(she wanted to make a wallet and a rose) and the big gift from mom and dad was a kit to build some wind powered battery chargers. 

And she loved it ALL.  She's not a perfect kid, but I'm not sure I could handle her being much closer to perfection.

It wouldn't be a birthday party without cake, or in this case, cup cakes.  Bella had voted for chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, which I was happy to comply with.  To kick things up a notch, I took a page out of my mom's playbook and baked the cupcakes in ice cream cones.  None of the girls OR mom's that attended had ever had their cupcakes this way, so I was a Hero.

Turn in next Friday for the tears and 'where does the time go' lament that one would expect when their oldest child turns 10.