Happy Birthday, Olivia!

My baby is ELEVEN. E.L.E.V.E.N!!! How is this possible? How could this little baby, (6 lbs 4 oz at birth) that I could hold in my hands with little spill-over, be so big, and grown up, and Eleven? It's INCONCEIVABLE! We really love our Olivia! She has been a great oldest child. She broke us in, taught us the ropes, and has thrown us lots of fun curve balls along the way. I dug out some old pics and scanned them (we had a film camera back in those days) so you could all see what a beautiful baby she was:

And, she has grown into an even more beautiful (inside and out) YOUNG lady. For her birthday she wanted a chocolate peanut butter ice cream cake with Reeses on top. So, I obliged, of course. It was my first attempt at an ice cream cake, and all went well except it leaked a little ice cream over night while it was hardening up. All who ate it said it was delicious. I snoozed and lost on that one, because when I got done cutting cake, it was GONE. It must've tasted better than it looked!

Here is the birthday girl opening a morning gift. She got a new game for her DS and she is loving playing it in the 4 spare minutes she has each day after all of her homework, piano, and chores are done (oh, how I miss summer...)

And, here is my big girl getting her EARS PIERCED! That is the number one thing she wanted for her birthday. She has been psyching herself out for months to get this done, and she did pretty well. Grandma was there to hold her hand, and she only shed a few tears. I was too busy video recording to be very sympathetic. She shook it off quickly, though, and now is LOVING her new pierced ears, with SAPPHIRES in them. She looks lovely.

We love you, Olivia! Here is to a great year of ELEVEN! We know you will make it a great one!