Where Does the Time Go?

Nicole had a birthday again yesterday.  I tried to prevent her from getting any older, but I have no control over that girl!  I took her out of school and went out to lunch with her.  That was fun.  Glenn brought a carnation to school to give her at 2pm (the time of her birth).  He did that a couple of years ago for her 10th bday also.  He knows how to make a girl feel special. 

She claims it was her best birthday ever.  One of her presents from Glenn and I was a piece of paper that says we'll take her and a friend to the Lipizzaner horse show in Pullman on June 2 (I see a blog post coming!).  We gave her another piece of paper that says we'll repaint her bedroom.  I was feeling guilty about giving her so many pieces of paper for her birthday.  She thought it was fabulous.  Who knew it could be so easy to shop for this girl?!!

Here she is with her chocolate cake with powdered sugar (and mint chocolate chip ice cream on the side), just as requested.  You might notice that part of the cake is cut away.  Don't know how that happened. . . .  It could be that after opening presents, I was so ready for a piece of cake with ice cream that I dove right into cutting and dishing it up.  Ellea had to point out that we hadn't sang happy birthday to Nicole yet.  What a stickler for detail that Ellea is!  I'm glad she said something.  I wouldn't exactly qualify for Mom-of-the-Year if I failed to sing happy bday and have her blow out candles on her 12th birthday, now would I?!

And here are the horse earrings (made of glass--cool, no?) that my cousin in Illinois made for Nicole.  I sent her pictures of Nicole's horse so she could make them look like him.  I love the earrings, but I was paranoid that with Nicole's definite sense of style and what she likes, she wouldn't want to wear them.   Thankfully, she fell in love with them and proudly wore them to school the next day.  Ain't that a cute little pony hanging from her cute little earlobe?!

p.s.  You can check out my cousin's other amazing lampwork beads on etsy.com.

p.p.s.  Where did the last 12 years go?  Let me know if you find them, I want them back.