Cool Celebration

Today I woke up and made MORE cake!  One child arrived late… one child arrived early… and we end up with birthdays one right after the other.

Our Lindsay was celebrating being eleven years old!

Rick and I planned a special celebration for Lindsay.  We began by taking her to lunch at the Olive Garden, just the three of us; quite a rarity for Lindsay to have both parents to herself.  She approved of “trying” this restaurant and LOVED it.  She said it was the fanciest place she’d ever eaten out at and couldn’t believe how big it was.  She ordered their chicken fettuccine alfredo and thought it was delicious along with their soup and breadsticks.  There was more food than she’d ever received in one meal before so she brought a doggy bag out to the car with her to bring home.  We really enjoyed lunch with her.  Lindsay is a very pleasant girl to visit with.

Before heading home we told her that we were taking her to pick out her present; two to be exact.  This confused her a bit and she had no idea where we were taking her.  After a drive we pulled up to a shop called “Boot Country” and the inside of it smelled strongly of leather.  Lindsay had just grown out of her cowgirl boots this year; the boots she thought she’d never ever take off EVER but finally and reluctantly did out of necessity.  We told her we knew she’d like nothing better than a pair of boots but we needed her feet there with us.  She was all smiles as we looked around the dozens of boots her size and tried them on.  She settled on a pair that fit comfortably as well as a special shirt that caught her eye.  We had a hard time leaving without a cowgirl hat as well!!!  You know the 10 gallon style???  It was a riot for me to see someone enjoy the cowboy act so much… but she always has!

The  shirt says “attitude, beauty, brains…Cowgirl.  Lindsay models the boots at home.  Yes, there is an actual flashdrive around her neck won from the reading program at the library and worn for the past two days as a piece of jewelry!

 

Close-up of Lindsay’s new Cowgirl boots.

She LOVES them.

 

 

 

Back at home Lindsay enjoyed her afternoon spending much of it on the swings.

 

Her Dad got the grill going for our very “clever” meal.

On Lindsay’s menu were: chili-less coneys without cheese, cheeseburgers, chips, cucumber (pickeled), carrots, corn on the cob, cantaloupe, chips and Crush.  Haley thought we were “crazy”. 

Presents and cards finally!  It is nice to receive sweet messages from special people.

 

 

Kaitlyn & Tristan both made “books” for Lindsay which she needed some “help” to read.

 

Haley made Lindsay a CD of her top “11” favorites, including some country crossover.

 

 

 

 

 

Horse books, a box of 4 horse computer games and a horse movie were inside her packages.  Can there be too many horses???  Lindsay thinks not.  Since she could talk she’s been all about horses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a minute Lindsay thought she was getting a tin of cookies all to herself.  She seemed pretty happy about that since you do a lot of sharing in a family with 5 kids.  Then she realized that things aren’t always as they seem and there was a message in the tin…

 

 

She read the message several times just to be sure.

 

 

 

 

There were actually cookies in the tin that tipped her off to open the envelope hiding underneath them.  The cookie message looked like this.

Next Monday morning Lindsay is going to 1/2 day horse camp for two weeks!  She is in heaven.  It’s the only thing she really wanted for her birthday but when her school field trip involved a rather expensive camping trip which we had to pay for we had told Lindsay that she may need to make a choice and she decided that since she’d been to horse camp once but would never get to go with some of her friends to camp she would choose that instead.  She was in tears but that was the end of it.  She had made her own decision.  In the end we decided that some of the other kids get expensive music lessons that she does not, and birthday parties, etc. etc. etc. and Lindsay doesn’t ask for much.  Rick has taken lots of extra work this year and we felt that Lindsay wanted this enough and she works very hard and is very conscientious with all that she does that she deserved this for her birthday.  She was so delightfully surprised.  Back in Kindergarten she told her sweet teacher (who had to tell me) that she was going to grow up and work with horses.  Her teacher asked “Lindsay, where are you going to do that?”  Lindsay answered “At Parky’s Farm, silly!”  Then about a year and a half ago Lindsay came to me and said “If I’m going to work with horses I need to learn something about them”.  I think she’d already read every information book she could get her hands on.  She wanted experience.  I figured that mucking stalls last summer might turn her off to her “horse thing” altogether but she thought that was a great, fantastic experience and came away with an even stronger desire for this love of hers.  I don’t have to tell you that she can hardly wait for Monday morning now.

Ironically, Lindsay had already asked for a “Boots” cake last week when I asked her what she wanted.    She thought cowgirl boots would look like the number 11 AND it has to do with her love of horses.  I had my work cut out for me, I felt, coming up with HOW to make this one.  I did the best I could and she said it was just as she had imagined. 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday!  I hope your wishes come true, Lindsay.

We continued with our silly “C” meal having Chocolate Cowgirl boots Cake and a choice of leftover Chocolate ice Cream or Candybar Crunch ice Cream.

 

 

Uh-Oh!

Not again!!!

What other way IS there to eat cake?  So I gave him a fork!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Needless to say we had to hose him down AGAIN after cake tonight.

Lindsay had a wonderful birthday.  We wish her a wonderful upcoming year.