Cat's Birthday

For Cat's birthday this year she requested a beach party.  Great.  For the first time in her life we aren't living within 30 minutes of a beach on her birthday.  What better time to have a beach party?

Ashton, Ruby, Lily, Cat, Eliza, Grace, Hannah, and Jack

So Cat's "beach" party was at a sandy beachy area at nearby Utah Lake.

Unfortunately, this lake is pretty yucky due to pollution and a non-native fish 

species taking over.  The adults were a little grossed out being there, but the kids

didn't mind one bit.  In fact, most of the kids who came have asked me when we

can go back!  Umm.... never.

After playing at the lake for a while we all came back to the Summer House

to open gifts and enjoy some ice cream cone cupcakes topped with ice cream

(Cat's preference for homemade ice cream cake this year).

That night we had another little party for Cat as a family.

Lucky No. 7 got to blow out her candle twice in one day.

Gifts from the fam:

a doodle book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,

a chalk board box with chalk, and some new flip flops.

Then last of all, a new set of wheels!

She was thrilled.

Because of the many things going on the week of Cat's birthday, the bulk of her celebrating (above) was a couple of days early.  I left to take her to sleep-away Daisy Girl Scout camp on the morning of her actual birthday but didn't want the day to go un-commemorated so I made a special breakfast: homemade coffee cake.  This is actually the first request she made when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday, but I didn't think that a bunch of 6-9 year olds would want to eat coffee cake at a birthday party.  It kind of worked out that I was able to make it for her that morning, just to show her that I wanted to.

Happy Birthday to Cat!

PS > Photos, links, and explanations of Cat's birthday projects can be found here.