Cat's Birthday

Cat recently had a very special birthday.  The celebratory events spanned a week and included a girls' day with Grammy, Oma, me, and Eliza the weekend before the big day, and a daddy-daughter camping trip the weekend after.  If that's not well-balanced, I don't know what is.

Can you tell which four people just got made-up at the Clinique Counter?

We kept Cat's actual birthday pretty simple.  She slept in as long as she wanted, then after a lazy morning and lunch at home, Ben left work early so that the three of us could go to the Provo City Center Temple.  We had a lovely time together, and Cat appreciated finally being able to enter an LDS temple and participate in sacred ordinances.

After our little temple trip, we went back home and Cat opened her presents.  She received her big present, a Camelbak backpack, early so that she could take it to Girls' Camp with her.  The presents she opened on her birthday were a new soccer ball, mascara (!), and a CD player alarm clock.

After a dinner of homemade copycat Zupa Toscana, Cat was too full to enjoy the ice cream bar she'd wanted for dessert.  She had a frosted sugar cookie with a candle in it instead.  (But don't worry, the rest of us benefitted from the ice cream bar).

After dessert, Cat rushed off to the church for her first YW activity as a bona fide Young Woman, and she loved it.  When she came home, she talked Ben and me into watching a big-kid movie with her before she went to bed.