She turned 11!!!

My baby Alyssa turned 11 this year. The years are just flying by and there isn't much I can do to stop them.

We are so thankful to have Alyssa in our home. She is such a help and usually (she's starting to get into the teenage years) has such a great attitude about everything. Her giggle makes us all giggle. She is such a smart girl and her grades are very important to her. I never have to remind her to do her homework and I never have to worry about a bad report coming home. Alyssa enjoys to read, write and direct plays, sing, play piano, sew and cook. She's not into frilly hair dos, but does enjoy a nice fingernail color on her toes and hands. She's as responsible and honest as they come and tries her best to be a friend to all. Thank you Alyssa for being you. I love you very much.

The morning started off with the traditional German Pancakes.

And a new outfit. (The boots are too big, but she REFUSED to let me go exchange them for a smaller size. Who am I to say she can't wear boots that are too large on her birthday?)

She had a little party with friends with included a rousing game of tackle candy ball. (Take a roll of packaging tape and wind candy into a ball with it. Take turns rolling the dice and if you land on a 5-or number or your choice- you get a chance to unwind and keep all the candy you can until the next person rolls a 5 and steals the ball away from you.)

Alyssa really wanted Happy's Chinese food for dinner. Not many kids I know that would request Chinese and I think we exposed all her friends to something new. Some really liked it, others...not so much.

We surprised her with an MP3 (a Sony Walkman - sure different from the Walkman I had as a kid) player and Grammy gave her a knitting loom. When I came down this morning to wake everyone up for school, Alyssa was sitting in the family room sewing away listening to her "Walkman". She was content as could be.

She doesn't like birthday cake, so she requested brownies and ice cream this year. I put two straight candles in to look like the number 11, but EVERYONE asked me why she was only going to be 2. It was an eleven people, one one, get it. (Note to self put correct number of candles on next year.)

And when it came time to blow out the candles out, I only put one on top of her sundae because it was just cuter that way. She's a good girl and rolled with the punches, but she forgot to make a wish. Even without a wish, I'm sure many good things are headed her way this coming year.