Natalie Hits Double Digits

My poor, neglected youngest child never got a birthday party last year.  So it seems only fair that this year she got two.

Natalie and her gym sister, Ali, (who is on Alyssa's team) share a birthday.  Ali's mom planned to have several teammates, whom Natalie considers friends, surprise her at a restaurant for dinner on her birthday.  Since it's Natalie's birthday too, I invited the girls to come over to our house afterwards for cupcakes.

Natalie and Ali--birthday twins

Nat and Ali exchanged gifts.  Ali had so much fun shopping for Natalie.  She got her way too much, but Natalie was thrilled with the outfit she picked out for her.

After the candle was blown out, a celebratory conga line danced through the house with the birthday girl in the lead.

It was a great way to make Natalie feel special on her big day.

The next week, we had a real party with Nat's friends.  I just love parties.

Natalie had been wanting to have a birthday at the movies for quite some time.  The theater near our home no longer has party rooms, so we hosted lunch at our house and then went to the show.

Natalie wore the birthday outfit that Ali got her.  This girl is definitely not short on personality.

We had a great lunch of pizza, Italian sodas and chocolate cake.  It was so nice to be able to send Caleb to pick up the pizzas.  Having another driver can be so helpful!

After presents, the girls filled their treat bags at our candy bar before we headed off to the movies.

I had asked a friend to help me shuttle the girls to the theater where the girls would see the movie, "Home."  (Caleb still can't drive anyone but his siblings.) We got situated in our seats just as the previews were about to roll.  And they did indeed start rolling, but without sound.  What followed was an extremely annoying hour of technical difficulties.  In the end, we were given free movie tickets to use at a later date and had to be moved to another theater where we had to wait another thirty minutes for the show to finally start.  It was, however, a 3D showing of the movie, which the girls thought was great.

All's well that ends well, right?  The movie was cute and the girls had a good time.

Happy 10th Birthday, Natalie!