(Brittany, Paige, Olivia and Cara on Laurens back)

Paige's 12th b.day party was back on May 14th...the day after her b.day. She invited 7 friends plus Megan invited Cameron over for dinner and mini golf. Deb and I made salad and cut up watermelon and pineapple and we heated up "take and bake" Donato's pizza.
After dinner and a few pictures on the patio we loaded 10 girls in two cars and drove across town to the glow in the dark mini golf place. We lucked out and had the place all to ourselves. It was really cool...too bad that I forgot to grab the cameras.
Oh well we had fun and that's what counts. Two of the girls got hole in ones and coupons for Rita's Icee's.

So here are the pictures we snapped at home...before and after golf...and playing at the park.

Megan and Cameron enjoying their dinner

Aunt Deb having a quick bite to eat...I can't imagine getting through these parties without Aunt Deb, she's a life saver and always so much fun!

The posed shot followed by the silly shot...
back row: Olivia, Brittany, Paige, Brooke, Sydney and Megan
front row: Reilly, Cara, Lauren and Cameron

Cameron and Megan running around....in socks!

Flashback to Paige's 12th birthday....May 13, 2010

We started the evening off with her school band concert. Her teacher was nice and let her be excused after the 6th graders played and exited the stage. That meant she did not have to stick around to put chairs away and we could get on with the celebration.
We enjoyed the concert, the kids always wear black and I guess the 8th graders were grumbling about the lack of color so their teacher brought fabric scraps with a different color for each grade. The 6th graders got yellow sashes...it was fun to see how each child wore theirs. The boys mostly made "Rambo" style headbands or arm bands and the girls were a little more creative...with bows in their pony tails, scarves around their necks and belts.

The birthday girl with her gifts. She started with the envelopes then with the California gifts and finally the gifts from Megan, Mike and I.

She received $50. from her Grandma and Grandpa that she is putting towards summer horseback riding lessons and Raj and Suman gave her a dollar for each year.

Megan looking cute and waiting for her sister to open the gifts that she picked out.

It's not an official b.day party until the dogs start helping with the gift wrap!

Mimi made Paige this adorable apron...can you tell by the big smile and pose that she's loving it?!

She also received a set of notebooks and $25. to go towards summer horseback riding lessons.

That's the cute card that my sister made her.

Aunt Shann sent a cute pair of pink plaid shorts and matching top, plus a g.c. for Old Navy...plus she sent a big bag full of glow sticks for Paige's party with her friends.

Megan gave Paige this cute "Tink" t-shirt and some bracelets and a set of "Japanese erasers" that were in the shape of cakes.

Paige was thrilled with the dolphin wind chimes that Megan picked out for her from "Tropical Trends".

This is the b.day card I made her, give it a click for an enlarged view.

We gave her a bunch of t-shirts.. some art supplies and she will be getting a cell phone when Mike decides which one will be best for her.

Oh and I found this cute little metal doggy at Cost Plus ...he reminded me of the way Rebel sits with his legs all cockeyed...plus he had a red collar with a heart dangling from it....just too cute!

May all her wishes come true, as long as they don't involve us buying her a horse! Ha ha :)

Paige had another fun horseback riding class. After we brushed about five pounds of hair off of Calliope she saddled up and put her through the paces.

You can see here that Paige had Calliope in a pretty good trot. Miss. Ginnette was very pleased with how straight Paige was sitting in the saddle and how she was keeping her hands low and together on the reins. She told Paige that she will have her canter next week.

The canter is a controlled, three-beat gait performed by a horse. It is a natural gait possessed by all horses, faster than most horses' trot but slower than the gallop, and is used by all riders. The speed of the canter varies between 16-27 km/h (10-17 mph), depending on the length of the stride of the horse. A variation of the canter, seen in western riding, is called a lope, and generally is quite slow, no more than 13-19 km/h (8-12 mph).

While Paige was riding I thought it would be fun to take a few self portraits with Megan.

Of course you have to take a few of theses to get...one of these.

Then just for fun I decided "if I can't beat her I might as well join her"!
I don't want her growing up thinking I never played with her.

Last Friday's Fun

Last weekend it rained here pretty much all of Saturday and Sunday.....but Friday it was beautiful. Mike took the day off work and went fishing. He brought this nice sized Blue Gill home.

While Mike was off fishing I took the girls to the park for some fresh air fun.

Paige and Megan enjoyed "hanging out" at the park.

After the park we had dinner at Steak and Shake. Megan told me she needed me to e-mail her teacher a picture of us together so we snapped a few while we waited for our burgers.