Happy Birthday Annalina...You're 10!!!!

 We have been promising Annalina a friend birthday party for several years now and we finally came through!  She invited 6 friends over for some birthday fun!  They decorated cupcakes, played several fun games and then she opened gifts. It was a great party!

 In her new snuggie playing with her new DS game. Both gifts from her mom and dad!

 She was so excited about this gift!  So cute!

She loved this new outfit enough that she left the party for a couple minutes to go change! 

 Another filler activity was Richard flying his helicopters and trying to land them on the kids hands!  They really like this!

 One of our favorite party games is to have two teams and two of Richard's sweatshirts. The teams each try to cram as many balloons in as they can and when time is up, we count to see who won!  Fun times!  The kids all wanted turns to be the human grape bunch!

We had some extra time, so we walked over the playground where the kids burned off some frosting playing their favorite playground games. I love the way they all know the rules to each game. Nothing is ever explained, they just know how to play!

Annalina requested sushi for her birthday dinner, so Richard and I went to the Asian market and picked up what we needed and Richard spent a good long time preparing an awesome sushi meal for the whole family!  There was enough sushi supplies left over that the next night he made us another wonderful meal of sushi!  Thanks honey!!

I love how Annalina incorporates Christmas into her Birthday each year.  She talked about putting her gifts under the tree and wanted to play Christmas themed games at her party and she took Christmas cookies to share with her school class on the big day.  We have talked about waiting until after her birthday to get our tree and decorate for Christmas, but she would have none of that!

I have posted before about Birthdays near Christmas and how unfair they can be, but I have come to a new conclusion about that.  My only past experience with a December Birthday was my ex husband, who freely expressed how much he hated it, but he tends to have a more negative view of life in general.  So, I think it mostly depends on your outlook.  Annalina loves to share her birth month with Christ.  She doesn't mind that sometimes people forget her birthday completely.  I love so much her happy disposition and her ability to be content with the life she has!  She is amazing to me!  Happy Birthday sweet girl!