Ameliya Turns 10!

Ameliya turned 10 on Good Friday and had a lovely day full of celebrating.

We started the morning with doughnuts, sausage balls, singing, and gifts.

Evalynn made her a necklace.

American Girl books...

Grandma and Papa Tallman's birthday card had come the day before and I tucked it away for her birthday morning...finally old enough for a "big bill."

Natalee gifted her some of her mini American Girl dolls - such a thoughtful thing to do.

Mini fun erasers make great little props for big American Girl dolls.  

I loved Zayden's card...

She wanted the mini American Girl doll Caroline but she isn't in production any more.  I found one in like new condition on ebay and she was very surprised.

All in a line with Natalee's borrowed Julie doll.

She wears 10 years well. 

Mike had the day off of work and we did the barest minimum of school possible.  The older two kids had science experiments to do with their lab groups so Mia got to play with her friends for a bit Friday morning.

Back home we had lunch and one more birthday surprise from Mom and Dad.

We bought Natalee and Xavier older generation iPads for their 10th birthdays.  At the time we were freshly moved/moving and it was a great way to keep in touch with family and friends back home for them.  It also became a bit of a right of passage and a healthy way (for us) to teach the children electronic usage.

We have been frustrated with the expense of the iPads and how quickly they become "obsolete" (for the price) so for Mia we opted for an android tablet.  She has started using kids messenger to chat with a few friends and grandparents/aunts/uncles and has the barest minimum of (2) games on it.  She is also excited to use it to "read mom's blog."

Learning the ropes.

We have a lot of rules about devices.  In fact, Mike's favorite technology rule after spending all day in technology at the college level is "just don't use it."  Ha.  But it is 2024, and so we are figuring out how to teach healthy usage and boundaries.

After lunch Mia had some local gal pals over to craft, eat, and play.  I helped her do a bit of an American Girl theme and the girls were all very sweet.  We played AG Bingo (Mia had the most fun picking out the prizes)...

The girls had brought her some gifts so she opened those up while I reset the table.

Checking out the gifts!

Crafting time!

We made no sew aprons with for the girls' AG dolls.  

I also had tiny 1" wooden stars for the girls to decorate as cookies for their AG dolls.  Dollar Tree came in clutch with tiny plates, too, which were perfect for the cookies.

The aftermath...

Mia's favorite more modern AG girl is Grace so she chose to watch her movie with her friends.  (It's about a bakery in Paris, hence the aprons and cookies.)  I got out some popcorn for the girls to munch on while they started the movie.

While they watched, Mike helped me reset the table one last time...

Birthday charcuterie for supper...

I paused the movie and let the girls fill plates and we sang to Mia.

We just let them continue filling plates while they finished the movie and I fulfilled the last birthday request....oreo milkshakes...

There was Good Friday service at church, so after the movie the girls played outside a bit, then took a few minutes to freshen up and we loaded them all up for church.

Happiest of birthdays, Ameliya.  We love you so very much.