Excellent Eleven

Our Ashton turned 11 last week, and we had a lot of fun celebrating with this great girl!  Our birthday fun started on Saturday night with her friend party.  A few weeks ago, my friend made an amazing monster cake for our church cake auction, and Ashton decided right then that she must have one for her birthday!  My friend was kind enough to re-create her masterpiece, but this time with pink frosting.  It turned out SO cute and just seemed perfect for Ashton.  And it was delicious, too!!!

Our first event was mini-golf and the girls had a really good time.  They just wanted to play for fun- no score keeping, no strict rules- they were just silly and crazy and mostly liked trying to hit the balls into the water  and then fishing them out.  Did I mention that 11 year old girls are really silly?

Tod came along too with the other kids so they could join in on the fun!  (I didn't get many pictures of that group, as I was trying to keep the gigglin' girls together!)

Then it was back to our house for mini-pizzas, trampoline fun, presents, cake and ice-cream and a late night movie (Diary of a Wimpy Kid- Dog Days!)

These girls are such a cute, fun bunch- witty, bubbly and just all around good girls- so glad Ashton has them in her life....good friends are priceless.

On Ashton's real birthday, the next day, we started with a cinnamon roll breakfast.

Then it was time for gifts...and the one thing she really wanted was an Ipod Nano- so she was one happy girl when (thanks to her dad) she got one!

Ashton is always so good at showing gratitude and being thankful.  She was thanking us all day long and she was so cute with her siblings to show so much excitement for the gifts they got her.

(When I took Regan to pick a gift for Ashton, she kept saying "Ashton is just the type of girl that likes anything you get her-so it doesn't even matter what we get."  That is so true!  That girl is so easy to buy for because she does like everything!)

Here she is already for church in her new birthday outfit!  Can't believe how fast she is growing up!

After church, we had a big birthday meal with some of our favorite friends.  Ashton chose lasagna with garlic bread for the menu.  Yummy!

And we finished off the rest of that amazing cake!

It was a perfect weekend celebration.

(And the next morning, we had to fit in one more Ashton birthday tradition- breakfast at McDonald's!)

There is so much good to say about this girl.  We just love, love, love her.  She is kind and cares deeply about others and their feelings.  She is supportive and a cheerleader for her friends and her family.  She looks for the good in others and finds it!  She is helpful and unselfish and smart.  She loves sports, books, music, art, movies, animals, and people.  She is full of life!  Happy Birthday Lu.  Here's to another great year full of many adventures (middle school, eek!!!).