Happy Birthday Lynnsey

Our little Lynnsey hit the big one-oh in January!  Crazy to think a whole decade has passed since she joined our family.  She is growing into a beautiful young lady who becomes more confident and talented every day.

This year was an even-numbered birthday which means Lynnsey could have a friend party.  So we celebrated twice.  Once on her actual birthday with just our family.

There was definitely and American Girl theme to just about all of her gifts. 
And her double chocolate cake was pretty tasty!

Then a week or so later we had her friend party.  When she had her 8th birthday party, we had promised Lynnsey that she could choose a place to go for the party if she wanted to rather than just have it at home.  She chose to do her party at a pottery shop called The Firehouse and was so excited.  And then we learned that they'd had some very severe pipe leaks that had caused a lot of water damage and so they were closed indefinitely.  So we had to change plans and since time was short, Lynnsey just opted for a party at home.  Well, this year we decided to let her have the pottery studio party since they are back up and runnning.  She invited a few friends and had a marvelous time painting piggy banks for an afternoon.

Kalen enjoyed helping too!  (And has been dying to go back ever since!)

Time for presents! 

                                     

It was such a fun experience.  And I love actually going somewhere else for the party because there is no pressure to provide entertaintment, I don't have to clean my house from top to bottom, and they handle all the clean-up there.  We definitely hope to come here again.