Alida's 11th Birthday!

She's officially 11! The streamers and balloons will be coming down in the front room here shortly - by whoever is done packing for our trip first! It marks the conclusion of the at home birthday celebrations, but our upcoming little getaway, while a gift to all of us, is also in honor of Alida's birthday. Recently during our daily cuddle time, Terah and I had fun reading back over all of her birthdays - I'm inspired again to make sure I include a scrapbook entry for each one... I haven't historically thought of us being "big birthday people," but at this moment in time I'm inclined to change my mind. We might take the celebrations in a bit of a non-traditional direction at times, but they are most certainly a big deal. And I love how our kids have so much fun preparing for the celebrations and adding their own unique flair to how we celebrate their life. I feel tired in a good kind of way after the last few days. 

The previously mentioned chick hatching was planned to happen right around Alida's birthday. So it felt like the start of the hatch coincided with the ramping up of preparations for the celebrations. I say ramping up, as they had been happening for weeks but in a less urgent fashion. Many weeks before Alida's birthday she was attempting to cook up a good opportunity to show Kali a dress that Grandma had given her. She attempted to convince Kali that we should have an elegant ball (a combination of many things Alida loves: dressing up, dancing, being fancy...). Initially it was broached as something for our family of 5 but as plans continued to develop and Covid numbers continued to decrease, it felt fun to expand the guests slightly beyond our household. In the end, it was the first indoor Cub Runts gathering complete with the newest little member! 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. On Friday, the eve of Alida's birth, we enjoyed a little afternoon bike riding outing with Emily, Jonas and Ivy. Jason was on deck for doing the weekly errands so missed it, but the rest of us enjoyed a distraction from elegant ball preparations (Alida was nervous and excited and so some fresh air and bike riding was the perfect afternoon activity). Terah picked up right where she left off and was riding solo and fast immediately. She had a lovely long stretch of flat to ride back and forth on and did so until she wore herself out. We headed home in plenty of time to transform from bike riding clothes and hairdos to elegant ball attire and hairstyles!

It was VERY hard to narrow down the photos from the ball. There are MANY more where these came from, as well as some fun videos of our dancing! Here's our fancy guests - even little Luca wore a very colorful hat and little pants with buttons! We'll start with the guest/host of honor!

Mostly elegant until a little sister joined the mix!

What a trio!

Luca seemed to be contemplating what he was getting into. 

Following making the most of the beautiful light outside for some beautiful pictures of beautiful people, we moved indoors. And what followed was a delightful evening savoring delicious snacks, sparkling drinks, dancing, visiting, baby adoring, chick adoring, more dancing (waltzes and free style), laughing, more baby adoring, dancing with chicks, and then time to say goodbye and crash with that good tired feeling!

And that was just her birthday eve!!

Her birthday morning brought some snowflakes...

She was the first kiddo to rise on her birthday, and even before I had gotten into making her birthday brunch. So she joined Jason for chicken chores (him doing chores, her chattering by his side!) while I got cracking on things in the kitchen to execute the day's menus! First up was her birthday brunch of corn quiche, spinach ricotta quiche, sausage cheddar quiche, funny cake pie, and fruit salad. I am happy to report that I burned nothing and the funny cake pie was gloriously funny in all the right ways. We may have eaten brunch near noon, but it was a hit (either because it was yummy or we were so hungry or both). 

I was delighted to discover that I had four number candles in our house - a 2, 5, 6, and 9. So it happened to perfectly make two combinations of 11 - one for brunch and one for dinner!

She had fun opening a few presents, including the 3 chocolate bars her daddy had creatively wrapped in a triangle shape and fooled her!

One of the highlights of the day for me was reading with Alida my account of her birth and her daddy's account of her birth. 

Then I was back in the kitchen working on the birthday dinner while she went up to decorate her cake with Grandma and then back down to play some games. 

In the afternoon I convinced her, without too much trouble, to get some fresh air and for us to all take a little jaunt up the hill behind our home. We took a few presents to hide - one strategically was a new clippers that she was able to try out on the hike back down. 

She and Kali did some outdoor sports together for a bit before coming in for dinner. Her chosen menu included homemade green noodles, sauce, meatballs, and sautéed green beans with garlic. Aunt Karen and Aunt Sue were able to join the evening festivities. Alongside chocolate cake and Smiley's Ice Cream we played a few rounds of Apples to Apples. 

The girls topped off the evening watching some Curious George episodes together - Kali was there to try to comfort Terah as needed (she is about as hard to convince that George will always be ok as Kali was at that age - so she's a good one to attempt to provide comfort anyway). 

I believe Alida felt well celebrated and so deeply loved! I hope so! And, if there were any gaps in the celebrations, I'm hoping the next few days away together will fill those in nicely. I'm certainly looking forward to being away from the to do lists and chore routines to be able to more fully focus on time together! Speaking of which, time to shift my attention to packing!!