A Georgia Girl in Germany

Wow! MacKenzie turned 11 last weekend! I truly am amazed at how quickly she’s growing up, maturing and turning into such a wonderful young lady! Since her birthday was on Saturday and her party on Sunday, she truly celebrated all weekend long! Here she is with her family gifts before unwrapping them. Well, before unwrapping half of them -- the other half she saved to open during her party. She also wanted her hair permed, so that was one of her presents from me.

She wanted her party at the bowling alley, and her brothers definitely agreed. It wasn’t busy, and there was only one other party going on Sunday afternoon, so it turned out nice. We didn’t feel rushed, and they got to play as many games as they could fit into an hour. MacKenzie and her guests played three games each!

Benjamin loves bowling, but prefers having the ramp guide to use. Unfortunately, this bowling alley doesn’t have the ramp (it also can’t adjust the bumpers per individual bowler, so we ALL bowled with the bumpers up -- unfortunately, it didn’t help my game any). So, Benjamin bowled most of his frames like this -- sitting and pushing the ball. I’m not sure how he managed to leave these four pins standing after his first throw (push). I don’t think I’ve ever seen this configuration before! I like how he tried to will the ball to move down the lane though -- leaning his head to match the direction of the ball! Cute!!

Since we procrastinated with planning the party (two days’ notice), only two of her friends were able to come. It worked out nicely though since that gave them more opportunity to bowl and more one-on-one time with each other.

They also had fun using the party hats (and food) as props for my photos.

MacKenzie designed her cake this year. I don’t know why on earth I thought I could make a reasonable-looking puppy, but I gave it a try. She really likes Granny Walker’s recipe for cream cheese frosting, so I obliged and made it for her. Fortunately, we had some chocolate frosting that I was able to use for the puppy (otherwise she would have had a psychedelic-looking blue puppy). It wasn’t my best creation, but I was down to the wire making it (remember the comment about planning the party in its entirety in only two days’ time?). Fortunately, MacKenzie wasn’t a tough critique and adored the cake. Whew!

I also wrapped up the junior bagpipe I bought her in Scotland and gave it to her as a gift. She didn’t seem to mind, and tried playing it (again) as soon as she got it out of the box. We can crudely figure out how to make noise (not quite “music”), but aren’t sure whether the fingering is similar to a recorder or not. This could get interesting.

Here she is with her goodies: several clothes, books and movies, the bagpipes, a Wii game, a Webkinz puppy, purple nail polish, some spending cash and a matching comforter/sheet set. I think she enjoyed the weekend-long celebration and was pleased with everything.

Labels: Benjamin, Birthdays, MacKenzie