Savannah's 11th Birthday

Savannah turned 11 years old on Tuesday.  Scott got home the day before and left the day after, but we got to have him home on Savannah's birthday.

Scott had to go in for one meeting in the afternoon, so the boys and I took birthday treats into Savannah's classroom at the end of the day.  Then we brought all the kids home with us and waited for Scott to get home from work.

A couple of years ago, I decided I was tired of doing huge birthday parties every month, so I adopted an "every other year" approach to birthday parties.  On even birthdays, they get a big friend party.  On odd birthdays we pick something big to do as a family, and they can bring one friend along.  Savannah chose to have us go bowling at the new bowling alley (Big Al's) and she chose her best friend Ashley to come with us. 

I forgot to bring my camera with me, so Scott's cell phone had to do the job (thus the slightly blurry photos).

Notice the huge birthday sundae!

Josh beat everyone, Scott came in 2nd, Ashley 3rd, Aaron 4th, Savannah & Nate tied for 5th, then Sara.

After the kids bowled a game, we let them head upstairs to the arcade level and let them play some arcade games. Josh was pretty devastated that the 51 tickets he won only bought him a few pieces of candy (thus him pouting in the cake pictures back at home). But all the kids had a really fun time, and Savannah told me more than once that this was her best birthday ever.

We returned home for brownies and ice cream.  Savannah was with us when we were buying the candles, and she begged for the trick candles that relight.  Scott told her those are only fun when you aren't expecting them, but she really wanted them.  Even though we all knew what would happen, everyone was very entertained by watching Savannah blow and blow and blow.

Ashley's mom came to get her before we got around to presents, so it was just our family around when Savannah opened her presents. She got everything she had been hoping for--rollerblades and knee pads, gum, and an itunes gift card, ear buds, and an IPOD shuffle (we have three IPODS around here, so we gave one to Savannah to be her own).

And the last present was the one that I was most excited about, and the one that all the kids loved the most.

It was a pack of little white onesies and a picture.