Hannah is 10

The many things that were keeping me from blogging are now over and so I hope to resume in this space.  I have a lot to catch up on!!  Thought I'd start with the very latest thing and that is that Hannah turned 10!!

A whole decade of life, motherhood, happiness, trials, all of it.  I tried to celebrate her big this year.

The first thing we planned was her very first concert to our/her favorite band, Needtobreathe.  This was planned months in advance, once we saw it was near her birthday it was a no brainer.  Not sure if we are ever going to get away with not taking her to one of their concerts again.

It was up in the city at The Fillmore, we saw them there a couple of years ago, and it was a long drive, but it was worth it!

She was so excited and was a TROOPER through all of the waiting and the very late night.

  They played most our most very faves and played almost all of what we were hoping.  It was so fun!  Singing along with her to our favorite songs is a pretty fun experience.

Her actual birthday was on a saturday, the day of her party.  My sister flew in the day before and helped big time with the party.  She was also surprised by Grammy and Grammy who flew in the day of the party.

One of the other big gifts I gifted her with was a photo book/journal with pictures from her 10 years of life along with notes, birthday wishes, encouragements, wisdom, and memories from family and friends near and far.  Thank you for sending these to her, she has looked at this book SO many times. I am still filling in the notes, but it is really precious.

I told Hannah I didn't want to be too "themey" for her party so I din't have to be limited to it, but also so that she could change her mind if she wanted to.  I loved the freedom.  We played with the color mint and used what I had and it turned out perfect!

She chose to have homemade pizza, but I told her I didn't want (Mike to have) to make 20 pizzas so we also had drumsticks, salad, fruit, and lots of snacks.

Hannah's book and lots of notecards for the partygoers to contribute!

They kids made custom keychains with tags to personalize, beads, and charms.  They turned out so cute!!  I have my sources if you are interested!

I like to have crafts that the kids can create (not some template), something they like and hopefully functional, are actually cool/cute, and not just another piece of junk.  It usually takes me some time to gather the right supplies, but all of the work is worth it in the end.  The older girls LOVED this and so did the younger.  Their backpacks and lunch bags are now adorned!

Waking up from her nap.

Someone had to light the candles with his fat torch.

Another fun party, another year older, and another year of birthdays complete!