Eleven

My baby turned 11 yesterday! ELEVEN! How can that even be? We went back and forth about her birthday and she decided she wanted to bring some friends to Velocity Airsports followed by dinner at China Buffet and then cake and a sleepover at our house. I was fine with that.

She had 6 girls over and I let my oldest bring a friend so we had 9 children all together. We went to Velocity and they jumped for an hour and then we headed to the buffet. The people that worked there looked at my husband and I like we were insane. Probably because we are. The 11 year old girls got their own table and my husband and I ate with the two older kids.

It was a little bit of a zoo. When we got home, we had cake and my youngest opened presents. Then we did sparklers and they played games. I went to bed at 11:30. I woke up at 5:11 am the next morning to girls giggling and running up and down the stairs. I rubbed my eyes and got out of bed. "Why are you guys up so early?" I asked.
"We never went to bed!" One of her friends replied. Good Lord.
Except for my daughter, she was asleep. She is always the first one asleep at sleepovers.

They did crash around 6 am and I was kid free by 10:30, which I was grateful for. It was her ACTUAL birthday so she wanted to go shopping for a new outfit. I knew that wasn't going to end well. My rule is that my kids can pick when they want but I have ultimate veto power. I vetoed all of her outfit choices. They were skanky. She was getting so pissed off, "This is my birthday. You never let me wear what I want!"
I shrugged. "Maybe you should want to wear clothes that aren't skanky, then this wouldn't be a problem."

She picked out an outfit that was ALL black, of course. She won't leave the dressing room when she tries on clothes. She takes a picture and texts them to me. Makes me crazy.

That night we had cake- AGAIN and she opened her gifts from us.A framed pic of the US Olympic gymnasts for her room, a manga drawing book, Death Note watch/necklace, and a camera. She was happy, she's wanted a camera for months. It was a good day, another birthday in the books.

She's eleven now, my baby. She is getting so big and beautiful. Sometimes I just look at her and I'm amazed. Wow! I made her. She's so pretty. She hated when I look at her. "Stop staring at me, you perv." Yup, that's my daughter.

She is so