Hayley Turns 9!

Seems like we were just rocking out to Hannah Montanna's at last year's party, and here she goes and has another birthday!! Can't believe she's 9! Hayley is growing up so fast! At this point in her life, she LOVES gymnastics, piano and reading. Some of her favorite books are the Geronimo series, Poppy and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. She got the first two Diary books and read the first one all the way through that night!

She has such an old soul. I know I'm going to learn more from her about life than I'll ever be able to teach her! I get depressed though thinking that the first 9 years of her life went by so fast, and I only have 9 more with her before she's off to college! I wish life could just slow down a bit!

For her birthday party this year, we decided to do a Cookie Decorating Party. A gal named Michelle has a cookies and cake business. She does the entire party (makes the sugar cookies, bring all the needed supplies, teaches the girls how to decorate cookies and then wraps their finished product up so cute to take home) and I just got to enjoy myself :) Hayley got to choose the theme and she wanted flowers. So Michelle made 5 big sugar cookies in flower shapes for each girl. She taught them how to use the decorating bag to make dots, stripes and curves. She brought a little square that each girl could practice on.

Then she would show how to do a certain type of decorating on a flower, and the girls could follow along or do their own thing. She ended up giving me her sample bouquet to keep :)

Here was Hayley's finished product:

These are Hayley's very best friends - - cousins Courtney & Sandee, Sierra, Abby, Casey & Olivia. I know I've said this before but she has the most wonderful friends . . . cute, naive, sweet little girls who get along so well. They don't fight or get dramatic. I'm hoping it lasts forever (but knowing that it probably won't, I'm savoring this time in her life!).

They were so proud of their bouquets!

So Michelle said it usually takes 1 1/2 hours to make the cookies, but our girls did them in record time - - 45 minutes. So we had an hour to spare. Luckily I had some games up my sleeves. First one - - try to pop the balloon on your friend's ankle without getting yours popped. They loved this one and we did it over and over.

Then we played Chinese Numbers - - they have to figure out which Chinese number you're making with utensils. This was a lot of fun as it took quite awhile for them all to clue in to the trick! We then followed up with the game Black Magic. They loved them and it took up the rest of the time!

So lucky that both Grandmas could come and enjoy the party with us!

And glad that these two little princesses could attend as well!