The Birthday Season is Also a Wrap

We have officially celebrated the fourth Vanneste birthday in four months. We've eaten all the cake and hosted all the Zoom parties ... and a certain newly 10-year-old needs to write all the thank you notes (please be patient with us. Balancing life and manners is hard). And now we will happily close the book on the birthday season.

But before that book is closed, let's talk about how we celebrated Miss Fiona's entry into the world of double digits! This baby is TEN. 

We did a whole birthday weekend celebration, starting with a co-coaching gig on Saturday morning. Coach Mike was in high demand and needed to be at Crocodiles team pictures (Dec's team) during the LA Galaxy (Quinn's team) game. So Fiona and I stepped in to coach the second half of Q's game. The girls were very sweet - especially after Q's friend Reese informed them all that "it's fine. Quinn's mom is cool." [Sidenote: I made Q play goalie and she is not sure that Quinn's mom is cool!]

Once soccer was done, Quinn let Fiona use the tools from her cake decorating set and with just a bit of assistance from me, Fiona decorated her "mermaid" birthday cake. We had a bit of a frosting shortage and ended up doing some marbling that worked out even better than expected. She was proud and delighted - as she should have been. The cake not only looked great; it was delicious!

We ate a super fast lunch and got the cake decorated just in time for her afternoon birthday parade. Two sweet girlfriends came over and stayed to play for a few minutes. And our neighbors lined up one more time to do a full-on honking, cheering, celebratory parade - that tickled her to the tips of her toes! So fun! Gpa V, Gma and Gpa J, and Auntie also ventured down to S-town. It felt like quite the party - to the point that at times, I think the birthday girl was a little overwhelmed. We are not used to people anymore!

We got to keep Gpa V overnight and he "surprised" them all with birthday donuts in the morning (they look forward to Grandpa donuts almost as much as they look forward to seeing Grandpa!). Birthday proper was a bit more low-key, since we were worn out from partying the day before. 

However, we managed to fit in a Zoom birthday party with the family, a few more presents, a visit from the Pilchers (with trampoline jumping), and a memorable family bike ride*. We finished the day with homemade mac and cheese and leftover cake at her request. Ten did not come quietly - and we made sure that we ended the birthday season with as much gusto as we started with. One cannot say that we did not mark six, forty, eight, and ten with style this summer!

*Oh my goodness, this bike ride was ridiculous! Fiona asked to go on a family ride, so Mike got all the bikes ready. We went on the longer route to go through some neighborhoods and down a big hill. Just as we got near the top of the big hill (at the farthest point from our house), I heard a pssssssst sound. Fiona's tire had popped. [Please note that this is the EXACT same spot Quinn got a flat tire earlier this summer.]

This time, Mike did not ride home as fast as he could to get a car to retrieve bikes and humans. Nope. He tucked F's bike under one arm and rode his own bike one-handed - while carrying her bike. Then Fiona got on Quinn's bike to ride it home. And Quinn monkeyed up on my bike, shared the seat with me, balanced her legs on the bike bars, and relaxed while I pedaled. It.was.a.sight! But we made it home. And Fiona is now highly motivated to practice on her bigger bike. 

She was a bit bummed at first that it ruined her special day. But we have convinced her that it's awesome - because now her day has a story. As all great days should!