Grace’s birthday

Our “party planner” had a birthday (which I talked about back here). She’s planned so many other people’s parties that they all wanted to make it special for her. And I’m pretty sure they succeeded.  She started out with her “socks” the night before (I know people will ask about the socks…more about that back here).(which got her those curls in the first picture). We had lots of cousins sleeping here who were great helpers to celebrate, starting with reading her candy bar poster. They took her on a treasure hunt to find her gifts.…which are very fun to watch her open because she is so darn enthusiastic about it all.  See this for example: (In case you were wondering, that is a drawn-in uni-brow and mustache on Lucy’s face, compliments of her cousins giggling their heads off while she was sleeping the night before…did I mention it was a party here?) Her friends did their own little scavenger hunt around the neighborhood for her and brought her such nice gifts.Sweeties. We had lunch at her favorite: Costa Vida. Grace’s birthday tradition is to do a piñata.  A few years ago we started making them ourselves.  Our most extravagant one was last year (see the middle of this post back here).  This year, since she just did volleyball camp and loved it so much, she opted for a volleyball piñata.  Luckily our cousins were here to help us whip it up. Macie was the only one who stuck with us ‘til the very end.  What a painter she was. Finished product to admire during dinner. We ended off the night with a swim in our favorite neighbor’s pool. And one more dose of cake.(Yes, that is the second four layer cake we did to celebrate…) And a couple more visits from good, sweet friends to share their love.The next day she held me to what I unwittingly began when Elle turned 12: a make-over to learn how to apply makeup at the MAC counter. What was I thinking?? I guess it’s a rite of passage in some way, and she sure is excited about the couple little things we bought for her own supply at the cheaper drug store after our MAC adventure.  So far she has been very responsible with just wearing a little tad bit, but man, I’m not ready for make-up on a second child. Make-up or not, we sure are grateful for this girl of ours.