Happy Birthday Eliana!

Eliana's birthday was in July and now she's eleven years old!  She wanted an ice cream cake for her cake and here it is!

Blow!

She got several presents.  One was a little stuffed animal that Karina bought for her.  The kids have their own money that they get from allowances or that they save from Christmases or other birthdays.  And now they buy presents for each other.  (It is heartwarming and a relief as parents to see them being kind and generous to each other.)

Eliana also asked for and got a (knock-off) Fitbit.  She likes being able to tell the time and also see how many steps she has taken at the end of the day.

Another gift she wanted was a knife to whittle wood with.  So we got her a knife from Opinel and also several lectures about knife safety.  And she then spent several hours on the porch whittling sticks.

And the last thing she wanted was a new nightstand which she picked out.  And she also enjoyed putting it together herself.  The only part she needed help on was screwing some screws super tightly.  Otherwise, she did it all by herself.

Instead of having a birthday party, she opted to have a smaller shindig with just a couple of friends.  She wanted to go to a fancy restaurant and picked one called Hammond, which serves really good waffles and pizza as well.  And that's what they had!

She also went to a salon to get a pedicure done.  What a treat!

And then the girls went to Cold Stones to eat dessert and open presents. 

We hope you had a good birthday, Eliana!