Happy birthday Karina!

Karina turned 12 this year in August.  She chose to have angel food cake, but without the icing because she doesn't like most types of icing.

She does love whipped cream though, and so we had that and strawberries, for a strawberry shortcake-like dessert.

And then it was time to open presents.  She got a Squishmallow, of course.  There are now lots of these floating around the house.  This one is a blue seahorse, which was her role in The Little Mermaid production the girls are in.  

She also got a couple of gift certificates.  One is to take Lucky to a dog obedience class.  She likes training Lucky to do things.

The other gift certificate is to $50 to spend on Chewy, which is a online store for pets.  Notice a theme?

Another Squishmallow.  Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai were in town to watch their musical performance and so they got to watch the presents being opened.

From Eliana, she got a canister of slime.  She likes playing around with it and holding it and stuff.

She also got her very own sewing machine!

And a big box of Hi-Chew candies!

She also got some treats.  One was the Japanese drink Ramune that comes in a special glass bottle, which has a glass ball in the neck of the bottle that you have to push in to open the bottle.  It takes quite a bit of force!

So how has the last year been for her?

When last year's school year ended, she got a certificate from her class and one thing it said is that she's most likely to have the most pets.  

It may prove to be very accurate as she looooves pets, especially dogs.  Here is a collage she made in school.

She's in heaven right now.

She's still very much into baking and is willing to help out in the kitchen.  The other day we had for dinner hand pies made with pastry dough stuffed with curried ground beef.  She made the pies.

One of her favorite foods are Slurpees from 7-11.  She will never pass up a chance to have one.

She inherited a Zoku cup from her cousin.  It is a cup that has super thick walls that are filled with a material that freezes.  Then you can pour juice or liquid in there and it will turn the liquid into a smoothie consistency.  She loves this cup because it is almost like being able to have Slurpees at home.  Here she has poured orange juice in it.

She's still into crafts and is finishing up a diamond dots poster she got last Christmas.

And here it is all done.

Here she is painting a stand for potted plants.

Here is a little holder for votive candles she got from Ikea.

And she sometimes works on crocheting.  

So that's our Karina.  She's happiest when spending time with her puppy!  Either outdoors...

Or cuddling with him at home!