Be prepared.
There are a ton of pictures below, all taken from the very same vantage point.
Very bad photographer of me. Sorry! Also, many are blurry...my subjects just kept MOVING, darn it!
Layla's Birthday!
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| Claire and Anja decorated these cupcakes for Layla. :) |
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| Layla, about to open her first gift. |
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| Binoculars from Grandma! |
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| She loooooved them. |
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| A bucket of animals from Aunt Lauren. |
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| The camera Click from the Horsmans. |
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| Diego's Rescue Pack and spotting scopes from Aunt Andrea and Uncle Greg. |
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| She had to try it on IMMEDIATELY. |
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| Aunt Andrea, keeping Finn happy so I can take pictures. |
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| Testing out that spotting scope! |
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| Pensive love birds. |
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| Aunt Andrea and Uncle Greg also gave Layla a big box of licorice, her favorite kind from Trader Joe's. She actually doesn't like any other kind...just this stuff. She ate a TON of it (I mean a ton...enough to qualify me for bad parenting for sure) on vacation up in Bayfiend, so sweet Andrea remembered and gave her her own bucket of it. :) |
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| A doll carrier for her baby. |
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| Diego's Video Watch from Uncle Eric and Uncle Dan. BIG hit. :) |
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| The cake! |
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| This girl does love her birthday songs! |
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| WHeeeeee! The clapping song! |
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| Starting to blow. Not very good at it. |
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| Trying to get closer. Claire playing mother and trying to keep her hair from burning. |
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| The rainbow insides. It turned out...okay. For sure not as cool as others I have seen. Sigh. |
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| My purple was a disaster. :) |
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| Finn would NOT sit still for a picture. His face is covered in some sort of food substance. |
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| The party aftermath. |
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Lauren and her cute shirt, cuddling with MY Mommy. :)
Also, she stole Layla's earrings and "forgot" to give them back at the end of the meal... |
Birthday Menu:
-- Rainbow Birthday Cake
-- Perfect steaks, cut into strips
-- Caramelized onions in a blue cheese dressing for on top of the steak. This.was.amazing. It's a Pioneer Woman thing, so now you know how GOOD it was, right??? I'm not a huge blue cheese fan...it's always just too strong for me...but this was heavenly.
-- Fancy bakery bread
-- Curry beet salad. This sounds gross, and the beets ARE gross, but the rest of it is really delicious. It's watercress, goat cheese, scallions, apples, and walnuts with a curry dressing of olive oil, garlic, red wine vinegar/fresh lemon juice, salt, etc. I absolutely love the taste of it, but then again I love anything curry. :)
-- Expensive wine that Dad only gave to the people who truly appreciate wine. I was not among the chosen few. ;) That's okay...I'd rather my calories went to steak.
Pictures Renee took:
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| Trying to do "3" with her fingers... |
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| Mowing and playing badminton. The only way to do it. |
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| Almost...got...it... |
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| Ah, nope. |
