Happy Birthday to my big girl

I had big plans to surprise the girl for her birthday this year. Made this banner and put it up early in the morning:

Piled all her presents on a table:

We were going to surprise her with breakfast in bed with these (but she ambled downstairs while Paul was out picking them up):

But she was still psyched for birthday and got a box of cool "stuff" from her grandfather: including a rose quartz butterfly, a bicentennial half dollar, and more stones to add to her growing rock collection--thanks Opa!

She also scored a bunch of neat things from her Aunt Jane and Uncle Prashant, including some great books, her favorite tea, a cool dream catcher, and a jeweled hairband that the girl had dropped serious covetous hints to her patient aunt:

The big present from me and Paul was the Wii system. We had told her if she saved up her allowance towards the Wii, maybe we'd pitch in the rest for her birthday. We're happy to say we made good, plus her Aunt Annabelle and Uncle Josh added to the loot with the MarioKart game (which she's been playing with her Uncle Josh since his Game Cube days):

My left coast home girls collectively gave her another fun Wii game:

We also gave her seasons 1 and 2 of Scrubs, which she recently got hooked on. We'll cap off the night with a few episodes and a little family slumber party in the living room. It's a good birthday.