Machaela's 10th Birthday

I have been a very bad blogger lately. I rely heavily on my children for my posts and unfortunately they haven't given me enough material to work with lately. They need to either increase the comedy around the house or get into some hair-raising experiences. Lately, I have even been going to the grocery store early in the mornings before Jared leaves for work, that way I can retain my sanity, but unfortunately I can't blog, as I once did, about the very adventurous trips to the grocery store with all four kids.

The big news around our house lately is that Machaela turned 10 years old! Jared and I find it hard to believe we have a ten year old. Here are some pictures from her birthday celebration. This first picture is of Machaela at her "family party" holding her American Girl Mia doll.

For Machaela's party with her friends she wanted to have a tea party, which was held on Valentine's Day. This next picture is of the cakes we made for Machaela and her friends, which I think turned out really cute.


For decorations, I used my antique tea cups and Machaela and her friends used a combination of my wedding china and my full-service tea china that my father-in-law brought back from Russia as a gift several years ago. I was really nervous about using them, but we had no accidents and all of the china is still in perfect condition!


For the "entertainment" I asked Amanda, Jared's sister, if she would dress up like an old lady and come give the girls etiquette lessons. Amanda didn't let me down and as you can see from the picture she came in costume and not only gave tips on etiquette, she also added a lot of humor to the routine! She had the girls laughing at Machaela's "Great Auntie Gladys".