Shimmer and Shine

More like smoke and mirrors.  Hahaha.  The following pictures depict the sparkling, happy highlights of Sophie's birthday weekend.  NOT pictured are the freak outs, temper tantrums, and general meltdowns from an over-tired and emotionally overwrought 9 year old.  It was a weekend of HIGHS and lows to say the least.  Hahaha.

A high -- Sophie was excited to get this present in the mail from grandma.

This year was not a friend-party-year, so we kept things low key and did a family celebration as per usual.  Her actual birthday was on Sunday, but we decided to have her cake and presents on Saturday in order to capitalize on everyone being home without anything else to do.  Unfortunately, the morning started out rocky, with lots of shrieking and screeching, and it took several hours before bedrooms were clean and a mandatory shower was taken by Sophie.  At that point, we'd run out of time in the day to make it to the "free skate" period at the local ice skating rink, which was the main thing that she wanted to do, and Sophie was none too happy about that.  Thankfully, she was appeased with a trip to the store with Scott, where they picked up some fixings for her party along with a few extra treats on the side.  While Sophie finished getting ready, I worked on her "cake." 

An "Oreo Treat" cake

This year I branched out and tried a new option for her birthday cake.  Her food allergies always force me to get creative when it comes time to make something that everyone else will also want to eat, too, and I'm always searching for something to fit the bill.  So, when I saw a "recipe" on Pinterest a while back for Oreo treats, I filed it away for future use as a potential birthday cake option for Sophie, since Rice Krispie treat cakes have worked for her in the past.  Using a heart shaped bundt pan as the mold, I mixed melted marshmallows, a little bit of oil (instead of butter), and a bunch of crushed Oreos together to form the cake.  Once it was set, I popped it out and melted the cream filling from about half of the cookies to pour across the top.  Looks-wise, I think it came out great! Everyone was excited about the way the icing dripped down the sides.  Hahaha.  :)  Taste-wise, I personally thought it was gross.  Hahaha.  Way, way, WAY too sweet.  I'll take the Oreos plain, thank you very much.  The kids seemed to like it, though, so it wasn't a total bust.

Sophie had already picked out all her presents the weekend before while we were at the outlets.  Since she wasn't really getting anything else, I wrapped all the clothes separately to make it look like she got more.  Hahaha.

Once it was time to get the party started, Sophie was nothing but shimmer and shine.  :)  The storm clouds had parted and a bright sky sparkled in its wake. She was SUPER happy with her cake and VERY excited to open all her presents.  And she almost didn't mind that there was nothing else planned for the day.

Once we finally managed to tear Alex away from Mario Kart, we gathered the troops, snapped some pictures, then commenced with the Birthday singing and present opening.

Blowing out the sparkler candles proved a little tricky.  :)

It took more than a few tries to get them all out.

Of course, I thought it would have been super lame not to have ANY surprises for her gifts, so I ended up grabbing one other outfit that was on clearance at Target last week, and a gift from my sister Emily arrived just in time on Saturday as well.  I was worried that she would find the whole birthday lame, since she basically only got clothes and I didn't take the other kids shopping to pick out different stuff, but she seemed super satisfied with everything she got.  Especially the brand new dress that she just HAD to have from the J. Crew outlet.  She's such a budding fashionista.  :)

New lip gloss from Auntie Em.

New running gear!

And the dress!  

{You can see how excited she is, even though she already knew she was getting it.  Hahaha.}

And that was that!  Sunday morning -- her actual birthday -- started out much nicer than the day before, and everyone enjoyed the powdered donuts that Scott had let her pick up at the store on Saturday afternoon.  In a completely surprising turn of events, the morning passed by semi-peacefully with the kids really getting into making the "scripture journals" that I found on Pinterest, and getting ready for church without too much fuss.  I ended up staying home with Isaac -- who was still sick, the poor little lamb -- and Alex who claimed he was sick as well.  

 Proudly showing off her scripture journal.  :)

 All ready for church in her birthday dress.

We finished off the day with her requested birthday meal of spaghetti, and at bedtime, I had everyone go around the room and name something they loved about Sophie.  I think she really liked that.  :)  As for me, what I love most about Sophie is her sensitive spirit.  She is always one of the first to comfort me when I'm upset and she has a genuine desire to do what's right.  She is a unique and special little soul.  And -- when she's happy -- she just plain sparkles.  Happy Birthday to my 9 year old!!!  :)