Alana's Birthday Party - Final Part!

I love this picture of the girls at Alana's party. They had so much fun! Sweet girls.

On Saturday (Alana's actual birthday), we had a girl day. One of the things she wanted for her birthday was to go to the Olive Garden. I knew she would have a much better time with just the two of us than dragging her little brothers along (sweet as they are). I really wanted to make this birthday special since she was turning 10, so we made a day of it.

Originally, we were going to get her ears pierced and do some shopping, but Alana decided against the ear piercing. I could tell she had been having doubts about it for a couple of weeks and we talked about it. I told her that just because she could get her ears pierced, she certainly didn't have to and if she wasn't ready, I thought it was very mature of her to recognize that. So we'll get her ears pierced another day. She has another birthday present still coming to replace the ear piercing - more on that later.

First, we went to Books-A-Million because her gift card was burning a hole in her pocket. I thought for sure she would buy some books because she loves books, but there's not really any books on her radar right now, so she chose a Webkinz instead. She loves stuffed animals and she loves to get on Webkinz world and take care of them.

Alana at Olive Garden with her new friend.

We also went to Toys-R-Us and Alana spent some of her birthday money.

Saturday night, my parents came over for a little family party. I was so tired the night before that I had thrown away her birthday candles and had to improvise - an "8" candle and two stick candles to make 10:)

Alana opened more presents from us and my parents that night.

I think Alana had a wonderful tenth birthday.