Amelie's Birthday (Belated) & very, VERY Belated Sleepover Birthday Party! 13th & 14th Birthday Parties

I found this in my drafts folder & thought - screw it - I'll go ahead & post. (I don't know a way to go back & put these where they should go chronologically on Blogger!) Amelie is now 15.75, but here are her 12th & 13th birthday parties!

From 2023: 
I realized I never posted from Amelie's birthday - I think it got lost in the end-of-school stuff! And while I was working on it & went to link up last year, I saw that last year never got published either! 

Maybe I never posted because I took exactly 0 photos at her sleepover! Mom fail! She had 3 girls over - she invited the same group from last year but one couldn't come. They went swimming at Grandma Mary & Papaw's pool, then came home & watched movies & ate popcorn & I don't remember what all else!

Here is her family cake: 

And then we went to the doctor & she got blood drawn: 

She got a phone for her birthday! And of course, the big trip & the sleepover party. James was a little offended on her behalf that she didn't get a pile of actual presents to open. 

From 2022:
Amelie chose a Dutch Baby Pancake (of course) for her birthday breakfast. We put candles in and sang to her, as is tradition. She wanted to have a sleepover birthday party, so 4 girls came over Saturday and spent the night. 

We went to the store to buy snacks in preparation & Amelie sat in the front seat, because she can, now that's she's 12! She looks like she thinks she's breaking a rule about it here: 

She was VERY IMPRESSED that we spent $100 at the store. We also picked up frozen fettuccini alfredo, which is what she wanted most for lunch while we were there! I didn't put a candle in, though. 

Amelie wanted a Hollow Night cake (like her Halloween Costume), which Leah and I made when we got home, with a little artistic input from Amelie, and then cleaned  &  hung up balloons. And then we shipped her siblings off to the grandparents for a sleepover with their cousin Ben. 

And then Spark and I hung out upstairs since 3 of the girls are a little bit afraid of dogs. He went on 3-4 walks and had a pretty good time with it, actually.  They probably didn't want me hovering, either, so a win-win for them, I think. 

All the kids immediately ran upstairs into Amelie's room and shut the door.

They watched 1.5 movies. And sang "We Don't Talk About Bruno" into the microphones downstairs using Sam's musical setup. There was quite a lot of VERY LOUD and EXCITED talking.

While they were eating cake, Indigo asked, "Do you have any more skirt?" and everyone thought it was funny when I knew what she meant - the red cloak decoration on the cake was made out of fruit by the foot & I did have the rest of the box, so I passed it out too. 

She got a whole ton of presents, including many books, and a homemade purple sweater, which she'd requested - I think she wore it once but now it's too hot! I made it big so it would fit next year, too. Here it is finished except for the buttons: 

And then here's Amelie wearing her too-large birthday sweater (now with buttons):

Singing Happy Birthday: 

They did coordinating temporary rainbow tattoos: 

They ordered in Chinese takeout & had just a ridiculous amount of snacks & cake & ice cream & candy. There was a period of quiet reading (so sweet! And funny!) 

Aunt Holly brought over her superior air mattresses and human bubble inflatables (there was lots of inflating). It rained and thundered in the morning and I was afraid they wouldn't get to play outside -- but it held off in the afternoon, thank goodness! They put these back on the next morning and continued the game. 

 

 

And painted with acrylic paints!

I was so glad that everything went off okay! It had been a while! 

Professional Photos

It had been a little bit since we had professional photos made! Looks like the last one was in 2024 (when Jim had short hair & Amelie had long hair - now it's reversed!) 

It was a mini session & I didn't even try to narrow the photos down (or put them in order)! 

Jim is 13 & in 7th grade. 

We got the pictures made at Shelter Gardens, which was in full bloom. 

Leah is 8 years old & in 3rd grade!

My very favorite are of all 3 kids together. 

Amelie is 15 & in 10th grade. 

Here's Leah with her half a tooth! And her fancy butterfly earrings! 

The woman in the family getting photos done before us also had on a denim dress AND the woman in the family getting photos done after us was wearing a denim dress. 

This one was our Christmas card photo:  

Speech

Leah graduated from speech! (At school! You'll note that "at this time, it is the parents' responsibility to continue speech practice at home"!) She got E for Excellent effort/behavior and S for Satisfactory progress in speech. 

Christmas 2025

I figured I needed to get a move on if I was going to get the Christmas post up before February. 

We went to Christmas Eve service at church - Jim looks formal on top, but has athletic shorts on bottom. 

And then we went out to eat Chinese food afterwards (this was a first for us) - it was so noisy and crowded! Kind of fun to see everyone wearing their Christmas garb at the restaurant, though. 

Here we are, with the front room all set for the big day - I think this was our best tree ever! 

Here were Leah & Jim’s Christmas lists this year. 

Stockings: 

Spark wanted to be with us but not really. He got a present, too! 

Jim got some bongos & Leah's opening a gallon of wall paint: 

Amelie got a dragon wall mural (more to come on that one, I hope!) 

Sam made us cinnamon rolls & bacon: 

I hung the stockings back up on the mantle where they go.

Leah got a gemstone kit, where she had to sift to find the rocks. 

And also a bath bomb painting kit from my friend Cabell's shop. 

I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it, but they were all 3 using the 3-D printing pen - both the new one from Nana Jana to Leah this year & the one we got Jim 2 years ago - for several days to make all kinds of weird 3-D printed stuff. 

Here is the link to Christmas last year!