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!