Pony Party!

 Amelie is 11! 

She had a long list of books that she wanted for a gift, which I'll go ahead and list here for posterity: 
(Warriors Broken Code Series): Last Stars, The Silent Thaw, Veil of Shadows, Darkness Within, and The Place of No Stars, (Warriors Super Editions) Crookedstar's Promise, Mothflight's Vision, Squirrelflight's Hope,  and Crowfeather's Trial, (Manga) Into the Woods, A Shadow in River Clan, Ravenpaw's Path, (Wings of Fire) The Dangerous Gift, and Matilda. Between us and Grandma Mary Beth, we got everything on the list, and then Nana Jana took her to Barnes and Noble where she managed to find a couple more books she wanted. 

She also had Opinions about her cake, which was to be a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake decorated as Moonwatcher (from Wings of Fire). I made the ice cream cake and ordered the sugar decal from a fan artist on the internet. 

Here's the cake in action - it might have melted some during transport: 

As for the party, though, she was noncommittal. (I think due to just how crazy everything has been this year - and that her first suggestion of a big sleepover was shot down. Here's the link to last year's pandemic birthday party.) I suggested horseback riding and she agreed. The weather was not great, but they were able to ride in the big indoor riding area out at Columbia Equestrian Center. Her good friend Kaitlin and Kaitlin's younger sister (who's in James's grade) were able to come, too. They all got to ride several times, and painted horseshoes as a craft, and enjoyed gigantic pieces of ice cream cake, since there was no way it was going to survive the rest of the party and the 20 minute drive home. (The stable staff also stepped up to take care of some cake.)

They got to meet the horses first: 

The big girls curried and brushed one of the horses and watched as they picked out its hooves and saddled it. Leah and James wandered the stable and exclaimed at and pointed out all the mice. 

Someone was waiting very patiently for her turn. Notice her horse-appropriate attire. 

The smaller horse's name is Dragon - quite convenient as Leah's favorite animals are horses and dragons (as she told the girl leading them). 

Amelie was quite pleased with herself as well: 

You can see Amelie rode both of them (Everyone rode both horses, except Leah, I think, who wanted to stick with Dragon.) The bigger horse's name is Storm. 

James: 

Maybe not the best form, here, but he was having fun: 

Kaitlin liked Storm the best: 

And Shawna's already as tall as Amelie. Everyone was just thrilled. 

They did a craft: 

And we sang "Happy Birthday" and gobbled up some rapidly-melting cake. Eleven candles!

The facility was so pretty as we drove in!

A tradition I picked up from my friend Amanda is letting the birthday kiddo choose all her favorite foods for her birthday. The menu Amelie chose was chicken chili & sour cream and onion chips for dinner on her actual birthday (Friday),  Dutch baby pancake for breakfast Saturday (of course), microwave fettuccini alfredo for lunch (easy enough), broccoli cheddar soup from Panera for our take-out night Saturday, sweet tea, and chocolate covered pretzels. She opted for episodes of She-Ra instead of a movie for her pick for movie night. 

It's been a minute since I posted a gif, but there were too many of these to choose from: