Abby’s Big 11

Today is a very special day, it’s the day we celebrate welcoming Abigail Jo into our family 11 years ago.  What a difference one person can make in a family or anywhere.  She has enough personality and dreams and compassion to last several lifetimes.  She knows exactly who she is and what she wants out of life and quietly makes it happen.  She’s definitely changed our lives in just over a decade.  We’re so grateful for her.

She wanted a new bike for her birthday so that was about it, but she was thrilled.  She also got some birthday money from Grandpa and Grandma John and Jamie and is excitedly anticipating her birthday date with Grandpa and Grandma B. 

It’s the year of friend parties, so Abby kicked things off for the year wanting to take her friends ice skating.  We came up with a Winter Wonderland theme to go along with the ice skating.   What did we ever do without Google?  A quick Google search led me to a site with some darling invitation and craft ideas.   Abby made these invitations:

When the darling guests arrived we left Ben and Josh home with Chloe and drove to the ice skating rink and had a great time ice skating.  Most of them took right to it and had a great time.  Nate and one of Abby’s friends were really nervous, but by the end they were doing it without the safety of the wall or me.  It was really fun.

We came home to do make these cute little penguins out of men’s dress socks filled with rice. 

These are some of the finished penguins:

Next was cake and ice cream, of course:

She has such a cute group of friends, they always have fun and are so game for whatever we have planned.

We love Abby.  Happy 11th Birthday!!!!