Birthday Girl

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My baby turned 11 this past Sunday. Emily is turning into a lovely young lady and to be honest, is growing up so fast!

However, she is still in the "playing with dolls" stage. Her cousin gave her a used American Girl doll years ago and she plays with it all the time. She and her friends bring their dolls to church. Eventually the arm broke and though it has been mended with duct tape, it has seen better days.

Dan & I talked about what to do for her birthday. We were going to send the doll to the American Girl "doll hospital" but after you pay for the new arm, and to have it cleaned and fixed up, it would have cost almost as much as a new doll. So we decided to splurge and buy her a new one for her birthday.

Our children get very little in the way of extras. We don't purchase toys and gifts for them during the year, so the few days we try to make special for them are their birthday and Christmas.

Here she is with her new American Girl doll.

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We had friends over in the afternoon to celebrate with the meal of her choice: spaghetti & meatballs, garlic bread and salad.

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Of course, I forgot to get candles so only had two lying around when it came time to blow them out. If you use your imagination, it's a number eleven! ;-)

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She is also taking two friends with her next Saturday to the zoo as part of her gift. We have a family membership and can bring a guest, so we will only have to purchase one extra ticket. We'll pack a picnic lunch and drinks so it's a frugal way to continue the celebration.

She told me she had a great day so I would call that a successful birthday celebration!

Comments

  1. ElizabethdJune 1, 2010 at 7:04 AM

    What a lovely birthday, and what a pretty doll!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 1, 2010 at 10:15 AM

    It does my heart good to see 11 year old girls still loving dolls...how truly lovely.

    Happy Birthday Emily! xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. DonnaJune 1, 2010 at 10:35 AM

    Happy Birthday Emily!
    11 is getting up there.
    What a lovely gift!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJune 1, 2010 at 10:40 AM

    What a beautiful young lady your daughter is.

    Debbi

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJune 1, 2010 at 10:43 AM

    Happy Birthday to Emily!

    What a special celebration!

    Blessings,
    Sharon

    ReplyDelete
  6. NadineJune 1, 2010 at 11:06 AM

    A Belated Happy Birthday to Emily!!!
    Both of my girls had American Girl dolls when they were younger...gifts from their grandparents.
    They grow so quickly, don't they?!?

    Blessings!
    ~Nadine

    ReplyDelete
  7. Debbie JJune 1, 2010 at 12:27 PM

    She is a sweet young lady and even after she outgrows playing with dolls she can keep the new one for a keepsake. What a great picture too, showing the broken arm and the doll, will be a keeper down the road!

    My daughter will be 30 this week!

    ReplyDelete
  8. TracyJune 1, 2010 at 5:38 PM

    Such a pretty young lady she is, too! Sounds like a wonderful birthday celebration.

    Kit is lovely, too. We enjoyed her movie. (Autumn has a bitty baby from when she was younger that is falling apart and when I offered to have it fixed, she declined saying that it wouldn't be the same doll if they replaced parts of her. )

    ReplyDelete
  9. Leah CourtneyJune 1, 2010 at 8:34 PM

    Happy Birthday to Emily! My Kathryne will turn 11 in July, and she still likes to play with dolls too. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. A Wonderful Life!June 2, 2010 at 10:08 AM

    It looks like she loved her doll. Good choice.It keeps them little.

    ReplyDelete

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