Arden Hits the Double Digits!

Its that time of year at our house!  Birthday Time!  

No matter what I say, they just keep coming.  Arden hit a big one this year...10!  Double digits.  That's right, I have an official tween-ager.  Boo-woops-I-mean-YAY!  

Here is the birthday girl with her by-request ice cream cake, which was super-delicious and not made by me.

Cora got Arden a new fuzzy monkey for her birthday, and Arden wanted to hod it as she blew out her candles.  I guess even if you are a tween, you still like your stuffed animals!

 In fact, this is a whole stuffed animal-themed birthday post!  Remember Arden's little bunny?  The one I make her take a picture with every year?  (like this one from her 18-month-old birthday?)

Here it is, version #10.0:

 Aw, she's so beautiful! And maybe just a little cheesy:

 And maybe has a little bit of sassyness:

Arden loves her stuffed animals so much, she decided months ago that she wanted to have her birthday party at "Build-A-Bear Workshop."  I looked up the prices there, and quickly saw that this would be a very small party.  In fact, I told Arden that she could only invite one friend if she wanted to do the whole Build-A-Bear-Animal-Stuffing-Outfit-Shebang.  Lucky for Arden, she has a bestest best friend who is also excited to add to her stuffed animal collection.

We fueled up on some FroYo and headed out.  Step 1, pick your animal.  There were black bears, brown bears, pink bears, purple bears, Star Wars bears, superhero bears, princess bears.  There were dogs, there were cats, there were bunnies, there were ponies, and there was even a sloth (I kid you not).  It took a while, but the girls finally both settled on bunnies.  Here they are, in their pre-stuffed states:

 After this picture, the girls chose hearts, put them inside, and had the stuffing put into their new friends.

After this came the hard, er...fun part.  Choosing the outfits.

The people at Build-A-Bear let you try as many outfits on your toys as you would like.  Arden and A tried outfit after outfit after outfit.  Tops, pants, shoes?  These animals dress better than I do!  Wait, now we have to choose accessories?  I let there be a headband, but I drew the line at $6 pretend cell phones for toys.

The girls had so much fun, and after 17 years, we finally came to a final decision.  Arden dressed her bunny up as a girl with a jacket, jeans, and sparkly shoes, and A dressed hers up as a boy with converse-ish shoes, cargo pants, and a button-up shirt.

Cora was tagging along with us, so I let her choose a small toy for herself and get it a little shirt.  She is now planning her own birthday visit Build-A-Bear.  Say cheese girls!

Oh look, the bunnies like each other!

Arden had a great time.  Here is a little more about Arden the big 10-year-old:

• Favorite color:  Still red!
• Favorite TV show:  She has much less time to watch TV this year, but lately she has been re-watching Scooby-Doo, Mystery Inc. on Netflix.
• Favorite thing to do:  Gymnastics, and have play dates with friends,
• Favorite song:  She says "Beat It" by Michael Jackson.  She also has recently developed a strange affection for "Gagnam Style," by Psy, and gallops around the kitchen to it every chance she gets (which isn't that often when I am around since I grew tired of that song about 3 years ago.)
• Favorite food:  Pizza!
• Favorite treat:  Cinnamon rolls
• Favorite things at school:  Everything but math
• Least favorite thing at school:  (guess what) Math...she is doing fractions now and doesn't love them.
• Other stuff about Arden: She still loves her pink blanket she got as a baby.  She can now do the splits!  She loves having long hair and never wants to get it cut short.  She does not like to wake up the morning, unless it is a weekend.

Arden is such a sweet, amazing girl and I am so glad I get to be her mom!  Happy Birthday baby!