the birthday girl

Melanie Grace turned 10 on April 20th!

She had not one, but two, birthday celebrations in honor of her 10th birthday. This post is about celebration #2 and the next post I write will be about the first one that we celebrated as a family on her actual birthdate. A couple of weeks later, we had her wonderful friends over and had a great time.

This birthday cake is much like the one that my hubby describes as the kind of birthday cake his grandmother always made for all of her grandbabies. He describes it with such fondness, remembrance, and joy. She was a precious grandma to him and she made all of her many grandchildren a birthday cake on their special day. It was always an angel food cake, white frosting, and m & m's. It is as if it was the best thing he has ever tasted. But it probably has more to do with the lovely woman that made it for him.

On a side note, another tradition that she blessed her grandchildren with was that if there was a snow day, Grandma was up at 4 a.m. baking the most delicious, fresh, tender, glazed donuts that you have ever heard of. From what I understand, no one has her recipe and it's a crying shame. Shawn practically salivates when telling this precious story and I salivate right along with him as a tear forms in my eye because I have never had the pleasure of tasting even a morsel. sniff*sniff* On the snow day that no one can make it to school in you can always find them at Grandma's eating her donuts. If the bus drivers knew what was going on, they would hop in their buses and make their way over to her house because that's where the fun always was.

OK, back to Melanie.

Speaking of yummy treats, a woman I recently met baked these for Mel's summer-themed party. Aren't they amazing? They're delicious, too.

The 2 girls on the left are sisters and they stayed over at our house during the weekend of Melanie's party. The night before the party, all 4 girls made the goody buckets. They were really excited to help with all of the birthday preparations.

The next few pictures are of the girls playing outside.

Braaten

Abbey

Melanie

Braaten, Megan, & Melanie

Such dramatic girls!

Fast forward to party day, and here is everyone around the table enjoying one of the cookies.

Nice shoe, Maddie.

Present time. Mellie received an abundance of gifts from her friends. Thanks girls!

Hanna, Braaten, and Kennedy

Alyssa & Jillian

Megan, McKenna, & Maddie

Party Favors

Happy Birthday, Melanie!

Grant was playing outside after all of the kids went home.

Melanie Grace

My friend, Lizzy, kept me company during the party. We had a great time together.

My friends, Kristen & Jamie, came to pick their daughters up.

I am blessed with so many friends and have a happy heart because of it.

Melanie was taking her daddy for a spin on the quad.

Here's the happy bunch at the end of the party.

Thanks for coming everyone! And thank you for stopping by.