eleven

A couple of weeks ago, the Little celebrated her eleventh birthday.  She's had quite a ride since we were matched just after she turned seven! 

Although I'm always traveling on October weekends, we try to celebrate together as close to her big day as we can.

This year, I had no fun craft planned; no recipe to make.  In fact, I had no plan at all!

But we had a fun afternoon, just being spontaneous.

We went to a park.  We chatted in the grass ...



We walked the trails, and stopped to smell the flowers.



We stopped for some old-fashioned refreshment.

We had our nails done, and then popped in for a quick Sno Biz (quick, that is, only after we muddled our way through the most disorganized menu ever of about 452 flavors).

After that, we went to Walgreens and sat at the photo kiosk, editing her photos from the park.  She's shy and wasn't totally comfortable seeing herself as the subject of all the pictures, but she loved making them "old-timey" (that would be "sepia," and we had a teaching moment about that).

We bought a few prints, some for her photo album, some for mine, and a couple for her mama.

She held off opening her present until the very end of our day.  She is sweet in that way, never wanting to seem greedy, or assume that she deserves a gift.  She's my little Lady Bug, so she got ...

... a pillow pet, which she collects.

And so, that's how we celebrated the big 1-1.  Here's to many more, Little!