Jenna Turns Eight: It's All About the Benjamins.

Happy birthday to my sweet baby girl Jenna!  We celebrated our Jenna in style this year, starting with a small get together at my parent's house the night before her Big Day.

By far her favorite gift this year was the $100 bill ("My Benjamin Franklin!") that my parents put into her birthday card.  But she also loved the alarm clock/iPod charger, the American Girl doll items, and the heated blanket (they aren't called electric blankets anymore) that she got.  Love her face in this picture:

Jenna with her Gams and Popsicle... and her Benjamin

The Three Amigos

Michaela wanted desperately to light the candle herself.  Pops kept a verrry careful eye on her.

Love this picture of my three wacky kiddos!

 See that Diet Pepsi can in front of Jenna's plate?  She has not one bad habit or crutch but that girl LOVES her soda.  We have a rule that she can only drink it on "holidays" and "special days".  Birthdays are definitely a "special day"... Groundhog's Day... not so much.  But she always tries just in case.

The next morning was her actual birthday- FINALLY!  It was a Saturday and she asked to have her friend party on the actual day.  She wanted a few of her friends over for a home party to celebrate.  We started the day with cinnamon rolls and some presents from Mommy and Daddy... and of course Jenna is wearing a brand new dress.

 She knows by now what this size/ shape box means... a new American Girl Doll!

 It's a Just like You doll that she named Elizabeth, or Liza, for short.  Very pretty.

 The party's theme was Pink Cupcakes... so above are the frostings and sprinkles the girls would use to decorate the cupcakes in the picture below:

Here's the favors we gave out... a clementine, juice box, a rice krispy treat, pink frosting-scented hand sanitizer and a pink nail file all in a reuseable container.  We tied a pink helium balloon around each one.

 We started with some pizza...

 ... played with some balloons...

 ... and then it was onto decorating the cupcakes.  It was during this point that some of the girls started just indiscriminately screaming with excitement.

Jenna and her cupcakes!

 Singing Happy Birthday!

We played a few games- one was a version of hot potato and the winner won a pink stuffed pig...

 ... and the other was a homemade version of pin the cherry on top of the cupcake.

 Happy, happy Birthday to Jenna Alicia!!

(We didn't have a family party for her this year... 90% of our family had something going on the day we planned to have the party, so we struck a deal with Jenna: if she forfeited the party we would get her a special present- a memory foam mattress pad for her bed, which she has been wanting all year.  She agreed to the deal and we were thrilled to have this birthday celebration wrapped up all in one day!  Happy Jenna, happy Momma and Daddy!)