Kaylee is 9!

Kaylee celebrated her 9th birthday on February 24th. She opened her presents first thing that morning. She received her very own ticket to the Taylor Swift concert. I commented that she didn't seem as excited as Ainsley had when she got hers. Kaylee replied that she had been pretty sure after Ainsley was given a ticket for her birthday that she would be getting one for hers. Stinker.

The 24th was a Sunday, so we continued her birthday celebration that evening. We invited our good friends Caleb and Elizabeth over for dinner, dessert and games. This year instead of a turkey dinner, we had a pot roast dinner. Chris's famous fly pie was for dessert. He created this years ago when the girls were into Franklin. Franklin loved eating fly pie, so Chris decided to buy a chocolate graham cracker crust, mint chip ice cream and magic shell to create his own fly pie. He put the mint chip ice cream in the graham cracker crust and drew flies on top with the magic shell. We don't draw the flies anymore because we love to smother the whole thing in magic shell. Simple, yet delicious.

Kaylee has celebrated her last three birthdays with Caleb and Elizabeth. Sadly, this will be the last year they celebrate with us because they are moving to Mississippi in June. We are so unhappy to see them leave, but we're excited for their new adventure. It will be a good move for our good friends

The Saturday after her birthday, Kaylee invited a few friends over for a Harry Potter themed party. We had our very own Platform 9 and ¾, and an owlery. Cauldron cakes were for dessert. I tried to find chocolate licorice instead of black licorice (bleck) for the handles with no success. Only one of the girls liked the black licorice, so she ended up with a plate full of licorice. Wand making was a must, and I found a very inexpensive way to make them out of paper. The prep work was time consuming, but I think they turned out great! They're pretty sturdy too, considering they were made out of a rolled up sheet of paper. I had everything done on the wands except the painting, which was a good thing because there's no way the girls would have finished them that night. Plus, they probably would have become terribly bored with the project, and LOTS of hot glue was involved.

Happy 9th birthday Kaylee! You're loved more than all the Oreo cookies that have ever been and ever will be made.