The Big 1-0

Brenna turned 10 on February 25th. It's hard to believe it has been a decade since this girl was born. She started the day with breakfast in bed: french toast and strawberries with orange juice. She was happy to share with her starving little sister.

This is the face of starvation. And the hair of a girl who tosses, turns, and kicks all night.
Brenna's birthday was on a Saturday this year and she chose to do a Pokemon-themed party at home. All the kids brought their DSi's and instead of crafts or something when they arrived, they all got on their video games and played together. They all loved it, but for me and Scott it was unlike anything we'd ever seen before!

For lunch we did create-your-own pizza's. We set out all kinds of fun toppings and guess what most of the kids did? Topped it with meat and cheese.

Following pizza, grapes and soda we had party games. Here the kids were doing the game where a present is wrapped a gazillion times and the kids have 30 seconds to put on a cumbersome pair of gardening gloves and try to open it. This got very wild by the end, with all the kids screaming and hollering and hovering around the person whose turn it was. The prize inside was a pack of 3 Pokemon-themed DS styluses.

For the next game we divided the kids into 2 groups and they had to write down all the Pokemon characters they could in a space of 5 minutes.

Then came cake and ice cream. Brenna's cake was a Pokeball.

After cake we opened presents, then we beat the heck out of this pinata. Apparently Pikachu is not the older crowd's favorite character, so they had a lot of fun obliterating him (her? it?).

She loved her party and was so happy to have friends who share her passion for Pokemon.

Here are some things about Brenna:

1. She really likes being a good big sister to Gwen. She shares and gives her big hugs and is making a special effort to help her whenever she can. I love it.

2. She still loves animals and nature. She loves to learn about them any chance she gets. This summer she wants to attend paleontology camp, which apparently exists.

3. Brenna is beginning to really like baking. Usually once a week she'll ask if she can make cookies or something like that. She still needs help in the kitchen but she's becoming more independent.

4. She has been taking piano lessons for over a year now and while she is improving, she really just wishes I'd let her play the drums or the guitar.

5. Her athleticism continues. She's in her second softball season and playing catcher once again.

6. Her favorite days of the week are Tuesdays and Saturdays. Tuesday because she gets to go to GATE that day. This year they have studied paleontology, geology, oceanology, mythology and Italian and they rarely do anything in the boring standard ways. She adores it. Saturdays she loves for all the obvious reasons. Who doesn't love an entire day to take it easy and do whatever you want?

7. Her sense of humor is maturing and I quite enjoy her jokes and comments. She can quote significant portions of Brian Regan's stand up comedy.

8. She's also really beginning to get ideas about the world around her. These days it's not unusual for us to get into discussions about politics and human behavior.

9. She continues to grow. She is currently 4'11" and 90 pounds and wears a women's size 7.5 shoe.

10. She is the same opinionated, strong-willed, fun combination of child and adult she has always been!