Sofia's Birthday Celebration at Medieval Times!

A few weeks ago, I asked Sofia what she wanted to do to celebrate her birthday with friends and she suggested going to Medieval Times. It's always been hard to get friends together for Sofia's birthday since many people are traveling or out of town at the end of July. She told me the names of 8 friends she wanted to include and I sent out an Evite to see who would be available so I could buy tickets. Sofia ended up with 5 friends able to go and it was an interesting group of kids, since they are from all areas of Sofia's life. Of course she invited her best friend, Liam and we actually asked him weeks before sending out the Evite. I told his mom he would likely be the only boy, and she said he was fine with that. Sofia really wanted to include Antonio and Natalia, the "crew" from our neighborhood, but both were out of town. She invited Emily, Chloe and Abby from soccer, but only Emily could make it. In asking them, she felt bad not including everyone from her team, but I told her she was closest to those girls and it wasn't a problem. She also included her smart, nerdy friend Liliana from school, who is really just a sweet, interesting girl who knows her 80s music! She included her CES friend Emma, who is nervous in groups she doesn't know, which made the first part of the party a little rough for Emma. I asked Sofia to be sure to include Emma the entire evening. Finally, she asked Victoria, who we don't see as much as we should but who is a super cool and fun girl. Although she is younger than Sofia, she's an only child so she acts much older and more mature. The interesting part of Sofia's group, which I didn't really realize until everyone arrived, was that no one really knew each other. Liam and Liliana are in the Academy with Sofia, but don't really know each other. The rest were just meeting for the first time before we headed to the show! It was interesting to see where Sofia pulls from for her friends and she is obviously a single friend kind of girl, rather than an entire group of girls! In fact, I think she's most happy with Liam, since they share similar interests and Liam is super outgoing and chatty, more so than any of the girls in the group.

After everyone arrived, we loaded up in CK's truck and my car and headed to Medieval Times. I bought the tickets over the phone and decided against paying an additional $18 per person for birthday cake and decided instead to do cake and ice cream back at our house after the show. Weeks ago, while we were walking through Brookshires the grocery store at the lake, Sofia found a cake decoration that she fell in love with. It was a beach scene and super cute. I took a photo of it and asked Market Street to make it. We found the beach chair, palm trees, umbrella and other beach stuff in a cake kid on Amazon (of course). While we were there, Sofia picked out her birthday cake plates and napkins and an "11" candle. So, we were all set for her big day.

We arrived at Medieval Times and got our green crowns and took the group photo, which ended up being really cute. I also got a photo of the kids clowning around by the sword, which turned out really cute too. We made our way to our seats and got ready for the show! Emma and Emily had never been to Medieval Times before and I was really excited for both of them, since I knew they would have a really great time! The show started and our food arrived and Emily leaned over to ask about the silverware! I told her she had to eat with her hands, which obviously amused her. When our chicken arrived, Olivia had a little difficulty eating. She was sitting next to me and is our girl who does not like getting her hands dirty or messy. If she does, she likes to wash them off immediately. She had a bite or two of chicken and then realized her hands were really messy and greasy and wanted me to wipe them off. I used both of the wet wipe towelettes they provide and then had to feed her myself, like a bird! Sofia was sitting at the far other end of the row and was sitting next to Liam. Every time I looked over at her, Liam was talking away, they were both smiling and laughing. She looked like she was having a great time.

The show went on for just shy of 2 hours and our knight won! About halfway through they announced the birthdays and included a wish for "young lady Sofia Lee." She was surprised and loved it. Olivia made videos of the fighting and ended up getting really into cheering for our knight. Early on, she was a little uncertain because it looked so real. Once I explained they were acting and pretending to be stabbed, she really got into it. The whole group was super excited our knight won and they all loved the show, especially Emma and Emily! We headed out and realized the 7pm show-goers were heading in just as we left through a group of doors! We loaded up in the cars and headed home.

Once home we sang Happy Birthday to Sofia, ate cake and ice cream and Sofia opened her presents from her friends. Emma got her a gift card for Barnes and Nobles, Victoria got her a Visa gift card, Liam gave her one of his favorite book series "The Chronicles of Prydain," Emily gave her "The Complete Book of Dragons" book, a really cool dragon eye locket and a "This Girl Loves Dragons" t-shirt, Liliana also gave her a Barnes and Nobles gift card, a homemade dragon book mark, homemade cotton candy and a dragon stuffed animal! She loved it all and they were all perfect gifts for Sofia! Her friends stuck around and played for a bit, but slowly started to head home as their parents came to pick them up. It was such a fun birthday with a great group of kids.

Sofia decorating her birthday cake

Olivia helping out

The finished birthday cake!

Sofia and her birthday celebration crew!

At Medieval Times! We made it!

Clowning around!

Our "official" Medieval Times photo!

The kids are mesmerized! I love the smiles of Sofia and Liam's faces!

The show begins!

Our knight!

The full fanfare!

Cheering for our green knight to win!

All of us!

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday to Sofia!

Sofia and her birthday cake!

She looks so happy!

Singing Happy Birthday!!

Ice cream and cake! Yum!!

Opening presents! Love how all her friends are pressed around watching her open!

The crew after a very fun birthday celebration!!

Celebrating 11 Years!

Sofia is 11! We can hardly believe it! She woke up, which means I woke her up at 10am since that girl can sleep in late now that it is summer. She is a true night owl and stays up every night until midnight, usually in her room reading, drawing, writing or playing. Sometimes she says she stays up later. I don't know how she does it! Of course, she then wants to sleep in until 10 or 11am! I always have to wake her up to get our day started. The night before her birthday, she asked that I wake her up at 9am, but I decided to let her sleep a little later since it was her birthday. Olivia slept on the blow-up bed next to Sofia's bed. Weeks ago the girls used a bunch of sheets and blankets to build a fort over Sofia's bed and over the blow-up bed and the girls love sleeping together every night. The only down side is that Olivia likes her sleep more than Sofia, and she likes to go to bed earlier than Sofia does. But, when they sleep together they tend to stay up late. So, I woke them both up by singing "Happy Birthday"!

The girls slowly got up and came downstairs where Sofia's "HAPPY 11th BIRTHDAY SOFIA" donuts were waiting! It was a huge surprise for Sofia and she loved it! They loaded their plates with donuts and enjoyed Sofia's birthday breakfast. They actually ran out of steam pretty quickly, so we had a lot of donuts left over. But, I'm sure they will enjoy them tomorrow for breakfast, as well.

Sofia requested spaghetti casserole for dinner, so I picked up all the ingredients at the grocery store and then we got ready to go to Altitude H2O, which is a big inflatable obstacle course/play area set up on Lake Grapevine. I bought the girls a 90 minute session and packed up snacks, drinks and sandwiches in an ice chest. The girls got dressed into their swimsuits and cover-ups and we headed out. They were super excited and I thought it would be a fun way to celebrate Sofia turning 11.

We got to the lake and I set up my chair and got comfortable while the girls and the other participants ran into the water and climbed onto the huge inflatable. I brought my camera and was able to get some great photos of the girls, although they were usually facing away from me. Sofia's swim shirt has hot pink sleeves so she was always easy to spot and Olivia was always nearby. They were so fun to watch and they had a great time on the inflatables, although they both fell off into the water a lot! Once they fell in, they had to swim to an area they could get back onto the inflatable. So, they both did a lot of swimming and also had life vests on so they bobbed along in the water. I watched them and tried to stay cool while sitting by the edge of the water.

After 45 minutes all the swimmers had to exit the lake for a 15 minute break. The girls got out and ate their sandwiches and snacks and drank a lot of water. I asked them how it was and they said it was awesome! Olivia was a little frustrated since she said she fell off a lot. But Sofia really loved it and they both couldn't wait to get back on the inflatable. At 2pm, the girls gathered up again to go back to the inflatable for 45 more minutes of more fun. Honestly, I'd wished I had my swimsuit on, it looked like so much fun! Thankfully it was cloudy, so it felt much better than if it had been clear and sunny. The girls had a great time and before long it was 2:45pm and time to get out of the water and go home. The girls loved it and couldn't wait to go back another time.

We got home and I made the girl's spaghetti casserole while they relaxed and played MineCraft. Sofia recently realized how much she loves MineCraft and was able to download it onto the iPad, so she can play. She also loves to watch YouTube videos of others playing MineCraft that include dragons, since her version doesn't have dragons. We set out cheese and crackers, made Shirley Temples and set the table to celebrate Sofia's 11th birthday! CK grilled steaks and I steamed broccoli (with extra garlic and lemon juice) per Olivia's request, and baked the spaghetti casserole. It was a surprisingly easy meal to make. We'd offered to take Sofia anywhere for dinner, but she wanted to stay home and have spaghetti casserole. She's our home body and loves to just stick around the house. She always prefers eating at home over going out to a restaurant.

We enjoyed Sofia's birthday dinner and then it was time for presents! The girls decided to wait on cupcakes, which CK picked up from Sprinkles, until after all the presents were open. Sofia got several presents and was super excited to open them. She started off with the presents from Aunt Shirl and Uncle Steve, which the card said were for fun at the lake. The presents included a kite, two modern frisbees, including one that lights up and a Dig It Dino Egg. Next she opened the presents from Sian and family which were four volcanos of goo (actually one of her favorite things) and an inflatable world ball. The last present on the fireplace for Sofia to open was from her Aunt Cynthia, Uncle Jay and family and included a book about inventions and a really cool moon phase projector! She was super excited by all of her fun gifts and thought she was done opening gifts when her Papa brought her a bag...with an Apple laptop inside! She was BEYOND excited and the look on her face was priceless! The computer came with a set of Beats bluetooth headphones! She was SO excited and happy! It was fantastic! We know that Sofia will spend time playing her newly discovered fun, MineCraft, but she wants to use her computer to write a book, or books! She loves to write and is incredibly gifted, so we try to encourage her to write and express herself. I really think that she could become a published author when she grows up. She and her Papa set up her computer and then she got started playing around. It was great to see her so happy!

When she was done with her presents, we took a break to enjoy the delicious Sprinkles cupcakes. Sofia specifically requested Sprinkles' chocolate cupcake with marshmallow filling. They were all so good and a great way to celebrate Sofia turning 11! Sofia played around on her computer for a bit before it was time to go to bed! What a birthday!

Happy 11th Birthday, Sofia (in donuts)!!

All set to to wake up the birthday girl to surprise her with A LOT of donuts!!

One very happy birthday girl!

Picking out her birthday donuts!

And a happy almost-birthday-girl!

After gorging on donuts....barely looks like we've touched them!

Two excited girls are ready for Altitude H2O!

The girls and full course!

Climbing onto the Altitude H2O course for the first time!

Off they go.

Exploring...

Wipe out!

Heading in after the first session to get some snacks and water before the second session.

They love falling down at the entrance! So funny!

Happy 11th Birthday dinner!

Birthday girl with her presents.

With her Papa

With Mommy

And with little sister!

Opening the first present of the day from Aunt and Uncle!

A fun book from Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Jay and family.

Birthday cupcake!

Opening the FINAL present!!

Her own laptop!

The look says it all! She is beyond happy!

Crazy cupcake faced Olivia!

Setting up her new computer....with a very excited 11 year old!