Amerah turns 10

I am a lucky step mother because I can tell Amerah that I know exactly where I was and what I was doing when she was born.  I guess that's the upside of sharing your birthday with a tragic day in history.  Ten years ago, as the twin towers were crumbling after being hit by two airplanes, I was sitting at my grandmother's house in my pajamas, glued to the television.  At this exact moment, Dave was at the hospital (which was put on lock down) welcoming his new daughter into this world.  Sorrow and joy, all at once.

Tonight we had the family over to celebrate Amerah's birthday (so that all the grown ups don't have to go to the "kid" party that we'll be having in a couple weeks). 

Apparently "10" is going to be the year of the silly faces.  It's become next to impossible to get a nice, smily photo of the kid!  So, with that being said... here ya go...

  

The cake cracked... sigh... but Amerah joked that it was an earthquake because Grandma lives in California and couldn't be there...

She hammed it up again when we sang happy birthday and it was time to blow out the candles... I almost forgot that I was dealing with a 10 year old rather than a 4 year old whom I had to remind not to SPIT when she blew out the candles!

 

 

 

This next section is for my mom... since she wasn't here to see Amerah open the box she sent... and yes mom... she looked a lot more excited than these photos show... it's only that, whenever she realized that I was taking a picture, she made faces... sigh...

 

 

 

 

 

 

And THIS is how she felt about her gifts from "Mimzy"

The following are a few random gift-opening photos... we had to rush into the present part of the evening because Dave had to leave for work.  We were actually lucky to have him home at all!  His boss called him into work at 4 pm and there was no one to take his place!  They did some finagling and managed to give him 4 1/2 hours to be home with us.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 My grandmother "Nanny" gave Amerah what has to be the most obnoxious birthday card in existence.  Amerah LOVED it.  It is a monkey sitting in a pile of bananas.  When you pull the monkey out, the card shrieks and makes loud, nonstop, annoying monkey noises.  I will be sure to send it with Amerah next time she goes to spend the day at Nanny's house...

Uncle Mike tricked her by folding a $10 bill so it looked like $100 and clipping it in with some barrettes... hehehe

 

 

And yes, Dave and I got our daughter TAPE for her birthday...

 

10 rolls of scotch tape and one roll of zebra print duct tape hahaha!  What can I say... she's a crafty girl and it's what she ASKED for! :-)

Of course, we also bought her a camera... we're looking forward to seeing the photos she takes with it...

 

Just for your amusement... yes... Daddy decorated for the party... I may have to take a more active role in that department next year! :-)

 

 

All in all it went well and we had a good time...

 

 

After half of our guest left for the evening, things started to get a little silly... One of my mom's gifts was a tin full of glasses with colored lenses which were a big hit... "Mimzy" calls it color therapy...  i call it a recipe for silliness...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time everyone left and Amerah and I were cleaning up, the poor kid could barely keep her eyes open... 

So although the date on this blog will say that it is already September 11, 2011, it's only 2:06 AM.  I'd better head to my bed so that i can be up early to wish my girl a happy birthday! :-)