Ellie's birthday

I'm a bit late in posting this, but Ellie recently celebrated a birthday.  She turned 12. It was an extra special celebration because my dad and brother happened to be visiting from Colorado too.  Annnnd Caleb was able to come up.  

This age is fun because she is still silly and uninhibited about that, and yet can be more serious and responsible as well.  

Her birthday was on a Sunday, which makes celebrating a bit more complicated since our church activities take up a big chunk of the day.  We decided to celebrate on Saturday (but left the actual gifts and birthday dinner for her actual day.)

Originally she wanted to go to the Seattle Aquarium, but the city of Seattle has TONS of street construction currently. We decided that hours in the car sitting in traffic was not going to be fun for anyone so we made a plan B.  It was a bit of a "progressive event".  A visit to the local pet store to check out all the fish, turtles, snakes, geckos, love birds, bunnies, ferrets, hamsters, guinea pigs, and chicks was fun. 

After that, we went to the Reptile Zoo.  This is one of Ellie's favorite places to go.  Give her all the snakes!  It happened to be feeding time for many which made it interesting.  😱

I have to say that she was so excited for this birthday.  She literally had a count down going for at least a month or longer.  

Not all the gift shots were good ones, but I did catch a few.

Fun chicken socks brought big smiles.

This particular cross stitch was given to her by her Grammy in Connecticut.  It was made by her great great grandmother.  How neat is that? It's perfect for my chicken-loving girl. 

you might recall from a few posts back (no, maybe you don't remember since my blogging is so sporadic 😜) that Ellie is taking up luging.  In order to skate or luge at Maryhill a full-face helmet is required.  

We are all about safety. 

My brother even gave her luge a try.  He ALWAYS adds fun to everything. 

Her choice of birthday dinner was hamburgers, potato chips, and watermelon.
Ellie isn't big on cake or pie.  Banana splits are her jam.  Bananas, vanilla ice cream, homemade hot fudge sauce and whip.  (I'll put the recipe for the hot fudge below for you.)

It was a fun day, but not so much for what we did, but who we did it with. (Of course, for Ellie it was both!)  I appreciate that the older boys try their best to be here.

We don't often have extended family to celebrate with us.  That really made it special for Ellie.

She is such a joy and her unique personality is beginning to really emerge.  She's imaginative and loves to draw and write stories.  With Hannah's accident and her having to take the "side lines" while recovering, I see Ellie stepping up to do more.  She has such a happy heart to serve.  I think sometimes they just need the opportunity to see themselves as an important and integral part of the "team". 

My biggest prayer for her in this next year of life is that she would draw closer to the Lord and make that her own personal priority.  That her faith would be her own and not just what's taught in our home.

 - Carol

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Hot Fudge Sauce
4 oz. or about 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
2 Tbsp. butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk.  (I used 1 can coconut cream from Trader Joe's.)

Melt the chocolate chips and butter together on low heat.  Add the canned milk and stir until  combined and thickened.