It’s true! The little kid is now 10 years old. It seemed like not so long ago that she arrived in this world, mooning everyone after having to be pulled out (she was a breech baby). Yes, Ashley arrived tush first. And now she is 10! Friday night, Kevin took a video of her “reflecting” on being 10 while they waited for me to get home.

Why were they waiting for me? We planned a super secret surprise for Ashley. Friday after work, I drove 2 hours south and met her best friend’s mom halfway from their new house in Peoria (remember, this is the friend who suddenly moved in August). I then drove back home with her friend in the car. When I got home….

On Saturday, Ashley had a party at the gymnastics place in Gurnee. They do a nice party: 30 minutes of gymnastics stuff, 30 minutes of huge inflatables, and 30 minutes in the party room for treats and such. Neither of my girls have birthday cake anymore. They want cookie dough truffles instead! For Ashley, I decided to theme the truffles for the Easter season. Bunny army! Check out the adorable little baby one, and the cookie dough truffle eggs.

It’s amazing what you can do with white chocolate and meringue powder for making frosting that hardens.

Party pix! We’ll start with inflatable basketball.

Kayla was having some issues with the inflatable obstacle course.

Ashley taking a 6 ft dive into the foam pit.

Ashley doing a million cartwheels on the tumbling trampolines.

She opened gifts. One of her friends gave her this card, which we heard endlessly for the weekend.

After her party, another of Ashley’s friends came over. This friend had to miss the party, and is also a very good friend to the girl we brought home for the weekend. She was SO surprised when it wasn’t Ashley who answered the door! We had a 3 girl sleepover (Kayla went to a friend’s house). We drove her friend back to the exchange point this afternoon. Capped off with a Sweet Tomatoes dinner, and her birthday is complete. Thank you to everyone who gave her gifts – she loves them all! We finish with the newly 10 year old practicing her forward lunge punch and back stance knife hands for karate.