Makenna is 10!

We had another birthday.  We have another child in the double digits.  Makenna was a delightfully happy birthday girl.  And while she was easy to please, she did make more choices than usual.  Our sweet girl who almost always puts herself last in order to let others have their pick, felt justified in actually giving her opinion on the day of her birth.  She wanted pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream with a chocolate banana shake for breakfast.  Check!

She did NOT want to wait all day looking at her presents and not opening them, but she had to wait until daddy got home.  The stars did align and he was able to come home around 4:30 because of some test, so she chose to open them before dinner or cake.

Isaac went on a secret mission in the mall by himself to find and purchase these.  Huge hit!

Her own little sewing kit.

Jess had made a present back in Sicily and has been carefully hiding it in my closet.  She couldn't wait for Makenna to open it.  It was some instructions for building something with some spare lego pieces and a long story.  It was very cute and thoughtful, but after Makenna opened it, Jess had to release all her pent up emotion and started tackling/wrestling Isaac, and would not let up.  It was actually quite hilarious.  Makenna didn't mind them.  She continued to attend to her gifts.  

Makenna found these at Carrfour and loved them.  Jess snuck them into the cart and started hinting that another pair would be really good for, um, "Easter.   That's the next holiday right?" 

Still at it. Isaac fought back just enough to not get hurt and was laughing, which just made Jess more mad. 

Thanks for the very cute shirt, grandma Chris! 

We left soon after to go check out the concluding day to the Arabian Horse Championship.  There had been 3 days of shows.  It was a free event and the horses were beautiful.  None of us had ever been to something like this.  The horses were brushed and gorgeous and full of energy.  Their owners (trainers) would lead them into the ring at a SPRINT to keep up with the horses that seemed to be holding themselves back.  That was pretty funny because the humans are dressed up in suits, and they are RUNNING.  At certain points they would stop and the horse would do some fancy side steps or circle or prance--I have no idea what it's called. There would be people along the outside waving plastic shopping bags attached to the ends of long poles and yelling.  We couldn't figure out what they were trying to signal or incite, but each horse had three or four strategically placed people with noisy shopping bags on sticks.

Makenna wanted salmon for dinner, but I can't make enough for all of us in the toaster oven, so we went to Red Lobster, in Dubai.  Once she was looking at the menu, her eyes lit up and she changed her mind to crab.  She did a great job cracking open all the legs and eating it all up!

We had mentioned it was her birthday to our waiter as a compliment to them, but didn't think anything of it until we asked for the check and he said can you wait 5 minutes for the birthday treat?  So she got a yummy apple crisp with a candle to blow out. 

At home she had Race Cake waiting.  I made two in our two small baking dishes.  We ate one on the 17th and one on the 18th in honor of Aspen, her Las Vegas birthday buddy.