anna = eleven.

Despite my best efforts, it appears my kids are growing up before my eyes. Most recently, the Annababy, who is clearly and unequivocally no longer a baby, has turned eleven. ELEVEN. it makes no sense.

She is a fantastic kid. She is an avid reader and aspiring artist. She is a motivated homeschooler and is alway up for a new challenge. She still loves hiking and camping. She’s also still interested in baking.
She loves Ruby, the chickens, and all animals, and aspires to be a veterinarian, with backup plan to be a doggie daycare owner.
She’s also very weird.

For her cake, she requested a sunset cactus desert theme. I did my best to make that happen. I wasn’t super pleased with my desert sky, but I didn’t make enough of each color to keep blending, lest I should hit actual cake. Thankfully my hype girl kept me company, approving of each step of the way.

Once I started adding cactuses (cacti?), I fell in love. And Anna loved it so that’s all that mattered. I drew from our time in the desert, recreating saguaros, organ pipe cactuses, and barrel cactuses. Lots of flowers, reminders of our springs in the desert. And, brown sugar made for a perfect sandy ground cover.

Anna has been dying to have a birthday party. After three birthdays spent on the road, her first non-road birthday fell when we were in transition and we promised her an epic 10th birthday. Then, there was the small matter of a worldwide pandemic. So, her epic party was postponed to her 11th (hopefully). But by then, she only wanted to have a handful of friends over to hang out and lay low, which totally worked out for me. 🙂

We picked up some cactuses for party favors, ordered pizza, and her little posse came over to celebrate. I think she totally loved it and we can finally cross “have a proper birthday party” off her list.

Also, if you’re wondering what a tween birthday party looks like, there’s a lot of giggling and secrets and all adults much stay away if they know what’s good for them.

In related news, Isaac went to a friend’s house during most of the party, but we picked him up for the eating pizza and cake part of the part and all of the girls were super awkward towards him and he was weird himself. teenager life looks to be promising….

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