Dawna's Birthday Bash!

 Dawna was a very, very lucky birthday girl this year.  Her birthday celebrations started a week before her birthday.  I was not going to attempt going camping at 37 weeks pregnant, so Nana and Papa decided to take Dawna to Burney Falls as part of her birthday present.  She had four days of fun with no mom or dad to pester her! She fished, hiked, and played with cousins to her heart's contentment!

Of course Adele was there to share all the fun with!

Sunday fish Hatchery: the kids were spoiled with a whole bucket of food from the feeding truck! No nickles and dimes this time!  Dawna asked Adele to bring her skirt so they could match on Sunday. Now you can't even tell them apart :)

Fishing with Adele! Papa was kept busy putting worms on hooks for these girls!

Caught one!  On a Disney Princess fishing pole!  These poles are magic, I'm told!

Hiking with Aaron & Em and family: Dawna earned the Burney Falls patch! 

The Next weekend...

Saturday, Dawna's actual birthday, dawned with her up early to see what goodies awaited her... 

Daddy got up early and made Swedish Pancakes for everyone!  Then we opened up presents.

First up was a beautiful mirror which came all the way from Kumamoto Castle in Japan.  This present was wrapped in 4 layers, so it took a while to open, which I thought was great! 

 

After that came a barrage of "From My Childhood to Your Childhood" type of presents.  Dawna had recently read the American Girl Samantha series and really wanted a Samantha doll.  I was sad to learn that they have retired Samantha and no longer sell her.  But, with mom's magic, all things are possible :) I loved watching her adore Samantha all day long...

...reading stories to her... 

 ...coloring with her (the Spiderman velvet coloring pages were Larry's present to Dawna)... Dawna set up a little "bedroom" for Samantha in her closet, complete with a box bed and dresser. This was a very "Toy Story 3" moment for me, if you know what I mean :) 

Later, I told Dawna I was taking her and Samantha out to lunch.  For obvious reasons, I had not planned a big party for her this year, in case of last minute cancellation, so on Thursday I called her primary class friends and arranged a "Ladies Luncheon."  I made Dawna sit blindfolded in the car while we drove around and picked up her friends.  She didn't know at first that anyone was in the car, but little girls stay quiet for only so long...

We arrived at Nana's house.  Dawna guessed we were at Denny's or the Elephant Bar... nope! I did a good job driving her around and confusing her :) 

 Here's Kenna, Sara, Dawna, Hope, and Chloe, all dressed, with a little doll friend to enjoy a fancy lunch with!

 The Dolls had a little tea party while the girls all ate lunch: Chicken, watermelon, rolls, and sprite!

 We tried to make ice cream, just like Samantha would have, by rolling it in cans outside... the girls didn't last long enough to get it frozen, but Jon, stud muffin that he is, kept working at it for over an hour so we could all enjoy fresh ice cream with the "petit fours" that Dawna requested for her cake (if you've ever read "Happy Birthday Samantha" this should all sound pretty familiar).
 

And here's my embarrassing moment for the day: I totally put 6 candles on her cake! Luckily, Nana was paying attention and slipped one more candle on top before I took it out... I can't believe my baby is SEVEN! That's... such a big kid!

But... even her surprise luncheon was not the end of the fun... After the party, Daddy took her rock climbing and out to dinner... talk about a full day of birthday fun! The two of them were climbing for FIVE HOURS! Jon was worn out by Dawna.  

Whew... now all we have to do is have a baby... that should feel relaxing after all this!