12

Here are the great things about turning 12...

1.  Earrings...in our family, you have to be 12 before you can get your ears pierced.  Each of the girls before June has gone on the very day of their birthday straight to Claire's to pick out the hypo allergenic studs of their dreams.  June, though, chose not to get her ears pierced.  I'm not sure why.  She likes bracelets and hair bows and accessories.  But she just didn't want to do it today.  That's one of the things I love about that girl. She swims upstream.

2. Birthday Dinners...well, that happens for everyone at our house, not just 12 year olds, but I always love June's birthday dinner selection because she always, ALWAYS chooses some kind of noodly thing.  She loves NOODLES!  Tonight we had beef stroganoff, roasted asparagus, and grilled pineapple!  YUM!

3.  Surprises...June's cute Primary teacher came over last night and decorated our whole front yard.  She woke up to Happy Birthday signs all over our windows and little colorful pinwheels down the sidewalk.  It's kind of a great thing to have awesome teachers who go to a lot of effort to make a birthday special.  

4.  Birthday Desserts...we like to experiment with desserts for birthdays around here.  And since Pinterest has happened to us within the last year, it's opened up new options for birthday ideas.  This is the one we tried today...super easy and a HUGE hit! especially since June wanted an ice cream cake.  

the one I found on Pinterest...

the one we made...

layers of ice cream sandwiches, cool whip, caramel sauce, and candy...June picked M&Ms, although I've seen versions with snickers and PB cups, too.  Fun, huh?

5.  Young Women's...we have been waiting a LONG time to be able to officially call June a BEEHIVE.  Our Wednesday nights will now include all four of the girls in our family going to the church for youth activities.  (which also means that Mack will get a jump start on Scouts because he's the only one without a place to be on Wednesday nights.)  It's a great thing to be able to be in Young Women's with all of my daughters.  These are fun, crazy, exciting years and I'm so happy to be right in the middle of them.