Broken bones and birthdays

Let's start with broken bones.  Yes, Charlotte fractured her wrist last week.  While at piano lessons, she was running inside through the garage and spotted 2 mini trampolines.  Thinking she would be oh so graceful, she decided to leap from one to the other on her way to the door.  Unfortunately, one of the mini trampolines slipped and she came down on her wrist. We took her for X rays and the Doctor thinks she has a fracture on her growth plate.  The poor kid has been struggling all week doing her homework with her left hand.  Yesterday, Maggie went ahead and colored a Precipitation map for her and this morning, I transcribed her math answers so they were legible.  The only good thing (to her) is that she got out of any piano responsibilities at church this week  (and will for a few more weeks).  Everyone laughs when we tell her she broke her wrist at piano lessons.  Casey jokes with people that her injury was a result of her passion for the piano.  She was playing so hard and with such enthusiasm that her wrist couldn't hold up.

  (If only that were the case :)

Now, on to a birthday.  Jillian celebrates her 13th birthday this week.  We celebrated a little early with family.  (We will take her to lunch on her actual birthday)

Here is her cake.  It is an ice cream sundae cake without using actual ice cream.  I just froze the frosting and then scooped it out with an ice cream scoop.  Nothing like 3 inches of frosting on your cake right?  The kids LOVED it!

Jillian got some great presents. Perhaps her favorite was a set of plastic drawers given to her by aunt Charlotte.  Each drawer was filled with goodies.  The last drawer had the best gift of all in it.

A picture of her best buddy, cousin Caleb.  Jillian instantly found a special place in her room for this picture.  She adores her baby cousin!

Casey also has a tradition of getting the girls something from him.  This year, he has given each of them a six pack of root beer and a roll of cookie dough.  Jillian was the last of the five to get her totally unhealthy gift from dad.

We also sang happy birthday to cousin Andrew. He turned eight last Sunday.  The two of them blew out the candles together (though Drew is just outside of this picture.)

We sure do love our 13 year old!  She grows more beautiful every day...both inside and out!  Thank you for coming to our family Jillian!

Here is week 16