Can it be true? This girl is really twelve?!

I can't believe that I have a "young woman" in my home! Joelle turned 12 on Thursday and it has been a very fun birthday week. Emma and Benjamin made this little banner for her Wed. night while she was out with David getting her birthday doughnuts for the next morning.

She was so surprised when she got home that night to see her banner. Emma worked very hard on it, and was so happy to get to surprise Joelle. It has become a tradition for Joelle to have Krispy Kremes instead of cake on her birthday. She loves these doughnuts, and since we found out that you can get them half price Mon. - Thurs. after 9:oopm the kids are always asking for them. She went the night before her birthday because she wanted to do her little party in the morning and have the doughnuts for her breakfast.

All of the kids have been dying for Joelle's birthday. The maple bar is her favorite and we were so happy we could fit 12 candles on there. She is so pretty! I love her. David worked from home so we celebrated as soon as we were all up and dressed.

She has wanted a time turner (from Harry Potter #3) forever. David looked up the one from the Noble collection (the official Harry Potter.... stuff makers)and we found out theirs didn't hold up well if you try and play with it (which was exactly why she wanted it). So David got online and found this one on Etsy. It is awesome and she loved it. It was the only present she knew about because we wanted to make sure she was okay with not getting the other one. She actually ended up liking this one more so that worked out great. The sand actually goes through the little hourglass. It is pretty sweet!

She bought herself this Liv Barbie a few weeks ago and they have changeable hair, she was so surprised when she opened Emma's present to see that Emma had used her own money to buy her one.

When she opened grandmas present the gift inside was wrapped in very pretty tissue and Ben said "Grandma uses the prettiest wrapping paper."

She loved this little parasol and was thrilled when she opened it to find it had money inside. All the kids thought this was a pretty fun little gift - Joelle is just frustrated that she can't get Katie to leave the parasol alone :-).

She LOVED her present from Nana. She thought the scarf was the "prettiest she had ever seen." And I think the mood ring might have been her next favorite after the time turner. She loves mood jewelry and was so excited. I haven't seen it off her finger since she opened it :-). I am glad she is finally getting into clothes and we have been in desperate need of long sleeved clothing since we came up here. Thank you Nana!

Her last gift was the Mauraders Map. This one we did get from the Noble Collection and it was well worth it. It is super cool! it opens up huge and has all these different little sections inside. They have been having a blast playing Harry Potter this week. I am glad that even though she is getting older and is so mature in some ways that she is still innocent enough to still have fun with her imagination. I will be sad when her days of imagining are over. She is a joy to our family and I am so grateful to have been blessed with our sweet Joelle. I can not imagine life without her!