Lily's Guest Post: My Birthday

          I am officially 11 now! Today was the best birthday ever! I woke up in bed, no clue that it was my birthday. About half an hour later, Amara started singing happy birthday to me. Then I remembered that it was my birthday. Thinking it was around 7:00 am, I waited in bed for my parents to come. But they didn't!
          "Amara," I asked. "Will you see what time it is?"
          She looked up at the clock and said, 5:00, I mean 6:00, that clocks an hour ahead of time, right? Because it says 5:00."
          Yeah, our parents didn't change it when daylight savings rolled around. But at the same time, six in the morning? The sun was up, birds were chirping, and trucks were driving out on the street. I told her to go check digital time, because although she can read analog fine, I wanted to double check it. So she did go out there.
          Let's skip over my moment of surprise when I found out it was 6:00 am and just head over to breakfast.
          Special occasion so I got to have toaster strudels, juice, fruit, biscuits, and milk  for breakfast! It was so good! Then I brushed my hair and we watched an episode of Doctor Oakley, Yukon Vet. Then we played outside.
          Then we shopped, and I got new riding boots and a hat. Those were EXPENSIVE!!!

Mom had said that we would go on a surprise safari after lunch. I was blindfolded in the car, and when I opened my eyes, I saw that we were at Shiloh's house. Now, we take riding lessons there, and I ride Grey. I learned that he is 23 years old!

I thought I was crazy enough to let my mom buy me expensive birthday boots, but now
I'm attempting  to pet a horse and dog at the same time.

 My hat blew off... still totally fun though! Shiloh had to carry it around for me.

Then we decided to go to Tiana's house because she has a bigger coral. Halli and her little sister literally 'led' the way over there and back.

At the bigger area!

 Shiloh came to give me my hat and take off my jacket for a picture.

 I edited it   :)

After horseback riding, we went to the Hideout Steakhouse. It was fun, I got steak on a rock like always, and I had fun!

Mom ordered the Lava Bowl, and when it came, it looked like lava.

Literally.

Mom brought up that it was my birthday, and when we were about to leave,
the waitress said I could have a free dessert! I chose cheesecake.

After that, we went to the ribbon cutting of the new Aquatic Center in Roosevelt.

After that, we had cake and ice cream ice cream cake. It was Oreo, and was delicious. Then guess what? Our friends got to come over. And THEN guess what? A knock at the door and some missionaries came and party-crashed! It was fun hanging out with them. After everyone left, we watched Maleficent. BEST. BIRTHDAY. EVER.

And we're done with that. Whew! WHAT???

The day after my birthday, we got our hair cut. So cute! Kim Davis cut it. She's our neighbor, and she's so awesome!

Before

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After

After

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Lily's Guest Post: Stuff

Let's start this post off with our cooking class finale. We have been taking a cooking class, it's very basic and we didn't learn much, but it was still awesome and we had tons of fun! Every Tuesday we got to go. We got to learn about different food groups and stuff like that. My favorite dish of all was probably the vegetable stir-fry. It was savory, warm, and tasty!For my job I got to cut the chicken and fry it. Before we cooked this meal, Katherina (our teacher), told us how dangerous raw meat can be, and then I got stuck on chicken duty. But I'm still alive, so hip-hip-hooray! Finale pictures:

 We have a garden, and we have already gotten some plants ready to eat such as radishes, chives, and garlic; and it's only May!

Our flowering chives

 We have recently had some flooding in our front yard. And it was deep! By deep I mean that in the middle it was like, a foot and a half down. I know this because Amara took off her shoes and waded in the freezing mud-water.

It has happened before though too:

My dad loves taking photos, he is an AMAZING photographer. Here's him and his pictures:

This next photo is my favorite. My dad spots the best photos. He was at the perfect angle and spot and he found a beautiful reflection of a cloud in this puddle. It's NOT photo shopped, NOT fake, and HE took it, not anyone else. It's so amazing, isn't it?

Softball season has begun and ended. I must say that I have improved a lot with the help of my coach, my teammates, and my dad! Here's Amara being catcher!

 And me batting:

 Me and Madi have matching shirts and team names! I'm Hawks, she's Hawks. I'm yellow, so is she! I'm #1, she's #1 too! I'm not kidding!

Our neighbors/BFFs  love having concerts. Madi loves singing and she is so sweet! Jax, her brother, is helpful and likes helping with our garden. Madi gardens with us only to be nice, she doesn't love pulling up weeds and watering like Jax. They are both super awesome!

 These next pictures are of my Aunt's dog, Ellie. She is nice, playful, and gets super excited when we visit. That means jumping, running in circles, barking, playful growling, and being super crazy. She is one of my favorite dogs, she is a sweetheart.