Happy Birthday to Ashley!

The big day has officially arrived - my Ashley is 9 today! She is growing up so fast - but we all say that as parents, don't we? I thought I'd share the card I made for her tonight as well as a few photos of the birthday girl.

She has re-discovered her love for My Little Pony ... so of course I had to buy this adorable stamp set from Stampin Up. It's so cute and I know it will get tons of use from both her and I over the years.

and the inside...

Card Details
Stamps: Stampin Up images; Holiday Greetings (GinaK)
Ink: Memento; Copics
Cardstock: GinaK white & ivory; DCWV girl nursery dp
Other: Circle Punches; Circle Nestabilities - plain & scallop; stickles; sakura glitter pen; Marvy scallop circle; rhinestones; ribbon; EK Success border punch

The rest of my post tonight is all about the birthday girl but, before I go on about that let me invite you back to my blog tonight at 10pm CST where the entire GinaK team will begin sharing Previews for December 3rd's New Release stamp sets.

I hope to see you back then!

Ashley is in love with stuffed animals of all shapes and sizes. She never really got into 'Barbies' or dolls and only occasionally will play with her Polly Pockets. Hanging out with her big brother and dad, she has become quite the tomboy and video gamer. Yet, she can be quite the girly-girl at times too.

You can't put her in a box - which is one of the things I love the most about her!

She LOVE to dress up and is always coming up with her own costumes. She decided to be a pirate one night and made her sword and found some stamps to give herself 'tattoos' - thankfully these ones wash right off!

She also is very theme-oriented. On this particular day, she found her stuffed penguin and searched high and low through her belongings to find the perfect outfit to match her penguin. Trust me, you don't want to get in her way when she has an idea in her mind ... lol!


So, bear with me now as I'm going to share some photos of my little girl's two special birthday parties! The first one was last week with her girlfriends from school...

The girls came after school on Friday afternoon and spent a couple of hours with us eating, doing crafts, watching movies, playing games, and hanging out together. It was a nice time and thankfully everyone got along perfectly! (anyone who has girls knows that doesn't always happen with 7-9 year olds!)

Here's my friend Sharri's little Abbi and my Ashley together at the party. I babysat for Abbi from when Sharri went back to work after Abbi's birth until last fall - so she's more like a sister to Abbi than a friend since they grew up together!

Here's one more photo of the whole clan - aren't they cute?

Then, on Saturday we headed to Build a Bear to have a small birthday party with her cousins and her friend Abbi. The staff were amazing and did such a great job with the games and activities.


Here's Ash fluffing up her puppy - or giving her a 'bath' ...


Here are the girlfriends again...

After the fun with the animals, we headed over to Claire's to get her ears pierced. She has been wanting to do that for a while and I told her she had to wait for her birthday. I wasn't sure if she'd go through with it because she's pretty squeamish - but she did it and her ears are so pretty now! lol!

Thanks for hanging in there with me - she loves to ask me about my blog and I told her that I was going to talk about HER today because it's her birthday. And, typical Ashley is THRILLED with the attention! lol!

BIG hugs to my girl today on turning 9!
Jessica