Happy Birthday to You, Genevieve!

Genna wanted to hang out with friends and go to Paris for her birthday.  I told her that May was too full for a trip to Paris, but that we could fulfill her wanderlust in June possibly.  St. Genevieve is the patron saint of Paris which is why she so desperately wants to go.  As for the friends, we picked two girls and invited them to come over after daily Mass on the day before her birthday.  One was able to stay for dinner and a movie.  Both girls' families came to have lunch and cake to celebrate Genevieve.
The night before Genna made and decorated the cake with minimal help from me.  She tells me two days before her birthday that she wants a cat cake and she wants it to be black.  I had no black dye and I have had trouble with the black dye that I got from the German store.  I did have some black fondant that I had ended up not using.  I helped with the fondant because fondant is a whole 'nother ball game, but otherwise, Genna did pretty much all of it herself.  It was late when we finished and so I hurried her off to bed thinking we'd get a picture the next day, but guess who forgot to even get her camera out?

It was a pretty black cat face cake.  Oops!

Th next morning we took a picture of what was left of it.  She ended up with lots of gifts because a couple of siblings bought her gifts this year.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing her new game, Mexican Train as a family.  That is a long game, people.  Luckily, Judah and Bob were happily playing together.  Drew watched for a while and then he was able to join in.

That night, Genevieve chose a newly opened Mexican restaurant for her birthday dinner.  (As I type, I am just now realizing the theme of the day here.  Mexican Train.  Mexican food.)  The service was a little rough around the edges, but they had literally been opened 2 days.  The food was good, but still lacked the spice that we Texans prefer in our Mexican food.  

Next to our table was a kid's table with coloring stuff.  After Judah ate his food, he asked to go sit there.  After he'd been there a few minutes, another American girl came and sat with him.  They sat there together just chatting it up and telling each other all kinds of stories.  It was very sweet.

Genevieve is now 11 years old.  Her privilege this year is that she gets her own phone (with no service) mostly only for music, camera, email, and Duo Lingo.  We always give them old phones.  In addition to that we have a rule that the internet, email, etc. can not be used in bedrooms.  It has to be in common areas only.  So far we have had no problems with the girls respecting these rules, but I am thinking that the boys will most likely have stricter rules in this case.