A Young Woman

It's official. Karsyn is a Young Woman. Well, at church anyway. Along with becoming one year older, she now gets to attend the Young Women's program at church. For the next 6 months, all three of my girls will be in there together. Ahh, I feel a special sister moment coming on!

As much as I hate the extra dishes and the five extra pounds to my hips, there are perks to all of Karsyn's baking. I haven't had to make a birthday cake since last May! Karsyn made cakes for both of her brothers and insisted she make her own birthday cake as well. She baked, designed and decorated this all by herself. I thought it turned out great and was a perfect cake for a vivacious 12 year-old. But my favorite was this note she left by her cake:

"Look and adore, but DO NOT TOUCH my cake!

Thank You

P.S. or else!

Karsyn always plans out her birthday parties one year in advance so by the time it finally arrives, she is more than ready! She chose to have a scavenger hunt in the huge IKEA showroom. The girls divided into two teams with the hopes to be the first to find all 100 items on the scavenger list. This included items such as: a dresser with 4 drawers, a black oven, a pair of wine glasses, a dog bed, a photo of a flower, a stuffed animal, a cheese grater etc.

Before the girls began the scavenger hunt, they had dinner at the IKEA cafe. It is common knowledge that to succeed in a Swedish Scavenger hunt, one must have a belly full of Swedish meatballs!



The two teams took off at the same time but in different directions of the store. When an item on the list was found, the team leader (Scott or myself) had to get a picture of someone with the found item. Yes, I require proof. I have been accused of being competitive but really I just don't like cheaters! If you beat me fair and square I have no issues with you! I just feel bad for Karsyn though. She was not on my team - the winning team! Oh yes, my team won. I have proof. With 12 kids (10 party girls and my two boys) running around the store in a panic I was surprised and relieved we didn't get kick out of the store!



After the scavenger hunt we went next door to YOCREAM. Once again, I must say I was very grateful and relieved we did not get kicked out!


Then it was back to our house for Karsyn's masterpiece of a cake and some games. We played two different games. The girls got to choose however many gumballs they wanted. Then I told them that every color of gumball represented a "get-to know-you" question. And the catch is that they had to give one answer for every gumball of that color that they took!

The second game is a family favorite. We usually play it with candy bars but for her party we played it with party favors. It is a prize-trading game where everyone ends up with one prize.

This picture shows the coveted prize of fuzzy socks being thrown across the table. Those socks put in a lot of mileage during this game! And how appropriate that they ended up in the birthday girl's lap at the end of the game!

We have a tradition in our family that the kids pick a charity of their choice to donate to for their birthday. They ask their friends to bring donations instead of gifts. Karsyn and both boys chose to donate to Give one Million for St. Judes. Together they all raised over $250!