Look who turned 10!
Sierra's 10th birthday was Friday and to celebrate I had a cake and some brigadeiros sent to her classroom during brunch for the class. While we were in MN, she celebrated with a birthday party at Justice with her cousins from WA and a friend from MN, so she didn't have another party here in Rio. She told me Tuesday night, "No offense Mom, but I don't really want to do anything with you this year for my birthday. I just want a friend to come over and hang out. You can go out."
So, her friend Marina came after school and stayed with Tania, our maid, until about 9 o'clock. The girls did a little "cooking" in the kitchen, played at the court and play level here at the condiminium and rented a girly movie. I hope this isn't an indication of "teenager" mentality when kids don't really want to "hang out" with their parents. It's just too young.

Here is Sierra's class with their teacher, Ms Diane--far left in black shirt--before singing "Parabems" and digging into the cake and brigadeiros.
The boy on the left in yellow is also the birthday boy. Fernando and Sierra share August 15 as their birthdays. They are in the same class, but Fernando turned 11. His mom and dad and I put 2 sets of candles on the cake, an eleven and a ten. At first Sierra didn't like having a birthday buddie, but after it was all said and done she said it wasn't so bad. It was actually kind of neat once they started comparing the time of day they were each born.

As for me, I find it hard to believe that my baby is 10 all ready! Sometimes I look at her and still see the sweet, tiny little baby in my arms. Other times, I look at her and wonder where this very mature insightful young lady has come from. Always, I look at her and give thanks for the true blessing in my life that she is.

Happy happy birthday my baby girl!