Today, June 5, 2007, my baby girl, Maxine Elizabeth Sherwood, turns 10.

That’s her brother’s foot sticking out there. He wasn’t trying to kick her. He was just trying to mess with the picture.

Tonight, I will not be sitting at a ball field. This will be the second day in a row that we do NOT have a game. Well, technically, there was supposed to be a game yesterday, but it was canceled.

Maxine’s smiling face appeared on 9 and10 News this morning. They have a “first and ten” birthday feature.

Today, I have been asked to make BTS cake. The recipe is one I received from Shirley Jump, or rather from one of her books. In my house, BTS stands for Better than Santa cake. And it is, according to my daughter Amanda, the best cake ever.

Last weekend we had five of Maxine’s friends over. And of the five, I’d never met three of them before. That sounds horrible doesn’t it? But in my defense, Maxine started a new school this year, so she has made a lot of new friends.

At one point during the party, I overheard one of the girls say, “It’s a good thing X isn’t here, or there would be so much drama!”

These girls are veterans of the birthday party. After the drama comment, they went on to reminisce about such and such’s party when so and so spent the entire time pouting….

Um, there was enough drama, thank you very much. Do you know what happens when you let six 10-ish girls spend time together? Hearts get broken. And we had the huge controversy that is SO common with this age. (No, it had nothing to do with boys.)

Any guesses what the controversy was?

We had the “I still play with Bratz dolls” vs. the “I am too old to play with Bratz dolls” controversy waging in my living room. I think of the six girls, one was totally over playing with Bratz dolls. (No, not Barbie. That’s so three years ago.) So, there was at least one girl that really wanted to play with Bratz dolls (she’d even brought her own) and at least one girl that really didn’t want to play with Bratz dolls, and the girls were all drama.

Maxine had fun. And she is very happy because one of her friends bought her exactly what she wanted — she calls them corgi shoes. I already had a pair, but I thought they were called crocs. She is thrilled to have them. Another friend bought her footies to wear too.

And the same night Maxine had her party, I also received a little tase of what I have in store in the very near future. Or rather, what is already happening while I sit over here with my head in the sand….

Autumn and one of her close friends hosted a dual birthday party. Both girls turned 13 in May. It seems the month of May is a busy month for birthdays in Autumn’s social circle, so the girls decided to co-host a party. Lots of kids came. Including, you know, boys. That party (thankfully) happened at the other girl’s grandparents’ house.
Happy Birthday to Maxine aka Tank, Monster, Sweetheart, Tootsie (and the latest) Mighty Might!