Morgan's 10th Birthday

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow Morgan turned 10!! As she puts it, "Actually, I've literally been alive for a decade!" We celebrated by waking up at the exact moment she was born (i.e. 8:17 am, since she was born at 7:17 am pacific time). On her birthday Morgan got to open presents from family. It wasn't until Tuesday, July 26th that we had her friend birthday party. A man in our ward, Cory Martin, was nice enough to come do a magic show for free!!

Morgan was his special helper for lots of the tricks. In the trick above, Cory was changing money while she held it in her hands. Below was a great trick where he poured water into a newspaper and back out again without getting the newspaper wet. Everyone else who did it got water everywhere.
Okay, these pictures are WAY out of order. I'm going to have to figure out how to load them in order... Anyway, I was so delighted when I asked Morgan what kind of cake she wanted this year. I was prepared for her to say she wanted a horse cake or something like that, but instead she said she wanted a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. She also said she wanted white frosting to decorate the cake with swirls. The best part was that she wanted to decorate it herself! Wow, that was the easiest birthday cake ever! We made two cakes just in case lots of people came to her birthday party, so she decorated the second cake with letters that stood for "Happy Birthday Morgan!" Brynne said she thought the letters stood for Hilary, Brynne, Morgan. :)
I'm including a few pictures of all the friends who came just for fun. This is Hally, Morgan & Zachary.
This is Aspen, Nisha, Ashley, Dragun, and Tyler. I am going to do a post about Nisha, but suffice it for now to say she is a lunch lady who befriended Morgan and was nice enough to come to Morgan's party!
Zachary wanted a close picture with chocolate on his mouth. I had to include it here because I love how happy Morgan looks! Also, if you look closely, you'll be able to see Morgan's feather in her hair. That is the newest fad around here. It's a pink feather with purple hair. It was a birthday present from my parents since Morgan has wanted a feather for months! Also, check out her nails. She bought nails from the dollar store that I filed down to size and put on her. She is feeling way grown up these days!!
This is a picture of all the friends who came to the party. She had one friend who came for just a few minutes and brought a present and another who just dropped off a gift. One thing you'll notice is that the kids range in age from seven to ten, not including Nisha (who told me she has a daughter turning 20 but I don't believe her). Morgan has always been good at making friends of all ages!
The picture I wanted to start with is hanging out down here at the bottom. Nisha took this picture for me and caught Morgan at the perfect time!
It was a really fun birthday party! Our next birthday is Brynne's. She has decided that this year she wants to have a family birthday party with ALL her family here -- everyone from Aunt Alyson who lives 1 1/2 hours away, to Kaya and Phaedra who live in Washington state, to Aunt Ramona who lives in Italy. I warned her that everyone wouldn't be able to come, but she's still hoping it will happen. :)