Mary is 10!

Mary had a pretty good birthday, if I do say so myself.  First, we baked her cake.  She chose chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  She wanted to decorate it herself, fine by me!

This year's theme evolved into a jungle theme, at least for the cake & goody bag.  The green represented leaves, the red were tropical flowers.  That's a baby caiman in the upper left, coming out of the water.

We then headed to the Virginia Aquarium for the afternoon.

Mary's party with friends was Wednesday evening at Chuck E. Cheese's.  It was not crowded at all (the benefits of a weekday!) so the kids had a blast.  The parents as well, since we didn't have to keep an eagle-eye on everyone.

Mary was very excited about the pizza.

Not so much about Chuck E coming out and singing just for her - that's her hiding under the table.  I told her that we parents had to have at least one chance to embarrass her on her birthday.

She was a good sport about it and eventually came out - in time for singing happy birthday and cake!