I can’t believe she’s 12! Goodbye Primary - Hello Young Women’s! She was so ready. When they passed out Primary Program speaking parts, Aliya politely informed them that she would be 12 before the program (4 days before!) So she talked her way out of it. She told me last year that she was so happy she didn’t have to do it anymore. So Anthony was the lone Dewsnup primary child in the program.

Aliya’s birthday extravaganza began on September 10th. It was Wednesday. She could’ve gone to YW’s but decided to go to dinner and the mall instead to celebrate. We had dinner at the 5 and Diner off of 27th ave and the 101 with a creepy life-sized poster of Elvis Presley watching our every move. The staff sang to her and I swear I saw his hips move! “Yeah, we gonna win this race.”

At the mall, she had her heart set on finding a hair brush at Clair’s. She was successful and she got a darling purse and chapstick too! On the way out, Kev started announcing to any and all life in the mall that it was her birthday. Quite loudly. Hoping to embarass her (as if the staff at the 5 and Diner (and Elvis) didn’t do the job). Surprisingly, her face stayed a normal shade and she giggled - I guess she assumed no one cared or was listening. It was pretty late, for a week day. Not many people were around. She thought she was safe. Thought. We walked passed a store and I yelled in, “Hey, today’s Aliya’s Birthday!” There was a kid at the counter chatting. He looked up and said, “Hey, Happy Birthday!”

Now her face was changing shades! Aliya started laughing. We continued walking toward the exit. Soon we hear the kid again…in perfect tone…”Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you.” We joined in and finished the song with the kid who had started it. She laughed all the way to the car! Especially when I spilled my ice cream sundae down the front of my shirt!

As if that wasn’t enough!

Friday night Aliya had a slumber party. Maddie, Kayla and Kailen came to celebrate.

The night started off with pizza and presents! Followed by a scavenger hunt that led them to their final gift - a picture frame which they decorated with paint and jewels. They turned out darling!

And finally the main event of the night was a little something I like to call Midnight Mischief. Dressed in black with black streaks under their eyes ( I think they confused this event with football ) we went to show a member of our ward how much we love them. Toilet paper was my suggestion, but the sweet girls thought that wasn’t very nice so we made bows, posters and paper hearts. Aren’t these girls adorable? We left the house around midnight and walked to the Bailey’s. (Oh, yeah - they knew it was us! - Someone slipped and spilled our plans.) We covered their palm trees with bows, their garage door with posters and paper hearts, their front door with a banner and their cute little bear at their front door - we left him with a hat of chocolate chip cookies.

We saw a weird guy out walking his dog on our way back home. Who walks their dog at Midnight? Yikes! Good thing I am a black belt in…let’s run really fast!! There were five of us and actually, I think he was a little afraid!

After that, I don’t really know what happened. The girls set up a game of LIFE and I went to bed. What a great party! What a fun bunch of girls!!

At church on Sunday, Bro Bailey met us at the door, said thanks for the cookies and rewarded Aliya with the opportunity to speak in church next Sunday!