Veronica turns 10

Veronica enjoys relaxing at home, so a relaxing birthday at home may not have been a big letdown for her. She received some nice gifts and visited (mostly virtually) with extended family and friends. We finally mastered cooking one her favorite foods (called roti) that we'd only be able to find in a Thai restaurant in Santa Barbara until now. Momma also made her a delicious birthday cake. Look at how many more candles are on that thing than there were nine years ago. At the least her crown still fits!

Let's jump back to when she first woke up. This mysteriously thin gift was waiting for her.

I'm including this one for the smile:

The envelope contained a rubbing of Omri's piggy bank (which helped encourage Omri to get involved with the hunt):

The piggy bank led them straight down (through the floor) to an unexpected swan among our origami flock:

The swan pointed to V's video camera, which contained a birthday message from me and a clue pointing to her ukulele:

The clues could be unscrambled to spell out APPLE, which itself was a clue:

Wrapped gifts in hand now, I think she had some idea of what was inside:

Yes, she finally got her own device, an Apple iPad! This was a big moment for her.

Opening a beautiful set of colored pencils and a sketchbook from Grandma Linda with her on the video phone:

Watching the animated Addams Family movie later that night:

The next day, Grandma and Grandpa F swung by for a masked visit:

Another gift... This one was a special Hydro Flask water bottle:

I can't believe my girl is in the double digits. We all had to give up big group celebrations this year, but it was still a lovely weekend just being together.