Reanne's Birthday

My oldest niece, Reanne turned 12! I can hardly believe it. It didn't seem like it was that long ago that  she was a baby and I would rush home from school or work so that I could take a nap with her in my arms and sing to her while walking up and down the stairs to try and get her to stop crying. Now she is 12. She is now in Young Women's and getting ready for Jr. High next year and has developed into this really smart, creative, talented, sassy, fun and cute girl that is becoming a teenager.

My good friends Liz and Ben treat their nieces and nephews for their birthday. I love that idea because it's a special bonding time with you and the niece or nephew. You do something together instead of just buying them something. I really want to be Favorite Aunt Tracy... so I decided this year that I was going to start doing that with my nieces and nephews. I'm sad that not all of them are here. Even if they were... the ones I don't see very often are not used to me and would probably not want to go do something with me one on one... but I am going to try and do this with each of my nieces and nephews for their birthdays. Reanne was first.

I took Reanne to my favorite... Sodalicious. The beauty of Sodalicious is that you can create your own drink. So I showed her the board of all the flavors to choose from and told her along with creating her soda, she could also pick a treat. The drink she created sounded a little bizarre to me and I was afraid that she wouldn't like it... but she told me she trusted her taste buds. The drink she created was Orange Fanta with fresh lime, sour apple and raspberry. Along with that she got popcorn. I was a little worried about her drink because it didn't sound great... but she tried it and she loved it. I actually tried a sip of it as well and it wasn't as terrible as it sounded. What mattered was that she loved it. I was happy that she was excited to go out and spend time and get a treat with Aunt Tracy. It was a fun little bonding moment. I sure do love this girl. Happy Birthday Reanne.