Oh, Raleigh!

We had so many rainy days this past July, we could hardly stand it.  But one day we made a really great girly-day out of it and watched the long version of Pride and Prejudice.  Every single one of our girls (including Kensington and Emery) sat through and enjoyed the entire movie.  Yay!

Then our spunky girl decided to curl her (and Kensington's) hair like they did in old times, and she made "bonnets" for whoever wanted one.  

Raleigh and Mr. Bennett

Funny Girls

Don't mind the still-unpainted piano in the background.

Another L-O-N-G rainy day, Raleigh spent most of the morning studying a library book about ancient Egypt.  Then our stairway looked like this:

I thought it was a bunch of craziness until she explained to me all of the meaning behind each picture.  The one above has Dallas and I in the center.  On each side are some of our siblings.  Each one has a name written out in her own little language and other symbols she created that all have meaning.  She explained all of them and remembered what they all meant.  Wow!

I can't remember what all of these are, but each little picture is unique.

We also decided (at kind of the last minute) to go to Chick-Fil-A for their Cow Appreciation Day for dinner.  It was pretty fun, and Raleigh cut out all of the spots we wore (which were made of real leather, funny enough: Eat more chicken!)

We also celebrated Raleigh's 11th birthday . . . I can't believe she's just a year away from TWELVE!  I love how we're all looking at our special girl in this picture.

Raleigh gets ready to blow out her candle

This cake was supposed to be just like this one.  But our frosting was too thin and drippy, so this is what we ended up.  At least it was still an ombre cake, which she wanted.

Then all of her birthday dreams came true . . . 

 . . . except for the iPad Touch she was hoping for . . .

Raleigh the "Food Stylist" Fashions Breakfast

In the meantime she'll have to just play with sausages instead.

We just love this girl!