Abby is 10!!

The next day we celebrated Abby's birthday by hitting up a tattoo parlor. Not for a tattoo of course, but it was her 10th birthday present to get her ears pierced! I had a bad experience getting my ears pierced at Claire's and had heard great things about getting them pierced by a professional at a tattoo/piercing place so that is where we headed. First stop was at the merry-go-round while we waited for Abby's appointment. Can you sense Abby's nerves in these pictures? She was getting pretty anxious by this point...

Here she is about to have it done!! She actually backed out right after this picture was taken and almost changed her mind. She was really nervous about the pain involved and asked if we could do it next weekend instead. I told her if she didn't do it now, she probably wouldn't be able to do it until she was a lot older (like maybe 18!) That was enough to convince her and we headed back in. I knew she would really regret not getting it done because she had already told everyone she was having her ears pierced and had even received several pairs of earrings for her birthday. After the first ear was done, she exclaimed, "Was that it? It hardly hurt at all!!" They actually used a needle instead of a gun which I have heard hurts even less. Like a lot of things, the anticipation of the pain was for worse than the actual pain itself.

Here she is with her beautiful blue studs. They are titanium, medical-grade earrings so she doesn't have to do anything with them. No turning, putting ointment on them or anything. The best thing to do is to leave them completely alone for the next three months when she can start changing them out for other earrings.

After we came home, it was time for some presents. Her party and ear piercing were the major gifts this year, but we did get her a few fun birthday items!

Of course all the kids loved being in on the action!

And Landon being silly and weird just for the special occasion!

Our little girl is growing up. We sure do love our beautiful Abby girl!