Tissy's TENTH birthday HUNT

Staying in fashion of letting our 10 year old have a birthday shopping hunt, we spent the morning out with the kids opening envelopes filled with clues. These clues led Tristen (who turns 10 tomorrow) off on a birthday shopping hunt.

This was a big adventure for the whole family and we weren't sure how it would end up. We are deep into the cocooning stage of adjusting to our adoption, but we had to break the rules to celebrate this sweet girl of ours. (If you haven't heard, we just got home a week ago from Africa with our 2 newest Sweet Peas).
The morning started off with a hug from her little brother. Can't you just feel the love???
The clues took us to our local shopping strip plaza where Tristen got to pick out goodies from some select stores. First a treat from the store at Cracker Barrel (somehow my camera stopped working so all these pics are from my phone).

With her toy of choice (a sock monkey), we headed to the department store for some new clothes. She picked a new outfit (always a huge treat to get something NEW in stead of hand-me-downs) and quite fashionable I might add.
We stopped off at Ross where she picked out a new hand towel for her bathroom. And then off to the dollar store where all the kiddos got to spend some birthday cash. Little man Tate just stayed in the sling and didn't seem to care much for shopping. But big sister Tally and little brother Tyce were all about finding goodies too.

Then we headed to the book store for a new book and toy too. She had a limit to spend at each store and worked hard at finding things within her budget.


Our next stop was Target for a new bike helmet and a DVD to watch with the family.

Last stop, ice cream at the creamery. Yummy !!!! Dessert before lunch.
All in all, the kids did well. Even though it was lots of stimulation with stores, we didn't interact with friends or people so we felt like it was a pretty safe activity. We have asked the girls to sacrifice so much during this whole adoption, we need to make sure and meet their needs too.

Such SWEET girls. Oh how I love them and enjoy them every day. What a blessing to have such a beautiful family.