How I celebrated my birthday!

I'm twelve now! Or... three. However you want to look at it.
Even though money is pretty tight still, Mom got me some really nice gifts. She got me a Lego Friends set, two hand-knitted hats that are gorgeous, and a my little pony.
My party has been postponed thanks to a water leak in our apartment. Mom said I could invite one friend over, but a bunch of kids was too much. She got me a Tinkerbell cake, and I invited my new friend, Bernadette, over since Ivy had too much homework.

I missed seeing Ivy, but Bernadette is really cool. She likes Tangled just like me, and has an American Girl doll. I forgot to ask which one, though. She just moved into the apartment next to ours, and she's my age! I met her a few days ago as she and her mom were bringing over some boxes from their old house, and she told me she'll be enrolling into my grade at school. It'd be awesome to have a friend I can hang out with more often. Ivy is my BFF, but she's so busy with school and now skunk training, I don't get to see her too much.

Anyway, Bernadette got permission to stay overnight and Mom popped us some popcorn and said I could watch my first PG-13 movie a whole year early! I was excited, and Bernadette and I picked out an older movie neither of us had ever seen called Overboard.
We loved it, but we didn't look at the rating until after we watched it and we were a little disappointed to find out that it was only PG. Boo, hiss, but we had fun anyway!

After it was over, Mom said it was time for bed, so we made a tent out of some chairs and an old blanket and pretended that we were camping out. I love an excuse to use Mom's old sleeping bags!

Overall, I think it was a great birthday!

Skunks and Birthdays

I'm pretty sure that by now, everyone is wondering what happened with Ivy and the skunk. Shockingly, Ivy didn't really get in trouble at all... All her moms did was take it to a vet to have it de-scented and sent Ivy to her therapist a few extra times to make sure it wasn't a 'cry for attention.'

It wasn't, Ivy just really wanted a pet. I still don't know why she chose that one, but from what she's said, her moms were dragging their feet on getting her a kitten, and the skunk seemed friendly enough. He is really friendly, to tell you the truth. It's easy to forget that Ivy actually dragged home a wild animal, he's super tame. We got him home to my house before my mom even noticed, and we figure that was pretty impressive.
Speaking of my mom, she threw a fit when she discovered the stowaway. I don't blame her, but even though the whole thing was Ivy's idea, I got in trouble. Mom took my laptop away and I only just got it back. She said I knew better, and that I shouldn't have let Ivy bring him along.
Which is true, but it still isn't fair. Everything always seems to work out perfect for Ivy.

Oh! I almost forgot! My birthday is coming up! I was born in a leap year, on February 29th, so basically I'm going to turn 3 this year since leap years only happen every couple of years.
Ok, I'm joking... Usually we celebrate on March 1st, so I'm really going to turn 12. Mom says I can invite some friends over and have a little party if I want to, and I was pretty excited. Only... once again, there isn't much money and rent is due, so I'm going to have to get creative with my party and do everything myself, including make the decorations. All of my friends come from families who are a bit more well off than we are, and everyone else always gets elaborate store bought stuff.
I'm a little nervous now... I think it could be fun, and I have a lot of cool ideas, but I'm afraid my friends will think my party is cheap and stupid.
Anyone have any advice?