Ann at Nine

As long as she lives in Northern climes, Ann will always pass her birthday in the pit of winter. This year, at least, the pit isn't so deep. We got a dusting of snow last night, but in the slightly above freezing temps today, most of that disappeared.

We opted for chocolate cake this year. It's been a while.

The cake came undecorated from the industrial bakeries of a warehouse store, but Ann soon fixed that with pink sugar pearls, which spell "Happy BD," but mostly she just scattered them on top. Add a candle 9 and the cake was ready.

A couple of Ann's friends spent the night on the living room floor, giggling and making other noise well into the night. They're shown here after opening presents.

One present was a Monster High doll -- Ann had two already -- which are also pictured above. Monster High is a television show that I tried to sit through once, but I couldn't make it. I hear that it's popular among little girls, and who knows, maybe unmarried men in their 20s, some of whom have unaccountable tastes in entertainment.