Sarah turns 13

 I'm having a hard time with Sarah turning 13 and James turning 5 next week. What the heck? When James was born I realized when he was 3 Sarah would be 11 and could babysit and I would have a little freedom in my schedule. That's as far as I wanted to get to-- their ages in 2019. We can stop now.

This was the first time I got to decorate the new house for a birthday. I kind of made things up as I went along. I didn't have a ceiling to work with (I wasn't about to get out a ladder) so I put streamers around the banisters. I have a lot of those.

This kind of came off a little cruise ship like.

Birthday runner, birthday plate, birthday presents.

Everyone had to wake up at 7 am for the festivities (they usually are all awake watching cartoons). Sarah opened presents while Justin made waffles. She got a hat so she'll stop stealing mine, paintbrushes, a desk for her room, lots of snacks, and a sweater.

We took her Chick-fil-a for lunch at school. We even bought her a regular meal--not a kids meal. 

That afternoon we finished her smore cake. She chose a graham cracker cake, ganache filling with 7-minute frosting (that I only had to remake once) toasted with the kitchen torch.

Mmmm toasty.

Still trying to decide who she looks like more.

I think Justin.

After a lasagna dinner, she went to her young women's pumpkin carving activity. They also made a big deal about it being her birthday and sent her home with a huge card and treats.

Then we had cake with grandparents. She got money from grandma and a mirror and picture frame for her room from Nadine.

Oh but just when you thought her birthday was over. I woke up the next morning with the thought, "Sarah never opened up that game I got her." That's because it never made it in a giftbag. That's because it wasn't with the rest of her birthday presents. And it wasn't where I thought it would be. I checked a box in my room that had some Christmas presents stashed and didn't see it there so I went through all the boxes in my closet and looked under my bed. Pretty much everywhere in my room and closet. I probably spent a good hour that day looking for it and was thinking I had thrown it away by mistake. I looked one more time everywhere and there it was in the first place I looked. I was imagining it was way bigger than the deck of cards it was and didn't look well enough. Sigh. So she got a surprise present after school and was a good sport about it.

Friday after school she had some friends over for pizza and I don't know what else. After I fed them I retreated to my room and let them have the run of the house and yard. It was very giggly.

I teased her about how she spelled vegetables and that she doesn't like vegetables.

And here are a few of my favorite pictures. She's really easy to take pictures of so this took like 5 minutes.

Waiting for me to get the camera settings right....

Now smile!

And then she had a hundred stickers to pull out of her boots from this random field we were in.