Sweet 16

Funny: When I tried to publish the slide show below, it kept displaying pictures of a Hispanic family. I could not figure it out, but I guess this particular slide show is a template in everyone's draft format until they publish their own slide show. Because I'm so exhausted from the weekend with the girls, I thought I had called my husband "Jorge" one too many times and was now hallucinating about who my family truly is.

And btw, that is not my daughter's real smile in the pic. That is her "cooperative but insincere" smile, which I've grown to accept as a reasonable facsimile of a smile simply because it's not the grimace face. I would not subject you to the grimace face, especially if your sweet child has not yet turned into a teenager because you would not be emotionally prepared for the parent-deflecting grimace face. I am a compassionate soul.

Anyway, here's the Sweet 16 Birthday revue:

Saturday, as Kristin fell asleep in our family room (late afternoon), one by one, her stealth ninja friends arrived and proceeded to turn our minivan into a birthday mobile. They fixed up the inside as well as outside with balloons and crepe paper and window messages. Kristin was totally surprised about this mission. I was happy that she was surprised because it's difficult to surprise 16 year-olds. Unless you tell them they don't have to clean their rooms.

We listened to loud music all the way to Indy, and because of a certain mall at which the girls chose to shop, we ended up eating at Steak~n~Shake instead of a nicer place. After the meal, they shopped until the mall closed. That is why they are faking tiredness in the pic on the left.

We then went back to the hotel into a small conference room where we ate cake and Kristin made out like a little bandit with Starbucks, Books-a-Million and Itunes cards. At 16, they still like to make each other birthday cards and include private jokes, which I think is pretty sweet. One of those jokes is about napping, which is ironic considering she had just been awakened from a nap earlier. In fact, one of Kristin's favorite hobbies is napping. The girl loves to sleep.

In a room directly across from ours, the girls watched DVDs and played cards late into the night, and the next morning, after we woke them for breakfast, they went swimming, and then, guess what we did? We went shopping again!

After we shopped, guess what we did? We ate again!

Then we listened to more loud music all the way home!

A great time was had by all. Two of the girls in the group, the very blonde and the striped shirt girl, Kristin has known since toddler years. The other two she met later in life. They are all nice girls who share our faith, which is helpful.

She doesn't actually turn 16 until November 7, but we had to celebrate this weekend in order to include her four friends. And on the 7th, she'll be at a youth retreat. So, she's actually sweet 15 for a few more days, and I'm totally OK with that--This is my baby, y'all.