Sixteen Candles

On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Caelan awoke on her own with no interruptions . . . no balloons on her floor, no decorations (they were all buried behind a closet filled with Christmas), and (as requested) no traditional off-key birthday song to shake her from her slumbers. But, she did get a tablecloth (yes, we're very fancy on birthdays :) and two boxes (boxen? :) of donuts from Krispy Kreme for breakfast! She chose an ugly sweater donut. We went the donut route because we planned to go to church and then head out to lunch at a breakfast place to which we haven't taken the kids before. This plan (menu, activities, church time, everything) changed countless times due to several factors, but Caelan is pretty chill, and she was happy with whatever. I think as long as she got a complete night's sleep, she was golden. Birthday wish one: check!


We also like to give a breakfast birthday gift, usually Graysen's because he loves giving gifts so much! This year he gave Caelan a pretty little leather box with her name engraved on the top to hold a few of her "favorite things." It was a very sweet gift to go along with her very sweet breakfast :) 




We attended the late service at church and enjoyed hearing a sermon tied in to the daily devotionals our church has sent out during the Christmas season. And also--Christmas carols during worship. I love Christmas music!! 

Afterwards, we decided to take the back way to the little town where the diner is located . . . it is not fancy at all. It reminds me of the café in the small town I grew up in: mostly farmers in overalls and all the 20's, 30's, and 40's babies gathering to dine. Coffee pots in the waitresses' hands and platters of food the size of your head! Also, they had football on T.V., so it was slightly difficult to get the boys to look for a picture. But look at those pancakes! Our waitress was tiny and looked like she should be retired, but she carried out a food tray the size of a sled and to my astonishment--it was all for us! We pretty much ate it all, too; their pancakes are more cake than pan :) I was joking with Caelan about the fancy places we take her for her birthday, ha! So not fancy, but very tasty.

Back at home again, we had about 45 minutes until we headed to our next birthday destination. Caelan decided this was plenty of time to see what was beneath the tissue paper and wrappings of her birthday gifts. Normally, we keep all of these tucked away until the moment of gift opening on birthdays . . . but, as this treasure-trove is also usually in my closet, and my closet is very full this time of year, I brought them all out earlier in the week and set them on the mantel for her to gaze at and wonder. Talk about building anticipation :)

From her bags and wrappings, she pulled two books that she's been wanting for a long time, an almost entire new wardrobe of tops in rose and floral from Grandma J (plus her own Starbucks card, my how she has plans for that :), sparkly headbands from her sister, and her first eye shadow and eye liner from her mom and dad (I did check with dad first before ordering :)



In the midst of gift opening, Buck got a call (through the kids' phone) from our neighbor lady. She baked us this amazing strawberry cake with white frosting, sprinkles, cherries in the shape of a cross, wow! They tried to deliver the same to our neighbors who are enjoying Christmas on grandma and grandpa with their ENTIRE family (23!) in Disneyworld this week. I texted to let the baker know that we were caring for pets and could take the cake (literally) to the other neighbors' fridge, so her work didn't go to waste. So, Caelan paused her gift opening to let Brennen run over to grab the cake . . . but he also came back with 15 pounds of M & M's and Rolos! This couple is the grandma and grandpa of the neighborhood. Our little three-year-old neighbor only has to put her hand through their adjoining fence and a bag of candy will appear on the other side :)


With the second cake in the fridge and the candy stowed in our insane corner of sweets, Caelan resumed her gift opening. She really does "leave a little sparkle wherever she goes." And I think she may go to sleep wearing the tiara-like glitter headbands Gabby gave her ;) We had just enough time for a quick eye makeup tutorial. Caelan did a million times better job at applying than I did my first try. She looks very nice and very natural, which is the best use of makeup :)











With the crockpot singing for our supper, we headed to the movie theater. How convenient of Miss Mary Poppins to appear in theaters just in time for Caelan's birthday! We very rarely go to movies, because it is so stinking expensive. In fact, we've been "rewards" members for nearly three years and are just "120 points away from your next  (first) $5 reward." Whooopeee. Lol :) 

As we walked into the theater, Graysen said, "I hope this movie doesn't make me cry." Apparently he'd heard a plot summary on the Christian radio review and knew some of what was coming. I don't know if he cried, but I certainly did! What a mixture of sadness and happiness and color and darkness and weird and normal and imaginative and every day. Wow, there's a lot going on in that two hour film! We enjoyed it though. I like Emily Blunt as an actress, so I was excited to see her take on the role of Mary P. And we used to watch Lin-Manuel Miranda on The Electric Company . . . I know he like wrote the most famous musical in recent history (Hamilton), but we'll always remember him for "Silent E is a Ninja." :)


Back at home, Caelan's French Dip supper was ready to be consumed. That was one tasty roast! We were all out of order for gift opening and cake and all the rest, but it didn't matter. Celebrating 16 is sweet no matter how your day falls into place (I tried to find pictures from my 16th birthday, because I'm sure we did something--my parents rented out a country dance club and apparently the entire school was there for my 18th! My sister is a good rememberer of these details :) It also looks like my dad graduated from seminary that weekend and then we had Christmas at the farm house with the peach curtains and green rugs, and the whole family--that's the year we gave Grandpa L the fancy men's bikini underwear because we didn't know what to get him, and he laughed so hard we were all laughing with him :) lots of pictures of those events, but none that I could find of my birthday. Maybe I'll check the jump drive C gave me, he may have had access to different photos than were in my book :) I'm basically just typing what I'm thinking right now, you're welcome, ha! Back to Caelan, because this is about her hee hee :)




Gabby made a very pretty lotsa chocolate cake to Caelan's specifications  . . . even candy canes on top! We scrambled a bit to see if we had 16 candles to make the lovely sight as noted in 50s do-wop songs. We did! Graysen sang "You're 16, you're beautiful, and you're mine!" The three who didn't have a birthday had all kinds of 16 songs for their sister :) She did allow us to sing the birthday song for her at this juncture, but I was in the middle of recording it and then tried to take a picture, and then actually stopped recording, so then we had to start over again, so I could record again until she blew out the candles, and thus she ended up getting two birthday songs from her family anyway!

We are blessed parents, God certainly did a great job picking out kids for us :) She makes her own dresses and skirts, she has a three-year business, she plays piano and guitar, she likes to kick people in the head, she has a job, she has a kind heart, she is patient, she reads her Bible, she loves going to church events, she's a good sister, she's helpful, she loves sparkles, she makes sweet potato casserole like a champ . . . I could go on and on. Sixteen! Whoa.