Another Teenager in the House

Fortunately, not much will change for us, because she has thought of herself as a teenager for at least 2 years, but man, it makes me feel old! 

Samantha had put in her request for scones for her birthday breakfast months ago, so of course, we dutifully got up and made them for her.

My trusty, hooded, kitchen sidekick was very helpful so we could still make progress towards getting everyone ready for school.

I don't know very many people that love birthdays as much as Samantha does.  It's pretty much a national holiday in her eyes - or at least is should be.

We sure love this girl.  She keeps us on our toes all. the. time.  She overflows with creativity and lives her life with "sparkle."  (In all honesty, sometimes she exhausts me, but I love her for it.)

She's not quite the cute little bundle that she was when we brought her home from the hospital 13 years ago.  Still cute, but not little.

She takes her present unwrapping very seriously.

And guess who showed up to celebrate with us?

Fred the Elf!  The kids were pretty excited to see him off-season - all decked out in his cupcake costume.

Here's hoping that THIS alarm clock can wake this girl up in the morning.  (All others so far have failed - even when taped to her face.)  Clocky beeps like R2D2 and rolls away so you have to chase him down to turn him off.  Sadly, I'm guessing that her sisters will be the ones to have to do this while Samantha sleeps peacefully on...

But we can hope.

Yep, she loves presents.

I love how the audience gathers around for the present opening.

And of course, after all the present opening, there is the all-important cake.  Samantha is usually planning this for months and has even made her own so it would be just right, but this year she couldn't settle on a final plan, so it was up to me.  I went with Harry Potter because that is always a safe theme for her.

I tried out a checkerboard cake this time.  It worked out pretty well.

I don't know if you should laugh like that with a knife so close, but what do I know?

All my girls.

Yeah, these are out of order, but I don't have the patience to fix it, so just imagine that we have not already eaten the cake here.

Jonas is there ready to help just in case she can't mange to blow out the candles herself.

Happy Birthday to my sweet Samantha.  You are finally actually 13 and no longer just thirteen-ish.

The Understatements

 If there ever was a band name that fit Jonas perfectly, this would be it.  The Understatements played this afternoon at Pat's Barbeque.  Since most of Jonas's bass playing and practicing takes place away from home, it's really fun to watch what he has learned to do.

Yes, the drummer is a few years younger than the rest of the band.  I think everyone else is 15 -17, but if I had to guess, I'd say the drummer is about 11.

 Since Jonas isn't much of a conversationalist, I doubt he talks to the cute girls in his band much, but at least he interacts with them on some level at band practice.  That's got to be worth something, right?

 Shawn and I were both really impressed with how well he played.  Like I said, we don't hear it much at home, but he was awesome. (Nice to know that those lessons are paying off.)

 As always, he's sporting some good band hair. It seems fitting for a bass player.

 (Warning - Shawn went a little crazy with pictures.  this is probably fewer than half of them.)

A couple of artistic photographs.

 Yeah, we kind of like this kid.  

 Proud of him.  Can't wait to watch and listen to him play again.