I think all good birthday blogs should begin with: How has my baby gotten so big, so fast?
It was just yesterday she was rolling around in the grass with not a care in the world.
And now we look big and self-sufficient and gorgeous. How? Why? When?
A few days before her birthday she goes from braces (that she's had on for almost 3 years),
....to braces free. So much change, so fast. But isn't that what adolescence is all about?
One day she's going on a date with Daddy looking like this.
And the very next day she went on a date with Daddy looking like this. Again, I ask the question, how is this even possible?
It doesn't only happen with Chuck. It happened to me too!
The part I find the hardest to accept in this whole venture is that I am now the shortest one. Not fair!
The day of Chloe's birthday finally arrived. We had been hinting that we would throw her a Quinciñera party. I told her I already picked out her dress and everything. She wasn't 100% sure we were joking. I have a lot of Mexican friends and could have easily pulled it off with their help! It would have been awesome and totally fun - for me. But she would have been embarrassed beyond words. She hates any type of attention on her. So we opted for a small family gathering instead. In this picture she is showing the gift we gave her - 3 delicate stackable rings. I told her that Dad is the bottom ring, she is the middle one, and I am the top one. We are always hugging her.
We woke up and immediately went to the DMV so Chloe could get her Driver's Permit. Again...why are they letting children drive now? In all honesty though, she is probably the best driver at this point in the process than the boys when they were at this age/stage. She's not as nervous and is cool, calm, and collected. Although, she does tend to veer toward the yellow middle line a little too much for my liking. I think that's because she's left-handed though. The boys on the other hand, felt more comfortable driving on the curb and telling me what awesome drivers they were constantly. Chloe lets any one of us give her constructive criticism.
After passing the permit test on the second try and grabbing a treat at Panera's we headed over to a local pottery shop to paint pottery for 2 hours. It was cathartic and fun.
We finished up the day by opening presents after 5:10pm - the time of her birth.
Chloe asked for a yellow cake with white flowers that had a 15 on it. Well....you could say I checked all the boxes, but it didn't turn out anything like the picture in my head. First of all, I couldn't even get the cakes out of the pans. They were literally stuck in there. So that is where they stay. Then, my flowers ended up sucking and not looking anything like flowers. The green icing I bought for the leaves ended dumping out all over the cake. I had to scrape that out and ended up making leaves using a sharp knife dipped into the blob of green icing on the paper towel. This is just how we roll. We know things are not going to go according to plan, we just don't know which things and how. That keeps the excitement and sense of adventure alive. Chloe was very gracious and said she liked her cake. I did score a win on the homemade frosting in the color of her choice.
The day after her birthday, we met Uncle John and Aunt Karen at P.F. Changs, the restaurant of her choice, for her birthday lunch. Then we came home and had a family Chopped competition. It was the Guys vs. the Girls. It was so much fun!
