Happy Birthday, Rose!

Rose turned 15!!! Her birthday was on Saturday, February 7th. We planned her family birthday dinner for the day after because Rose was originally going to be at the district swim meet all day on her birthday, serving in her role as team manager. When that meet was moved, however, Rose suddenly had a full Saturday birthday at home! She opened her birthday presents in the morning, and later I took her out to get Thai food for a mother-daughter birthday lunch. On Sunday evening, our local extended family came over for  Rose's birthday dinner of choice: pulled pork, mac and cheese, (also veggies, coleslaw, and salad), and cheesecake. 

When I asked Rose what she wanted for her birthday gift this year, she immediately rattled off "the last 10 books in the Wheel of Time series." That was all she wanted: ten e-books for her Kindle. I had to get creative when it came time to wrap the gifts, because how do you wrap a digital book? I printed out pictures of all ten book covers and placed each on in a separate gift bag with tissue paper. Then Jeff and I added random food item into each bag to give it a little weight: apples, oranges, lemons, granola bars, etc. Rose said she knew immediately what her gifts were when she saw the ten gift bags all lined up on her birthday. She was happy to have several thousand more pages of reading material to dig into!

We love our Rose girl! My second-born child is 15! Jeff took her to the DMV to get her driver's permit on Monday after school, and she has been driving us around ever since. Driver's Ed class starts tomorrow. Here we go!

The 15 year old with her ten gift bags.

Books and...food from our pantry, plus a bottle of nail polish remover.

I love my Rose!

Thai food lunch date! Rose had Pad Woon Sen, and I had Tom Yum noodle soup. YUM. We even had an appetizer (Thai fish cakes) because we were feeling extra celebratory.

Rose is becoming quite the pianist. Her orchestra teacher at school has started giving her one song to accompany the orchestra on piano each concert. I love hearing her get better and better when she practices. No, we can't really hear to hold conversations on the couch while someone is playing the piano right behind us, but there's nothing wrong with having our house full of music!

Cheesecake round one: Saturday.

Enjoying one of her birthday books.

This brilliant bright shining star is my daughter!

I made a quadruple batch of mac and cheese (4 lbs of pasta) for the family birthday dinner, but risked using my regular sized pots and pans...it was a close call. I had to mix the cheese sauce into the pasta in two separate containers because it wouldn't all fit in the pot with the pasta.

Family cheesecake candles!

Rose's birthday interview. 

"Favorite chore: "anything but yardwork." 

What do you love? "My family."

Hero: "Mom & Dad"

And a few baby Rose pictures from the archive:

Little Jay was not so sure about this tiny pink screaming sister.

Rose was the most delicious squishy baby.

Exuberant big sister Rose, holding an uncertain baby Amber.

We love our Rose!