Fifteen and Fabulous

We recently celebrated Tori’s birthday, which brought our family’s holiday season to a close. We were pleasantly surprised to remember Martin Luther King Day is near Tori’s birthday and thus she had a three day weekend to celebrate, or as the case was, sleep in. Just what all teenagers want…more sleep, the best birthday present ever.

Though we feel like we are still finding our way around here with friends and places to go, Tori invited a number of girls over after school. They even had a half day on the Friday preceding MLK day! Quite the weekend. Anyway, Tori and friends hung out at our place, ice skated nearby in the afternoon and returned to ours for pizza and hot tub and music. A play list made by Adam on the drive home from the ice rink. The music played on the outdoor sound system that Phil has managed to get going. While walking the dog later that night, we heard the music and laughter wafting through the neighborhood. We thought someone is having a party and then realized it was us!

There was lots of indecision about what to do for the party. Where to go and what to eat. We really just don’t know the area well enough yet. And of course there is the birthday party tradition of where you live. Some places we’ve lived have been big into birthdays and some places, not. We’ve personally always been big into theme parties, as a back track through this blog will show. But this year Tori wasn’t sure that themes would fly with the high school crowd. And we weren’t sure either. As we headed into the birthday, Tori came up with a neon color theme and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Any sort of theme gives us something to do and a cake to decorate. We were all surprised at how easy party prep is in the states. One trip to Target as opposed to months of shopping for neon pink and green items.

The girls skated and held hands and of course took pictures of themselves. They drank juice boxes and took pictures of themselves. They put on neon face paint and took pictures of themselves. They ate neon colored cake and took pictures of themselves. It was all familiar and yet not quite so. We were  happy to be there, dishing out the cake and singing the songs, as the realization that very very soon we will only be seeing the pictures after the fact. Of course, we took our own pictures, though with a camera, not our phone cameras. My favorite picture is one of Tori behind her cake, laughing and talking with friends, while Phil, Adam and Royce stand all around Tori, not quite ready to let her go by her fifteen self with friends that are not us.