Sweet 16 (and 40)

My baby girl turned 16.  I also happened to turn 40, but I'm still going with the story that I don't have birthdays any more. Cause I gave mine to her. But I admit I kinda love sharing a birthday with her.  As long as she doesn't mind sharing.  (For a bunch of fun pictures, feel free to check out this old blog post)

(And personally I think everybody should give away their birthday. No more birthdays, but I'm 24 forever. And it seems to be working because apparently I don't look my (real) age. It's probably bragging, but Maddie and I get mistaken for sisters more often than not.  The flip side is though that when they find out that I am indeed the mom, I get weird looks with the question very clearly written across their faces -"How old were you?!?!?" )

I took the day off work.  Maddie had to go to school for half the day, so I made her wear a tiara.  The middle point with the dangly "16" broke off, but whatevs.  She was actually embarrassed to wear it.  "Mom!  People will think I'm autistic!"  "Since when do you worry about what people think? And what's wrong with being autistic? You have at least one brother who is." At least I didn't make her wear a sash. (She really wanted me to buy myself one that she found that said "40-Licious"... that wasn't going to happen...)

We woke up to the front yard having been decorated, and a banner on the garage door.

We spent the afternoon getting our free lunch from Liberty Market and spending some of her birthday money.

After all these years she finally got her very own set of scriptures.  I had forgotten that she had been using my old set in seminary.   Even Christopher got his own for his 8th birthday.  Somehow Maddie had been overlooked all these years.  I convinced her it was a good thing though, because she is super excited how the name engraving turned out.  We're like the first people to ask for punctuation. Until I get a picture of it, it says - Madison K Berrett :)  (sideways smiley face and all)

We didn't have too long to shop though, because she had a choir concert with a 4 pm call time, and a 30 minute drive to get there.  They did the Christmas concert (fundraiser) again this year at EVIT, to work with the culinary school, so that we get good food with our music.

And although turning 40 isn't nearly as special as turning 16, I felt pretty loved by friends and family. Overwhelmed, really.   Some of my favorite gifts were the homemade card from my friend Teresa with a list of  40 things she loves about me, (apparently I say "Oh my heck" a lot) and a necklace that Nick sent me from Montana.

 And my sweet sister in law surprised both Maddie and I with a special "Girls' Trip" weekend. To Jamaica. A weekend on the beach in the Caribbean drinking virgin pina coladas in January. Ya mon.  To say we were excited (and overwhelmed and grateful...) would be an understatement.

Me first thing in the morning.... don't judge

Anyway, it was a pretty fantastic day.

Oh, and we also had cake.  But as busy as everyone was, we actually didn't "do cake" until my parents came down.  My mom's birthday is two days before ours, so we all celebrated together.