I can't believe my baby girl is officially at TEENAGER!!! Taya turned 13 on September 25th & she is SO excited to now be able to do all the things her sisters love to do. We have a rule in our house that you can't read or watch PG-13 Movies/Books until you turn 13 so it's like a rite of passage. She woke up at MIDNIGHT on her birthday & started reading Harry Potter 4. She's been waiting 5 years to finish the Harry Potter series!!
The first PG-13 movie she chose to watch was "The Giver" (which she read years ago for school. . . which I didn't really have a say in since it was for school & counted toward her grade. But she was excited to see the movie to go with it. It's her favorite book.)
For her birthday breakfast she wanted homemade crepes, apples, sausage, & a birthday ding dong.
We opened presents before school so she could play with her new gifts before & after school.
Craiger gave her a homemade coupon good for 1 free ice cream
the next time the ice cream man came.
My friend Nancy sent all sorts of fun clothes, Alice/Harry Potter
things, & TONS of unicorn fun.
Auntie Cari & Uncle Justin sent her a fun
Harry Potter game.
Opa & Oma sent some accessories for her bike
& a Harry Potter pen.
Her siblings gave her a Nintendo Switch
controller (purple) & a secret codes book.
And Trek & I got her the Great Hall
miniture set she's been wanting.
Nancy got her a pair of new unicorn jammies too.
SO CUTE.
For her birthday dinner, Taya requested her all time favorite foods:
Hamburgers, Kroketten, & Corn!
The Young Women from church stopped by with some pop, flowers, & treats to celebrate her birthday.
For her 13th birthday party, she couldn't wait to have a big movie night with some of her friends. This is the first time I've let her have boys & girls at a party so she was SO excited. We set up the big room upstairs to look like a movie theater. We had boxes of candy, pop, & popcorn.
Downstairs I had the table decorated with the "movie" theme as well.
It was SO fun seeing the boys & girls interact. It just helped me realize the awkwardness of teenagers. 13-14 year olds don't know how to talk to each other so we made sure to get them moving & playing together. By the end they were practically best friends wrestling, talking, laughing, & teasing each other.
Taya chose Mulan as her movie for movie night.
After the movie, all the kids played Mafia, laser tag, & hide & seek. Our entire house was DARK & it was hilarious to hear the screams when someone "died" or was "found" in hide & seek.
Then we went downstairs for cake & ice cream. I always laugh because Taya's friends always have the allergies to everything. I don't know why that is, but every time we move, she becomes friends with people allergic to everything. It cracks me up. So to make sure nobody got sick on my watch, we had several things to choose from.
We had plain cheese cake with different fruit toppings, gluten-free pretzels for snacking,
Reese's Peanut Butter Pie for those not allergic to nuts,
Candy Cane Cheesecake (Taya's favorite), fruits & veggies, & gluten-free cereal bars.
After eating snacks & dessert, we opened presents. I was amazed at how adorable her gifts were. Several kids handmade things for her, & others put a lot of thought & preparation into her gifts. She really does have great friends.
Almost everyone left when I realized we hadn't taken any group pictures. I hate it when that happens. We grabbed a few at 10:30pm mostly with our kiddos.
It was a really fun night.
Happy 13th Birthday my little princess. I love you.