Bethany is 13!

Yesterday our baby turned 13. As we sat in the hospital holding our great niece this week, it hardly seemed possible that 13 years had passed since we were the ones sitting in the hospital holding our sweet newborn. So much has happened in thirteen years.

We started Bethany's birthday by having a sleepover with a few friends from our homeschool co-op (who happen to be very good friends). This year's party has been a work in progress. At first Bethany wanted to invite ALL of her friends to her party. She is in middle school and at our co-op is in the Girl Scout group with girls through high school. She wanted to have them over since she was now a teenager. I thought it would be hard to have a party that included kids from age 5 up to age 16, so encouraged her to have 2 parties: a bigger party with activities & goodies for the younger bunch & a teenage party just to hang out with the older girls. That morphed into having a sleepover with just a few of her teenage friends over and we'd send Natalie to one of her friend's houses that night. Then, we added some younger sisters of those girls, so Natalie, of course, would be staying. It would be JUST a slumber party & we'd do her birthday party next weekend. Never wanting to keep things status quo, it turned into some of the girls wanting to celebrate her b-day b/c they'd be out of town next weekend. Sooooooooooooo.......short story long (LOL), we had a semi-birthday-slumber-teenage-tweenage-party on Friday night! We had 6 extra girls plus our 2.

Here are some pics of the fun they had. To see the cute crafts they did, go to my crafting blog at www.chefmamacrafts.blogspot.com

Let's get this party started! Bethany watches as Annie & Natalie act natural. Um, I mean act like drama queens. Oh, that is natural! LOL!

A beautiful bunch of young ladies. We've watched them grow up from little girls to these lovely teens/tweens. And one large mama in the back!

Make a wish! Unlike her mom & sister, Bethany can blow out candles in one breath. We only had 10 candles, but this is the first time EVER she has blown out candles. She will not eat cake if candles have been in it (she says she can taste the wax), so we put them in a different mini-cake and let her blow them out. I'll have to blog about why you should never make mini-angel food cakes another time.

Bethany had us all laughing because she opens presents SO SLOWLY. I told everyone NOW they know why we are always late to co-op!
The sunglasses were on her wish list, so sister Natalie picked those out for her. The hat, well, we have no clue why she had that on. It's JULY in Texas!

Someone mentioned how thin someone was, which made me tell them I was so thin that a dress I wore in 8th grade is nearly too tight for Natalie (age 10, exactly the right weight/height for a 10 year old). We brought in a box of dresses & the fun began. Who knew big girls would still play dress up! They got a kick out of some of the styles! Natalie models this dress my mom (Mammaw) made for me when I was about 13.

I actually wore this dress. She looks stunning, but says it is itchy and the "stays" in the side kept poking her! Later she danced for us in this dress and gave us all a good giggle.
The moment Mom had been waiting for: movie is in, sleeping bags are all laid out, and there is hope that they will be snoozing soon. Believe it or not, only 3 girls were still awake at 2 a.m., and I think they went to bed soon after that.

I hope all the girls had as much fun as I had watching them. No arguments, even between sisters (now THAT is a miracle! ha, ha!). They giggled and danced and crafted and watched Bethany's homemade movies. They even got up and fed themselves in the morning! Maybe having kids get older is a good thing after all!

Our family gathering was later in the day and I will blog about that later.