FOURTEEN ALREADY

I am not sure how it happened, but #3 turned 14 on Saturday.

She was not interested in having a party, thank goodness, so we kept it low key and just made it her day.

Her dad started off "her day" by making homemade waffles. That's what she wanted and he was happy to oblige. He always makes pancakes or waffles when it is a special day or if someone is sleeping over.

For lunch we went to Sparians. It is a new bowling alley in a newer swanky area in town. It was awesome. I cannot even begin to describe the place and do it justice so check out the link. We had a long wait for an alley so we sat around the fireplace, watched one of the many big screen TVs and ate dill pickle chips.

I actually had fun bowling - even with The Man of the House!! Long story short... we went bowling on our third date - he corrected me and coached me everytime I picked up the ball and everytime I rolled the darn thing. I was really close to telling him to drop dead when he took me home, but didn't for some reason. I did tell him several dates later that I would never ever bowl with him again.

Over twenty four years later, I guess I ate my words on Saturday. (never say never, right?) He was (mostly) well behaved. He did start out wanting do give advice and tell everyone what they were doing wrong until we all cut our eyes at him and then he got the message and piped down.

Afterwards, we went to eat sushi at Mura, #3's favorite restaurant. It is one of our regular places and we never leave disappointed.

Once home, there were presents to open, cupcakes to eat and a game of Monopoly to play. I do not like Monopoly, it feels like torture to me and this game was. I think it went on for three hours.

Aren't these cupcakes wonderful looking? They are from here. It also is new.

There was a lot of discussion about which two cupcakes we were going to eat. We were all so full from dinner there was no way we could all have our own and so we decided to share two.

She fittingly chose the "Princess Cupcake"!!

We have three versions of Monopoly in the game closet, at least she chose the one with pretty colors!!

Guess who else doesn't love Monopoly and spent the last hour of the game coming up with different ways she could wear her scarf...

and guess who got hot rollers for her birthday!!

BEAUTIFUL!!!

Fast forward four days later:

#3 spent the afternoon getting braces put on. She is upstairs right now sitting in the dark, watching a movie and trying to eat a little something. She thinks she is sore now, but I know tomorrow will be even worse. She has a long haul in front of her.... two years and at least three surgical procedures. I am amazed at the things they do now and they involve screws, chains, drills and jawbones. She is walking around with the equivalent of an automobile in her mouth right now! I just hope they are very liberal with prescriptions for pain killers, I am going to need a lot!!!