We Must Be Having Fun....

I can not wrap my mind around the fact that L is one year away from DOUBLE DIGITS, and half-way to 18.

These two facts are hard to swallow.  It makes me hurt a little.

OK.

A lot.

But, I love who this girl is, and who she has always been.

She makes me smile.

She makes me laugh.

She makes me shake my head in frustration.

She makes my heart leap.

She makes my heart ache.

She made me "mom".

Oh, what a gift I received on HER birthday. 

And, so, this weekend, we celebrated. 

She had decided to have some friends over for her birthday.  For the second year in a row she requested that her friends and family not get her gifts, but rather give to the "Backpack Program" at school which helps provide food to the kids, who over the weekends (while away from school) might otherwise not have a meal.

She makes my heart swell.

She makes me proud.



L had wanted to originally have a camp out with a weanie roast, but I knew that in April the odds were it would be too cold, or too wet, to camp, so we came up with a alternate plan.

Luckily, the alternative plan involved smores, and sitting inside the shop while Daddy roasted hot dogs out in the drizzling rain.

 Of course, she also got to camp.  Just not "out".

She camped "in".

The next morning I took her and her friends to a cute little place where they were able to pick out, and paint, their own pottery.

The girls took their decorating very seriously.

Honestly, there were a few times that I was pretty sure that L's "free for all" approach to pottery painting was going to end up being a visual mess.  Of course, I am a 'by the books' kind of girl.  Everything has to have a rhyme and reason. 

L makes her own rhyme and reason and admitted that she was pretty sure that it was going to be a mess, too. 

But she was having fun.

She makes me want to have more fun.

However, towards the end, it all started to "come together".  (Her words.  And mine.)

And I can not take the credit.  My only job was fill in the small areas that she designated.

The "creative genius"?  That was all her.

As I visited with Brooke's mom we decided that the difference in pottery/artwork was a testament to the difference in the girls, and each one's personality.

And although I initially had my doubts about L's artwork, I have none whatsoever, about L.

Or her personality.