Arty Party

I got a little ahead of myself with those valentine posts.  I kinda sorta forgot to finish this birthday post.  Feeling scatterbrained much?

My baby turned 14.  But she's not growing up too fast, even though that's what I'm supposed to say.  Nor is she growing up too slowly (at least in my mind).  She seems just the right age.  Although I definitely do not feel old enough to have a 14-year-old.

But here I am, nonetheless.

We needed something simple this year, something easy to throw together.  No movie making.  No movie editing.  No photo shoots.  No movie star poster making.  I loved K's party last year.  More photos are here.  And the final post here.  But this year my party planning abilities had to be split between this birthday and a big young women's event, so we needed easy.

It's hard to get easier than art, so art we did.  We were going to do watercolor, but switched last minute to oil pastels.

Of course we drew on the walls.

These girls have some great artistic talent.

As does this guy, even though he protests that little fact.  He taught a mini lesson and produced this in 10 minutes flat.

Someday I am going to make him do some art for our walls.  Like it or not.

K was brave and drew a face.  I admire that.  All my faces come out looking like generic stick figure smiley faces.

Naturally, we played the taste the rainbow guessing game with skittles.  I think all of my children would agree to absolutely any party theme if only we played this game.  I do not understand why they love skittles as much as they do.

The cake turned out completely differently than anything I was expecting.  I guess that's what happens when you jump in with no vision.  And when you delegate the coloring of the frosting without giving color suggestions.  And when you sit down to decorate the cake and just stare at it blankly for 20 minutes before you begin putting random little swirly things all over.  When I was finished putting little swirls all over, I put some not-so-straight lines around the sides.  And then I added some more swirly things for good measure.

This is what I was left with.  It reminded me too much of B's first birthday cake (see here and here), so I decided I better make it a little more artistic.

So I smashed the little swirly things that I had just finished making.  I'm not sure it helped it look all that more artistic.  Just more smashed.  Which, again, reminded me too much of B's cake.

So then I painted on some food coloring here and there to make it look grungy . . . and therefore more artistic.  At which point I realized that nothing I was doing was making very much of a difference, so I better just leave it be.  So I did.  Voila!  Finished birthday cake.

I don't know what she wished for, but I hope it comes true.  At least, I think I do . . .

K was a little melancholy before her party.  She was really missing her posse of friends from California.  But I'm hopeful that she will continue to get to know these girls and build friendships with them.  They're a great group with tons of personality.

And because I don't already have enough going on and needed another thing to remember to do, I decided to start a new tradition with birthdays this year.  I want to list what I love about my family members, according to how old they are.

So, here are 14 things I love about K.

1)  The way she laughs when her little sisters do something she finds funny.

2)  Her craftiness.

3)  Her quick wit.

4)  The effort she puts into her studies and how responsible she is with her assignments.

5)  How she pets Ruger when he lays all over her because he adores her.

6)  The way she finds her dad totally hilarious.

7)  How she is not afraid to learn new things.

8)  Her budding culinary talents (seriously, I LOVE, LOVE them).

9)  The way her mind catches on to things so quickly.

10)  How she can enrapture her younger siblings by leading them in imaginative play.

11)  The way J looks up to her.

12)  Her strength of character.

13)  How she likes to spill all the details of her day, even when we're trying to do seven things and 

        listen to her all at the same time.

14)  Those hazel eyes and big, bright smile.

I'm looking forward to getting to know the dynamo this girl is becoming.  

How grateful I am that I can call her mine.  How grateful I am that I get to be her mom.

Happy Birthday, baby.