I had an amazing Sweet Sixteen Birthday with my family and friends!
He said
This was a very big week for Emelia that has been on her radar for some time: her birthday, the big, Sweet Sixteen. There are a lot of things wrapped up in that, but the biggest for her is getting her G1 driver’s license. There was also another thing that that she had been on us for about the last three years: getting a bellybutton piercing! It was definitely not something we were keen on for a 13 year old for sure, but now with a sixteen year old who is a very good kid, it was hard to come up with good reasons why she couldn’t. Especially when you consider by her age, I had more piercings. So, we finally relented.
Wednesday was the day we finally opted to go get the piercing done. Luckily the place that she has gone for the last couple of earrings had opened up a location in the mall I work at. With me having to work till 8pm that night, Danielle & Emelia were able to get her piercing done and then come show me at work. It all went off without a hitch and it looks pretty cool. The funniest thing was the photo Danielle sent me of Anna’s face who came along to watch, and is clearly – judging by the picture – no time soon getting the same thing done.
We did have a bit of a smaller birthday celebration last weekend with Emelia’s Cheer friends at her Comp, but the more official celebrations were for this week. We always like to do a very small gathering on her actual official birthday (which was Thursday) with just Danielle, Emelia and I. But for many years her best friends, the twins, have also been a big part of her day as they have for pretty much everything else in their lives since junior kindergarten when they met. We had them over for dinner (one of Emelia’s favourite dishes, shepherds pie) and some cake.
The big item on the agenda was Emelia’s official birthday with all her friends last night. They decided on having a night of pub grub and bowling at Palasad Social Bowl on their own and then coming back to the house for cake and karaoke. The bummer is that two of Emelia’s friends are just beginning exams so they couldn’t make it for the night. And Emelia’s other friend, in competitive volleyball and was in a tournament this weekend. But, still there were five girls plus Emelia all dropped off to have their fun with our credit for a couple hours. And by all counts they had a blast. When they got back to the house we were relegated to our bedroom while the girls took over the main level for karaoke and cake. And one of Emelia’s friends is a drama kid, so there was some pretty remarkable singing! We were so happy to see her have such a great birthday!!
She said
First let’s start that I cannot believe our baby is already 16! They say that it goes fast and man they aren’t wrong. It honestly feels like yesterday we were celebrating her 1st birthday and now we have a 16 year old. This week was one for the books with so much going on. We had just recovered from a very busy weekend at competition to jump right into this week. Emelia’s school schedule over the last few weeks has been so busy and with term ending assessments every night seemed to be packed. For this reason we all decided that studying for her G1 test would be better to be put on the backburner.
With that behind us we moved fully into birthday planning mode. The first big event for Emelia this week was her birthday present from us. About 3 years ago Emelia started begging to get her bellybutton pierced. We said no then and for the next few years. This year with her turning 16 we decided that not only was she ready to have say what happened to her own body that way but that she was more than mature enough to handle the care and responsibility to get it done. As soon as she knew we had given her the green light she was laser focused on getting it done at the ‘perfect time’, basically as far spaced out between cheer practices. Wednesday night she, Anna and I made our way to the piercing shop and she got it done. She once again like always handled it like a trooper, no tears and not a single mention that it was at all painful. Man that kid is a tough cookie! I have to admit it looks amazing and she is so happy.
After she was done and she wrapped up her last big year end project she and I could take a few minutes to work a bit more on the planning of her birthday party with friends this weekend. Emelia as always had a vision in mind of what she wanted, how she was going to decorate and what she wanted to do with her friends. After a few adjustments we landed on going to the Palasad Social Bowl for dinner and games. The girls had an absolute blast. When John and I went at the end of the night to pick them up they were all laughing and had even made ‘friends’ with the table of boys beside them. All in all the night was a huge hit. The group of 6 girls all made it back to our place after for cake, presents and hours upon hours of karoke singing. The party went well past midnight and for Emelia wrapped up this morning when her one friend Neeka left this morning after staying the night.
We want to thank Anna, Grace, Brooke, Alexis and Neeka for making last night so special for Emelia. And thank you to the countless friends and family who took time this week to wish our girl a happy sweet 16. Emelia we are beyond proud of the amazing person you are becoming, you give with your whole heart and no matter what never give up on your dreams. We love you to the moon and back boo-bear. Hope you had the best sweet 16!