Staci's Life: Melissa turns 16!

This is what 16 looks like!

Melissa has been anticipating her 16th birthday for a while now. She was up bright and early to curl her hair before school. We had some yummy Lumberjack pancakes for her birthday breakfast.

Melissa opened a few gifts before she left for school that morning and wouldn't you know it they were all clothes!

Melissa's friends at school really went all out for her this year. They painted the rock for her with a famous line from the sitcom "The Office." They also threw her a surprise party during speech and made a shirt for her to wear around school all day. They wished her "Happy Birthday" over the intercom and she recieved balloons and gifts throughout the day.

That evening we opened up more gifts.

Our two January birthday girls.

After a yummy dinner we had cake. Melissa managed to blow out all of her candles at once. Hope she made a good wish!

She told me later that night that it was the best birthday ever and that she had such great friends. Little did she know that I had been secretly planning a surprise birthday party for her the next night with her best friend, Kelsi. We had been swapping emails for the past couple of weeks and I told Kelsi that if she handed out the invitations and came with some games to play I would provide the food and a place to have the party. I thought for sure that one of Melissa's friends would have slipped up and told her but they managed to keep a tight lip about the party. The night of her party I told her that she needed to stay home from the girl's basketball game and babysit. She threw the biggest fit! It was then that I knew that she had no clue about what was going on. She was so mad at me and was giving me the silent treatment. I just thought it was so funny because I knew that she would later regret her actions. Hannah and I would go into a separate room and laugh at the silent treatment she was giving me. Before we left for the supposed "work party" at the office she came into the living room and with tears in her eyes and gritted teeth she said that she was so mad and why didn't Zach have to stay home and babysit. Alan and I just smiled at her and left while Zachary and Melissa fought about who was a better person. (Zach knew nothing about the party.) I felt bad for Zach but I didn't have time to referee their fight. We met a couple of Melissa's friends at the office and decorated it together. We had a ton of food and treats that we could have probably feed twice as many kids. ( A lot of her friends involved in basketball couldn't come). Melissa kept texting Tom Crozier at the party and saying that she had to stay home to babysit and she was so mad. He texted her back and said he had to stay home too. Alan later called her and told her that we forgot a liter of pop in the refrigerator and asked if she would bring it to the office for him. When she arrived she was told to park in the front because they were resurfacing the parking lot but she peeked around anyway and there are just some cars that are as big as boats and everyone knows who it belongs to that she saw parked there and it was then she began to wonder. She entered the office and I could see her peering through the door into the conference room. She came around to the other end and saw me first and kept saying over and over, "no way." She of course felt bad about her behavior and apologized over and over again. We were quick to forgive but Zach wasn't as willing. She had such a good time with her friends, eating, playing games and watching "The Lion King." Alan and I sat in an office and watched movies until midnight. We heard them frequently laugh, clap and sing. They are such a great group of kids and it took very little to entertain them. Melissa was VERY surprised and I was glad to be able to do it for her because she is a great kid and I know how important turning 16 is to a girl. Now boys on the other hand could care less.