Shiloh Turned 13, & We Lived Through It!

Shiloh turned 13 on Friday! Thank goodness this birthday is finally past--she has been driving us all bananas talking about it nonstop for the past two months. She already thought she was the Queen of Sheba before; just recently she moaned "I've been waiting my whole life to be a teenager!" with all the suffering of Scarlett O'Hara. Now she seems to have graduated to Queen of the World. And how did she wake up on her first morning as a teenager? Surly, of course. Something about loading up on sugary snacks & staying up late put her in an appropriately foul teenage mood, giving us a taste of things to come. :)

Shiloh had a laser tag party followed by a sleepover. We spent all Saturday morning & afternoon feverishly cleaning house--getting kids to spend a day cleaning is no fun, but the exciting news is, THE MOTORCYCLE IS OUT OF THE LIVING ROOM!!! HOORAY!!! All the car parts, cleaning solvents, oil buckets, hand cleaner, polishing rags, tools, etc etc have been moved back to their home in the garage. We can eat at the kitchen table, & sit on the couch again. Hooray!!!

On the way to the party, I ran by the grocery store thinking i'd dash in to pick up a few snacks & the cake on the way to the party. Unfortunately I forgot that it was SUPERBOWL WEEKEND, & there were TEN MILLION people crammed into the Walmart. It was worse than Christmas, & we were already running late. I've never thought of myself as a football player before--but Peyton Manning would have been proud of the kind of hustle & moves I had racing through Walmart yesterday. Weaving the cart through crowds of slow-moving people, grabbing things & tossing them in the cart without even slowing down; surging forward to thread the needle through an opening, zigzag left & then right through produce, recover from a push-out, & pick up again at the line of scrimmage. If either team can muster that kind of hustle tonite, they'll definitely win the game.

The party turned out to be a huge hit, with EVERY single person we invited showing up--it was standing room only at LaserQuest. No piece of pizza or cake was left uneaten. Then, seven 12-14 year old girls then came back to the house for the slumber party. In our little house, that equates to one female for every 137 square feet!!! I thought Alan was going to have a meltdown from all the estrogen. The girls stayed up until around 4:30 AM dancing around in their pajamas, eating junkfood, painting each other's toenails, & all the things girls that age do. A good time was had by all, & after breakfast the next morning they went home. Alan & I spent the rest of the day recovering, & high-fiving each other--we did it! Got thru the birthday, got thru the party, even got the house cleaned up. Now, we just need to get thru the next 5-7 years. It gets easier after this, right? :)