18 candles.

Sometimes I wonder if Sierra will ever slow down when it comes to attending activities, and spending time with her friends. I honestly don't think she'll slow down the 'spending time with friends' part because she loves them too much to not find the time to spend with them.

Saturday was her 18th birthday, and as much as I wanted to have her all to myself, and take her to the city to see a Broadway show, or out to eat at her favorite restaurant she had too many requests with 'friend time' and this year we had to share our daughter. 

So on Saturday morning we let the birthday girl sleep in until about 10am while Jon made her favorite breakfast...french toast, and we all ate breakfast together. 

We did manage to squeeze in a bit of shopping time (thanks to gift cards) during the day for a couple of hours before she had to run off to her choir retreat at 4pm. We didn't make her a birthday dinner or do her cake that evening, because I let her spend it with these girlie's.

picture by emily c.

What can I say...I'm a cool mom who has allowed her to do more things this year than I ever did her first three years of high school. I blame it on Jersey, and the fact that I have realized that I can't coddle her forever. One thing for sure is that I'll always be a parent first.

She did however come home exhausted from having way too much fun with her girlie's, and because we had these meat loaf cupcakes for dinner she wanted to eat one along with some leftover homemade mashed potatoes. See...that's what happens when you go out with your friends. You miss out on a good dinner at home! 

*****

Sunday morning began with attending an amazing session of stake conference, and I am glad that it was only for two hours because we wanted to have enough time to celebrate a be-lated birthday dinner for her, and do her cake before she headed out to church again at 6pm for a fireside. 

Time flies when you're having fun, and realized it was a quarter to six. We were like, "crap we need to sing 'happy birthday' to her, and hustle up so that Sierra can get to church." That's what happens when you have three girls at the dinner table, and all they do is yap, yap, yap. Gotta love those family dinners. 

We joyfully, (and me with my odd sounding singing voice) sang "happy birthday" to her, and she managed to blow out all of her 18 candles in hopes that whatever she wished for will come true. 

Sierra came home from the fireside filled with elation. I can tell that this girl really listens at a fireside because she always comes home giving me a thorough, detailed description of how it went, who was there, who spoke, and what it was based on. 

She also had the privilege of listening to President Vai Sikahema give a talk. She especially got stoked when he referred to Sierra in his talk. What a guy! 

It sure was a great weekend celebrating Sierra's 18th birthday, and even though we didn't go to this city to celebrate her birthday, or spend the day in New York as we would in the previous years, what's more important is surrounding herself on her special day with goodness, and genuine love. 

I honestly believe that she received all of that, and more on her 18th birthday.