Kendall's 15h Birthday "Party"

Poor Kendall. Her birthday is December 3rd and it's so hard to coordinate a date for her celebrations with friends. Everyone is busy with Christmas parties, decorating, baking, school plays, church programs, helping mom prepare for family coming in, shopping, breaking out the sweaters that grandma bought last year that hasn't been worn but must be adorned when she comes to visit.

The days of arranged parties complete with themed cakes and matching decorations are long gone. Now all Kendall wants is for her friends to come over and "hang out" - preferably in the basement - with loud music - with lots of food - with parents far from site. The lots of food part can be arranged. The loud music we can tolerate. The parents being far from site is not going to happen. We happily stay out of the way and let her "hang" with her friends, but we are present and we check up on everyone periodically.

Unfortunately, Kendall's invite list of 8 ended up with an attendee list of 2. Everyone already had obligations with family and we thought a party of 3 might leave much to be desired. So, we offered to take the kids out for pizza and to a movie of their choice (so long as it was rated PG or PG13 - no R allowed). Kendall thought that was a great idea, so her two friends came over to the house and we took them to Pizza Hut and sat across the restaurant from them so that they could speak freely and not feel like we were cramping their style. Then, we took them to see, "Old Dogs" (hilarious, by the way) and sat across the theater from them. They all had a great time and I think Kendall just appreciated the fact that she has made so many wonderful friends here in Colorado, even if they weren't all able to make it to her party. She's used to it, having a birthday in December.....maybe next year her birthday will be in September.

Opening gifts before we left the house

Kendall is so easily pleased. Bless her heart!