Grace is 15

She's had a birthday, shout hurray!  Grace's birthday fell -- yet again -- the day after Halloween this year.  Hahaha.  I don't know why it always catches me off guard (even though I know it's coming), but it does.

This year her birthday was on a Friday, which is the perfect day to have a birthday day, in my opinion.  Since we like to drag things out around these parts, Grace requested that we have her birthday dinner (at Panera, as per usual) on Friday and her cake and presents on Saturday.  As an added bonus, Sophie chalked the sidewalk for her when she got home from school Friday afternoon and I had an early gift waiting for her on the counter.

I have to say -- Friday was one of the most delightful evenings we've had in a while!  With Ethan always either at work or doing homework, it seems as though we don't have as many of these full family evenings together as I would like.  Once Scott was home from work, we skedaddled on over to Panera (where everyone was miraculously well-behaved) and then skedaddled on home for a low-key movie night with the fam.

Saturday was slightly more aggravating as we were trying to juggle multiple things while also prepping for Grace's "party," but we managed to pull it together and squeeze it in between 3 and 6 PM while Ethan was home in between shifts at work.  Grace seemed pleased with her cake (even if I wasn't so pleased that the execution didn't match up to my vision) and she was good-naturedly humored by everyone's gifts that were grabbed very last minute at Target.  Haha.

 {Grace is obsessed with Grey's Anatomy, so obviously that had to be the theme for the cake.  And since it's just an obvious play on words, I had to change it to "Grace Anatomy" for the writing.  There's also a silhouette of the Seattle skyline in the background, but I don't know how well that shows up, and the "y" at the end of Anatomy is supposed to be a stethoscope.  I tried people.  I tried.}

And just like that, she's 15!  To close, I'll list 15 things I love about Grace (even though I know she'll hate it because Words of Affirmation are not her thing):

1. She has a fantastic sense of humor
2. She has mad skills at tricking people into doing things for her
3. She makes me laugh
4. Talking with her is always interesting
5. She's very creative
6. She's great with kids
7. She keeps me on my toes
8. She doesn't care what anyone thinks about her
9. She marches to the beat of her own drum
10. She's relentless in pursuing the things that matter to her
11. SHE may not like Words of Affirmation, but she knows that I do and she humors me with them on special occasions
12. What you see is what you get with her
13. She's not sneaky
14. She has a knack for decorating
15. She's a lot of fun