"Sixteen Going on Seventeen", with a "Few of Her Favorite Things"!

Sixteen is a pretty special thing to turn.  And since it's the first time Ella's ever been in school still for her birthday, her dream of a Big Beach Outing with her whole friend group will have to wait till summer has kicked into full gear in a month or so.  Conveniently, this big birthday did fall on Memorial Day, so we had a built in long weekend to celebrate the amazing gal God gave us when he created Ella!  One of my favorite things about my 16 year old is her vast array of interests!  I did not have to think too hard to come up with a list of things that would make her happy on this milestone birthday...

  

1.  Trying a new recipe together.  Ella had ratatouille at the Lamp Light Lounge in Disneyland the last time we visited and has been raving about it ever since.  I found the recipe on a Disney blog and we enjoyed putting this fancy dish together and eating our delicious efforts!

2.  Homemade cheesecake and strawberries.  Gone are the days of elaborate cake decorating!  Give this girl a cheesecake and she is in heaven!

3.  All the perfect teenager gifts!  Black Converse, ear pods, gift certificates for date nights with her boyfriend, movie tickets, and a sushi making kit were all opened and loved!  Thank you, everyone!

4.  A day in the city, where we could do the best versions of things she loves.  Like, a beach with an amazing view.

5.  LEGIT Chinese food at Sam Wo's, who's been frying up homemade chow mien noodles for San Franciscans since before the 1908 earthquake.  

6.  Escaping to a whole new world for an afternoon.  A walk around the blocks of Chinatown transported to us the most colorful, beautiful, amazing new culture.  We ate, strolled and shopped-- Delia getting (literally) lost in the panda bear displays and Ella picking out a fancy set of chop sticks.

  

We even stumbled on this super cool Stop Asian Hate Demonstration, designed to shine a light on the beauty of this culture and the recent discrimination and violence the AAPI community has felt.

7.  Art, acting and photography at the Museum of Illusions, as described in its own 20 picture long post! ;)

8.  And last, two of Ella's all-time favorite things-- dark chocolate and salted caramel, as only the world famous Ghirardelli can do it!  Birthday sundaes concluded our day in the city and our long weekend of celebrating the blessing of Ella in our lives!

It's All an Illusion

Uncle Kyle gave the girls a pretty cool Christmas present last year-- tickets for our family to visit the Museum of Illusions in San Francisco.  For Ella's 16th birthday, we spent a fantastic day in the city trying to treat her to some of the best versions of some of her favorite things.  This stop, which combines art, acting and photography for some creative fun, was a perfect addition to our day!  The walls, floors and ceilings of the Museum of Illusions are painted with a wide variety of murals.  When you find the perfect spot to stand and the perfect angle to take a picture from, you get some very neat optical illusions.  Here are just a few (if you can call 20 "a few"!) of our favorite pictures!  Thanks for the unique experience, Uncle Kyle!!

Come One, Come All!

Every year our church girls group goes away to camp for a weekend.  It is exhausting and amazing and always something our girls (and counselors!) look forward to.  Well, this year, all camps in our state are closed, so we had to really think outside the box to figure out how to give our girls a camp experience without actually going anywhere.  Each of the local churches takes a turn planning and leading Camp, and guess what?  This year happened to be our church's turn!  Erin and I started brainstorming and Facetiming about this a whole year ago, and yesterday we enjoyed the fruits of a year of planning in what was possibly the most fun day ever!

 

We had a circus theme and transformed our church parking lot into a red and white striped big top tent.  We had clown noses and magician hats as favors.  We decorated a stage with huge circus animals.  We had a dance party to Greatest Showman songs.  And our speakers and Bible study materials looked at different people in the Bible who took a bold stand for their faith (Esther, Daniel, Paul, and Peter), and dared the girls to be a Jesus Freak.   I wrote the material and thought it over went great!

Instead of being responsible for a cabin of girls, I had a car of them!  We were a traveling group all day, meeting up with other groups at churches and parks all over the area to do different activities. 

We decorated clowns and tied up macramé.

Different churches hosted our meals and we had LOTS of special treats-- like shaved ice from the Kona truck!

We knew missing the ropes course and giant swing at Camp would be a great loss, so we worked hard to give the girls a really spectacular substitute!  A rock wall, mechanical bull, and Sumo wrestling ring were amazing and sooooo fun! I am SORE today!  I don't know if it's from being thrown from the bull over and over, being knocked down in the Sumo ring, or just laughing so hard!

Erin and I had a blast fighting each other!

After a challenging hour in the amazing circus-themed Escape Room someone from our church designed for all our groups, we had yet another special treat-- cotton candy!

As the sun set, we watched the annual Talent Show.  Delia and her friends did a short, silly skit about an invisible bench.

The 8th graders traditionally wow everyone at the Talent Show with a special dance they've choreographed together.  My group danced to "This is Me" and they not only had a ball putting the dance together, but also really entertained the crowd!

 There were times of worship too.  Delia and Cora were the worship leaders and they were a blessing! Between Mom Prom on Monday and this 14 hour day of "Camp" yesterday, this week was insanely busy, but SO rewarding!  I am officially retired from this ministry now and I could not have asked for a better way to go out.  It's bittersweet, but such is life.  Ms. Jen, the GEMS counselor, signing off. :)

Mom Prom

For the past 5 years, I've been leading a girls' Bible study for Delia's class of girls every other Monday night.  The planning and attending have been a major part of our lives since 2016.  Our church has a few traditions with this girls' group.  One is when you are a leader, you start with a group of 4th grade girls and you stick with them, moving up as they do, until they are in 8th grade.  I LOVE this because it has allowed me to form deep, dear relationships with girls I've now taught for 5 years straight.  Another tradition is that when those girls are in 8th grade, and about to graduate out of the ministry, they work together to host a big mother/daughter event for all the other girls.  It has a theme.  It has food.  It has a program.  It has decorations and invitations.  It has the infamous 8th grade Fashion Show as its grand finale.   And this year it had a few new rules to keep us safe from Covid.  My girls decided they wanted a mother/daughter night that was formal, so we came up with this super fun Mom Prom idea!

We had some fun in the photo booth recreating cheesy prom poses!

One of my favorite people-- our coordinator, Erin.  Through these years with this ministry she has become one of my closest friends.

My dear, sweet class.

So, here are some fun details.  The color scheme (black, pink, white and gold) was my girls' idea.  The food was all our 8th graders' moms' favorite treats (chips and salsa, s'mores bars, strawberries, cheesecake, veggies and dip, boeterkoek, and homemade cookies).   One of my girls had the idea to somehow feature borrowed prom dresses from different decades, so we made a "Guess the Dress" game, and had a vintage prom dress be one of the looks the 8th graders modeled in the fashion show-- complete with a picture of the dresses' original wearer on the screen behind them!  I had tons of fun collecting dresses from the 70's, 80's, 90's, and 2000's!  And it was special to feature amazing old photos of church lady friends of all ages in their high school prom dresses!

My girls had filled out a questionnaire for me, so as they walked the runway I could talk about things like their favorite memories of this ministry, they favorite Bible verse, what they're thankful to their moms for, and where they hope they'll be in the future.  Since I was the emcee, someone snapped these pics of Delia modeling.  The first look is the 8th graders' graduation dress (for Delia and her classmates, it's their chapel dress).

Second look is Delia in my old prom dress.  How cute is this?!

Third look is always Mom's wedding dress!

This was a lovely night!  Erin surprised me when she ended the night by playing the video slideshow of this year...with special pre-recorded thank you messages from each of my sweet girls!  I know I am biased, but I do think I had the BEST class and it was always my pleasure, delight, and absolute blessing to stay with them for 5 whole years!