Wednesday, July 4, 2012

And Then She Turned Sixteen

First, there was a vacation with our grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles and friends up in Ohio. (Post coming up.) Then, there was a week full of old friends, new acquaintances, church, volleyball, singing and sweating at Believers' Youth Camp. (Another post.) Then, there was my birthday, and then, there was a weekend of Special Services at our church.

 Packed. I looked at the schedule...and looked at my birthday...and I didn't think we were going to do much. Sixteen, yeah...but, look at this schedule! I could settle for supper with my grandparents and one or two others. That would be it - but small birthdays can be special birthdays.

We came home from B.Y.C on Saturday, with nothing planned. On Sunday, after church, the family was lazing around the living room and the question came up. "Hey Anna, what do you want to do for your birthday?" We went through the options. There weren't many. But...wait!..    Half an hour later the guests were called, the menu was figured out and we were gonna have a slam-bang-sixteenth-birthday-party.

Wow. I didn't think we could do it.

(Photos taken by Lily and Kara Pyatskowit.)

We got busy; buying a volleyball net and volleyball, shopping for food and (I found out later) gifts, cleaning up the house, tidying the yard, baking chocolate chip cookies (they let me do that part...since it's one of my favorite things to do. Otherwise, unless I pitched in, Mom, Kara, Isaac and Becca were the party-setter-uppers. - Dad was at work. :) There was also lemonade stirring, the setting up of tables and chairs - and a few other things, probably.

The day of the party arrived amidst the hustle and bustle of getting ready...and, in an answer to prayer, the sun was shining. But. It. Was. Very. HOT.

Heat doesn't affect me terribly - I tend to "grin and bear it" when it comes to that - but I found it necessary to suppress worries that my guests would be too hot to play volleyball. It turned out that only one guest wisely decided to play it safe. The rest of us were open for a game. Or two. Or three. :D




Uncle Josh, Me and Kara . :) 


Adam Keller and Dad on the other team. (Betsy Keller played as well, but she's not in the pictures for some reason. Oops.) 

The menu consisted of numerous and rather diverse pizzas from pizza hut, a few kinds of chips, lemonade, water, ice cream sundaes with your choice of hot fudge, cookie dough, chocolate chip cookies, strawberry jam, sprinkles, chopped walnuts, or/and whipped cream on top. :D (Thanks, Mom.) 

Then of course, there were gifts. :D


My Grandma received her first Betty Crocker cookbook when she was sixteen and thought it'd be neat if I did too. :) 


Me and my onlookers. :D



THEY GOT ME A CELL PHONE!!! Thanks Mom and Dad!
After the birthday song and some violin/piano music/singing my phone mysteriously starts wringing. 'Twas so exciting... I picked it up, and it was my Aunt Megan. I was a bit confused - she was just here! Was she lost...or just wanting to be the first one to call...finally she steps out from the kitchen doorway... :P lol:) 

The music part was one of my favorites. I love to sing and play...I didn't see that coming. Mom has a video posted on Facebook, but I'm not sure if my blogger account will allow me to post something so complicated. ;)

After that, one of the guests came with us to the Clintonville City Fireworks. (Which were AWESOME.) 

My family planned one of the best birthday parties that I've had in my whole life...in approximately two days. :D Goes to show that you needn't worry about things. 

Thank you to everybody who contributed to making my party so wonderful. :) 




12 comments:

Bethany d said...

I'm playing piano and Hannah runs up screaming, "it's Anna's birthday tomorrow!" and I'm like *ACK!!! She's turning sixteen!!!!*

Happy happiest of birthdays Anna!

*hugs*

Bethany

P.s. Don't let Kara steal that phone now... :)

Anna said...

Lol:) Thank you, Bethany!

You girls make made my evening brighter. :)

Katherine said...

Happy birthday!!

This was a great post btw!

Amber Eileen said...

Happy late bday! And congratulation on your new phone! I really like the cookbook idea from your grandma! That is so cute!!! =) I have a skirt almost the same as the one you were wearing though mine is pretty snug around my waist so i don't wear it much =/ Hahaha.

Amber~ http://ising4jesus.blogspot.com/

Anna said...

@Katherine: Thanks for the birthday wish AND encouraging words. :) I appreciate it. *hug*

@Amber: Thanks for the comment! It was nice to hear from somebody I know from B.Y.C! I'm following your blog now and am hoping to get to know you better. :)

Anonymous said...

Happy belated birthday:)

Maryann

Anna said...

Thanks for your sweet comment, Maryann. :) It was nice to get to know you better at Believers' Youth Camp! :)

Elisabeth said...

Happy Belated Birthday, Anna. Glad you had a memorable day. That was a short amount of time to prepare but that's where your organizer mom shines. :)

Kara said...

She's definately a good mom. :)

Thank you, Sister Elisabeth. :)

Anna said...

(Oops. That was Anna. :D)

Serenity said...

Hey..Happy Belated Birthday! :b I love the pix of you holding the cookbook. You look really pretty. :)

btw, thanks for the comment on my blog..

Serenity

Anna said...

Dear Serenity,

You're too kind. ;)

You're welcome. :)