Rachel turns 13!!

Are we old enough to have an official teenager? It doesn't seem like it but it's true. She turned 13 Tuesday. We kept the whole affair fairly low-key, as we've been doing for all birthdays this year. On Monday I surprised her by checking her out of school and taking her for lunch at Panda Express. (She thought I'd be coming on Tuesday.) Then we did a little shopping for her birthday present. She really wanted her own softball bat for this summer season so I took her to go choose the one she wanted. She picked a nice one and hopefully she likes it even more when games start in a few weeks.

Tuesday morning we sang to her. Tuesday evening we had steak, her dinner request. After dinner Jason took Rachel, Jaron and Sarah to Horizon for Rachel to be in the Junior Honor Society program. They had to be there at 6 and got done at 7:15. I left with the rest of the kids at 6:25 and dropped Nathan at Ponderosa. Then I took Anna to gymnastics which started at 6:45. Then Darik, Caleb and I headed back to Ponderosa to watch Nathan's 4th and 5th grade program. Jason picked up Anna at 7:45 and we finished up at Ponderosa about 7:55. Then it was home for ice cream and cake. (As a side note, the program was put on at the school for the rest of the student body so Anna and Jaron had already seen Nathan perform and Jason had attended that.)

Tuesday morning before school.

Receiving her certificate.

Cake and celebrating after all the activities.


Here she looks a lot like me with my classic "deer-in-headlights" look.