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September Writing Challenge - Prompt #4:

Birthday

As of today, I have my first 16 year old daughter! Happy Birthday, Daisy!

This, of course, brings up the question of when she will get her drivers license. Her driving test is scheduled for the 23rd, but we need to reschedule. Hopefully she passes on the first try, but I've told her that it's okay if she doesn't because I didn't pass my first time (I was going to go through a yellow light, and my instructor slammed on the brake, which is an automatic fail, so I have to be merciful with my own kids while secretly praying, "Please pass the first time so we don't have to do this again!") (when I took driver's ed, we did our tests with our instructors during school, but now they have to schedule their tests at the DLD). 

Historically, in the Mormon culture, one would also inquire about Daisy's first date, but things have changed, and age 16 is no longer the standard "first date" age (it's now just a recommendation). So Daisy won't be turning 16 and going on her first date. I consider her "first date" Homecoming of last year, which just so happened to take place on her 15th birthday! And since kids don't really date anymore, who knows if she'll ever go on another date before the age of 25.

(She won't be going to Homecoming this year because we will be out of town, and when given the choice, she decided to come with us). 

Daisy has had quite the celebration for her birthday. Our district had the day after Labor Day off school (weird, right?), so we used that as an opportunity to do a birthday outing with Daisy and her friends. We toyed around with several ideas and then decided to do a lake day. We took 12 teenage girls to the lake, and they had a lot of fun. 

The following Sunday, we had a family party for Daisy at our house. It was a week before her birthday because Scotty wanted to go backpacking the weekend of her birthday, and I didn't want him to have to try and rush home for Daisy's birthday party. Chances are, he could make it home in time with no problem, but since he would be out of cell phone range and I didn't want him to rush if safety became an issue, I decided we would just have Daisy's party a week early (then Scotty didn’t end up going). 

Finally, after lots of pre-celebrating, today is Daisy’s actual birthday! One of our birthday traditions is that our kids get to pick what they want for their birthday dinner. It’s rare that a birthday dinner takes place on their birthday, though (we usually have to do it on a different day). Our calendar worked out so that we could have Daisy’s dinner on her birthday. She wanted Papa Murphy’s pizza, so we bought some pizzas on Saturday and smoked them on the Traeger after church. 

If you do the math, this girl has essentially had three birthday parties!  Good thing she’s with celebrating!