Rose is 13. Yippee! She did not have 13 parties this year, but she did have 4.

Early birthday with Grammy and Grandpa Joe

We visited John's parents a month ago, but that's not too early to celebrate. Grammy made Rose a chocolate cake with peppermint frosting, and she got to open lots of Rubik's cubes in amazing shapes.

Teen Girls Celebrate

Most of Rose's friends could not come to her official birthday party, so two of them took her on the town Tuesday. The initial set up was extremely stressful to Rose which she coped with by being mad at me. It took me a bit to figure out what was going on. Last summer we gave her permission to go anywhere on the bus herself, and this would be her first time doing it. We also had to get her teen tix, a Seattle free be program that lets teen pay 5.00 for many cool museums and theater productions.

All went wonderfully. I had actually done the walk from the bus stop to the down town venues she wanted to hit, so I could swear to her it was easy. They rode the bus, went to the EMP, ate lunch at the Armory, and went to the Science Center. I think there was fudge and cotton candy in there somewhere as well.

Family Dinner

On Rose's actual birthday, we had the gang over for dinner. John made exquisite raspberry sauce and hot fudge sauce, which we've spent all week enjoying.

Rose's birthday party

Since only two of her friends could actually come to her games playing party, Rose asked me to invite a bunch of my friends. We played Arabian Nights, Escape, Flux, Yahtzee, Seven Wonders, Boggle, Snake Oil, Dix It, and Skip Bo. Then we ordered gluten free Chinese food and more ice cream with lovely sauces. All my friends went home, and it turned into a slumber party. The kids said they were asleep by 11:30. This morning John made cinnamon rolls. It was one of the easiest birthdays we've ever thrown, and I think a success.