All of our children are now teens or adults! Nora turned 13 in the end of April and we basically celebrated for a week! On her actual birthday we had banana cream pie for dessert, and since I'm writing this up in June, I can't remember what we ate for dinner and I didn't take a picture of it (that's the only reason I remembered we had banana cream pie). But I'm sure it was good! Her good friend Megan dropped by with a cookie cake which was super sweet (pun intended).
During the week of her birthday we went out to lunch and she chose Chuckarama which is a buffet. She wanted to go on a school day so I would check her out early. I get off work by around 1-130pm depending on the day, and I always have Fridays off, so we worked out a time (I can't remember what day we went either! But I'm sure it was either a Friday or another weekday around 1 :); I guess I need to write these posts up earlier).
The day before her birthday, on Saturday the 27th, as soon as her soccer game was over and she got showered, we went to get her nails done. This was in lieu of a birthday party.
But then a week before her birthday she also asked if she could have a few friends sleep over that weekend for her birthday, but it wasn't a party, 'but could we go to hobby lobby and could you get me a white sweatshirt and some yarn and fabric materials so we can make these hoodies'. So it was kind of a party still. But way less stress since it was last minute, and very inexpensive. These girls all got their own plain white sweatshirts and we learned how to make these sweatshirts that are apparently trending on social media because the employee at hobby lobby who helped us get the yarn and fabric said she'd helped a ton of people get material for these lately. They turned out very cute. Happy birthday to our sweet Nora! She loves people and being with people! She also loves and appreciates the beauty of the outdoors which makes my heart happy.
We try to get to the temple each week, rotating what ordinance we do each time. There was a time in life when temple attendance felt more like a thing to cross off my to-do list, but I've found that the more often I go, and the more ordinances I do, the more I love it and want to be there more often.
Oh and last but not least, my dear friend and old BYU roomie April just got accepted into the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square! She got us tickets to her performance of "Redeemer" which was the final performance of her choir school before officially being a member of the choir. It was beautiful! It's a lot like the Messiah, but has lots of Book of Mormon scriptures in it. I'm so proud of April! She has an amazing voice and I'm happy she gets to use it to sing praises to our Savior on a regular basis! I look forward to finding her cute face in the choir over general conference weekend.
