February Fun

This is a very late post now that it's the end of March. I'm still going back to revisit February however, since it was so much fun. It was full of a baptism birthday, multiple 13th birthday celebrations, Chinese New Year, basketball tournament in Ft Worth, Valentine's Day, school days, and sewing days. 

First up - baptism birthday. In retrospect I wish I would have started more meaningful traditions to mark my children's baptismal birthdays but I sort of dropped the ball on that one. So Zanna took matters into her own hands and declared that we were going to take her out to Golden Chick for lunch. Because nothing says baptism birthday like eating fried chicken;)

We also attended a chili supper at the local fireman's hall. It was pretty impressive as I had never seen so much chili in one place. They had giant vats of the stuff that people manned and stirred. It was good too! Especially when eaten with Fritos. 

We celebrated Chinese New Year which was a little tricky this year not having a local Chinese grocery store to shop at - or better yet, go out to Mandarin for lunch! But I had a stock pile of ingredients in my pantry and freezer and came up with my own version of authentic (boy, does that sound like the times we live in). 

Then there was the Quilter's Mystery Weekend that Zanna was a part of too. The sewing group at our church worked on quilts for the Comforter Ministry. The design on several of them are "Texas windmills" and they are gorgeous! 

Wayne and I also had a trip to Houston tucked in there somewhere. I don't have any pictures from it but the purpose was to attend the Grow Conference at Abiding Word. It was fun to go together and spiritually uplifting too! Zanna had a great time staying with friends from church. 

Then it was Zanna's birthday. Her thirteenth birthday, to be exact. Actually, it wasn't even her birth day - it was the day before and she had party/cake #1 as a surprise! It was a sewing day at church so I snuck in earlier and had the surprise ready to go for her arrival. The sewing ladies got her the first cake.

There was live music and everything! And to make her REALLY embarrassed, the song Amanda was rewritten to be Hosanna. Your welcome, honey ;)

On her actual birthday, we had to drive to Ft. Worth for her basketball tournament. My parents were in town that week so my mom came along with us on the adventure. 

We got cupcakes to share with her teammates for that evening. She had such a good time hanging out with her friends in the hotel lobby. I admit to hovering over her that first night but then I got tired and realized (after she reminded me, "Mom, I am 13") that the hotel was practically full of Hawks (our team) and was seemingly safe to let her have some freedom. Mom and I unapologetically found ourselves propped up in our individuals hotel beds, drinking wine, and watching cable while my new 13 year old daughter partied it up with her girlfriends in the lobby. And so it begins...

This was serious basketball stuff. Even the name denotes bigness: Big South. Between all the girls' and boys' levels, varsity, junior, varsity, etc - it took two huge sport complexes to hold this event. The complex we were at had 9 courts alone. All participants were homeschoolers. Wow! So much for weird, unsocialized homeschoolers ... these kids are awesome!!! 

Upon our return from Ft. Worth, it was time to properly celebrate as a family and that can only be done with a Dairy Queen cake. 

She requested a basketball themed cake but feminine (hence the purple trim). Oma helped put up some purple streamers and it was party time! 

But wait! One more cake to be eaten! When we picked up Will from Auntie and Uncle's in Ft Worth the next week, cousin Sarah had made this beautiful and yummy cake for us all to enjoy! 

Yes, February was fun. Add to that no snow shoveling or frostbite and it was very enjoyable! I still have to post about our March. That was fun too! (yes, we work, school, and generally live productive lives just with copious amounts of cake apparently).