Sweet 16 Surprise!!! (for me!!!!!) Part 2

We all got changed and got in the car to go to a friend's house for a while. Everyone shared their favorite memories about me, and other things, then I opened presents. Rachel got me a cool picture that I have in my room, Katherine made me a butterfly necklace that has purple beads, and Sharyssa gave me a blue leather purse. Rebekah gave me my birthday present last week. :) Then we all went and ate pizza and trail mix. We all got into our swimsuits and played in the pool for a while. We played marco polo and had dieing competitions. We would be 'shot' and have to fake our deaths, which includes falling off the ladder into the pool. I know this is a really morbid game, but it is fun to watch everybody be over dramatic. :) For a while, Rachel did not want to get her hair wet, so we were trying not to splash her, but while we were playing marco polo, her and Sharyssa started to get very competitive with each other, so she decided to give up on that and beat Sharyssa in the game. This was highly amusing to watch! After a while, we started to trickle out of the pool and start drying off. Once most of us were decently dry, we went inside to have some ice cream. We had coffee ice cream and strawberry ice cream with whipped cream. It was delicious!!!

We were all really tired at this point, so we all sat around talking and doing each other's hair. My mom braided everyone's hair except mine, which Katherine did. At this point we had all changed out of our swimsuits and I was very curious on what was coming next. It was about eight o'clock at night. At about eight forty-five we headed out, going to our next destination. We arrived at Rebekah and Katherine's house for one of my favorite games. Star tipping!!!!! I had to teach everyone how to do star tipping and then we commenced running around like we were drunk for the next hour. :) It was very hot and humid, so everyone's hands were really wet and gross when they were spinning you around, so we decided to go inside. I said good-bye to Rebekah and Katherine and we went back to the church to drop Rachel and the Greene's back at their cars. We had to run into the church to grab a couple of things, and when we did there was a giant water beetle. All of us screamed and jumped away, except Rachel who ran away. I said good-bye to Sharyssa and Rachel and headed home. 

This was one of those days that just makes me so thankful for all of the little things in life and for all of my amazing friends that God has blessed me with. They spent twelve hours out of their day just for me and making me feel special and loved. :) I love them all so much!!! Thank you all!!!!!

Sweet 16 Surprise!!! (for me!!!!!) Part 1

So I have now done two sweet 16th birthdays for my amazing friends and loved every second of the detailed planning and getting to execute all of this, but this time it was my turn to be on the other side of it all. :)

I knew something was up when a rolling backpack and some other "random" things went missing from my disaster also known as my bedroom. Mom's explanation was that my room ate it all and that it would return once I cleaned my room. I said it must have either teleported or vaporized because my room was clean for a while before it returned.

Yesterday morning Mom told me that we were going to clean her classroom at church, which she had been talking about doing for a while. While I was picking out my outfit for the day, I thought to myself that they would be really smart to do my surprise today, but it did not occur to me that they actually would. :) Mom treated me to chocolate coffee, which she does not do very often and then idled around in the parking lot for a while. Then we went to the church and the back door was unlocked, but this is not terribly unusual because the pastor just uses the back door. In order to keep the back door unlocked, you have to use a little key on the inside too, so I found it strange we did not need the key to get in. I just assumed that Pastor Greene was expecting a visitor or something along those lines. Unsuspectingly, we walked to my mom's classroom. The doors were closed, but there are two small windows in the doors, so I could see a little bit into the room. I saw Rachel and then Sharyssa and thought that Sharyssa had a dance lesson, as Rachel is her teacher. But I was extremely wrong, as it was my surprise birthday party!!! Rebekah, Katherine, Mrs. White, and Mrs. Greene, were all waiting there for me to come in. I was shocked!

We said our hellos and then headed to get our nails done. We all got our nails prettyified. Some got designs, but I liked my nails the way they were. They are purple and sparkly. :) Then we went to Letty Mae's for lunch. One of surrogate grandma's (I have several) came to have tea with us. Lunch was very enjoyable and we were there for quite a while. I got a free cupcake, since it was my birthday, but I shared it with everyone else because I did not really want anything sweet at the time and Sharyssa was scaring me because she said she did not want to eat too much because of what we were doing next.

Well, I guess I should not have said I was entirely wrong about Sharyssa not having a dance lesson, but it was not her having it. It was the rest of us. :) Sharyssa choreographed a song for us. Sneaky as she is, she had already taught everyone the dance, including me. There was one part, my solo, that she did not teach me, because that would have given away the party. Rachel taught me my solo, which was slightly difficult, and we practiced the song as a group. It is to the song "Kokomo Island" by the Beach Boys. Sharyssa and I have made many memories with this song, along with many other Beach Boy's songs, so I think it was the
perfect choice. The basement of the church was really hot, so my mom turned on the air conditioner in her classroom and we had spontaneous break to go and cool off. At one point, another song came on and it was very slow and ballet-ish, so we all danced to that for a while. Mom videotaped us doing the dance for "Kokomo Island" then we all got changed for the next step of the day.

Come back later for the rest of the day!!!

Eyes to the Skies

Yesterday Caleb volunteered at the Eyes to the Skies festival in Lisle. The whole family went and hung around for a bit, while Caleb helped at his flight instructors booth. I got to meet Jesse, who is one of Caleb's friends that I have heard about a lot but have never actually met.

Caleb and Jesse

After a while, Mom and I left to go eat dinner at Subway. It was quite delicious. Then we programmed Dot (out GPS) to take us to my friend's house. She was one of the girls in my small group at Worldview. Originally we were going to go play ultimate frisbee, but the game was cancelled, so we went out to ice cream and then back to Bekah's house for a while. 

Me, Bekah, and her 'special' friend Lauren. :)

We played catch with a frisbee, which ended up being really pathetic and none of us were actually catching the frisbee, and we jumped on their trampoline for a while. Then the bugs decided we were a really good dinner, so we went inside and played on the piano. :) Mom and I went and picked up Caleb and Dad from the festival and we headed home. It was a very good day for the Kiki. :)

Me and two mascots that were walking around the festival. Their names are Oink and Moo. 

Caleb and Skipper. (the new plane)

Happy Birthdays!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

Today is America's birthday!! Technically yesterday was America's birthday, so happy belated birthday America!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEAH!!!!

Happy 16th birthday to an amazing roommate and friend from Worldview!!! Miss you! 

Pictures of the Sweet 16 Surprise

In Sparkles on the way to Morris.

Serious faces. 

Sharyssa eating her llama, Katherine and I laughing. 

"Normal" llamas

CHEESE!!!

Llamas!!

At Letty Mae's

Waiting to be seated. 

Kylee and Rebekah.

We were using the table to type. :)

Drinking our strawberry lemonade. 

Katherine, Sharyssa, and Rebekah smiling for the camera.

Scheming....

Being proper. :)

The birthday girl with her tea cup. 

Sisters

Katherine posing and Rebekah photo bombing.

Anna and Mary Ann who joined us at their grandma's house.

Rebekah opening her book.

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All the earrings we made. :)

Rebekah reading us some of her story.

Happy birthday Rebekah!!!

A Sweet Sixteen Surprise :)

Tuesday was Rebekah's sweet 16th surprise party. We all met at Hobby Lobby to surprise her, which was quite a lot of fun. We were all wandering around in the jewelry section for what felt like forever, until we looked around the corner and saw her coming. Sharyssa, Kylee, and I all stood in a line and prepared ourselves. Katherine came first and we almost said surprise to her, but then Rebekah came, and she was quite surprised. :) We spent some time picking out charms to make Rebekah earrings, since she just got her ears pierced, and then we picked out some supplies to make ourselves some stuff. I got little silver butterfly charms for Rebekah's earrings and then some supplies to make Bella a bracelet. After we all checked out, we headed to Sparkles to go to Morris. All of the girls rode in the car and took pictures to pass the time. We got to Letty Mae's and took more pictures outside, because it was a really cool, old-fashioned area. Then we went in and had lunch. Rebekah's grandma met us there. We had lots of fun goofing around and eating all of our delicious food. We got dessert to pass around, then went outside to take more pictures. :) (Yes, I will eventually post the pictures I am so often mentioning.) After this, we went to Rebekah's grandma's house to make our jewelry and do many other things. We gave Rebekah a book Sharyssa had worked very hard to make that had two of her stories in it. The great jewelry game then began. We spent quite a while making earrings for Rebekah, then we all made iced coffees and told our favorite memories of her. This part is always amusing to those who know her, because we all have different perspectives of the event at hand and most of us have memories that go along with it. :) I will not embarrass Rebekah by posting everything we said during this time. After this, Rebekah became a hobbit. No, seriously, she did. Hobbits give out one present on their birthday to whomever they so desire. We were about to watch "Singin' in the Rain" and Rebekah had made me a hat that matched the time era very well, so she wanted me to have it early. Initially it was for my birthday, which is in a couple weeks, so it was not that early. :) As previously mentioned, we watched "Singin' in the Rain" and all enjoyed it thoroughly. Kylee had to leave a little bit early, but we still enjoyed the rest of the movie. It was a very fun day celebrating what an amazing friend Rebekah has been to us all. HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBEKAH!!!! SURPRISE!!