Happy Birthday, Lily!

We surprised Lily by taking her out for a seafood Sunday brunch this morning, at one of her favorite restaurants on the Fox River in Algonquin. She had guessed what we were doing, but it was fun anyway! And we were joined by my sister and brother, along with Ed’s family, so that made it an extra special celebration. My little Lily finally got the gift she has been begging for; the gift that “everyone else has”–although in our world, she’s not exaggerating. All of her friends really do have a cell phone, and now, finally, so does Lily! That really was a surprise for her because we’ve been holding out for soooooo long. Ed and I really need a way to keep in touch with her during all of her activities, though. I had bought the phone a couple of weeks ago and was hiding it from her. Last week, in a mix-up with carpool schedules, she was left behind at her school after basketball practice. She borrowed another dad’s phone to call us, even as I was thinking about heading out the door to get her because she should have been home already. I was wishing I had already given her her phone! But all’s well that ends well, as they say. We live only 5 minutes away from her school, so she wasn’t waiting that long.

Tomorrow is another big day for Lily…she has her first basketball game!

I was up this morning before 6:00 to get Emmy up and going to an elementary choral festival up in Waucona, Illinois. Ed drove her and three other fifth graders. It was still dark, cold, and raining. I stayed home to clean the house (the bottom half) for Lily’s birthday party. My method of cleaning means throwing all the clutter into the upper half of the house, so the upstairs is a disaster, but the downstairs looks really nice right now. Want to come over?

Ed came home and helped out, and then Lily, Ed and I drove up to Wauconda to hear Emmy sing with the other choral students who had participated in the festival. They sounded beautiful!

Ed had spotted a taco joint on the Main St. this morning, but it was closed or he would’ve had steak tacos for breakfast. When I saw that it was open for lunch, I pulled over and we had tacos! Ed always gets his way, especially when it involves tacos.

After we got home, Lily’s friends soon arrived and we celebrated her birthday. She will be 13 tomorrow–a teenager! Can you believe it? Tomorrow, we are taking her some place special, and it’s a “surprise.” She has pretty much figured it out, but I have resisted telling her where we are going.

I’m so tired, I can’t write a blog post for today. But here it is, and I accidentally clicked “publish” before I was done writing. If you are reading this on my blog and not in your email, you get some extra sentences and a bonus photo!

How about that?

She’s turning 13 tomorrow!