Bailey's 16th birthday

Oh what an exciting day we had last June when Bailey turned 16 years old!

The day began with breakfast in bed. Bailey had actually been up for over an hour getting ready for school, but she obliged us and climbed back into bed for the official presentation of her food, flowers, and gifts.

Bailey's requested breakfast: homemade biscuits and gravy, milk, and strawberries.

I would just like to comment that these pictures are clearer and just generally better than the pictures I normally take. Why?  Brandon was home from his mission and able to take the pictures! I have a good camera but I'm really not a great photographer. I'm a point and shoot girl but Brandon understands how to really utilize the features of the camera.

 A new scripture bag that looks like a purse.

 Beautiful flowers from her Daddy.

As Bailey's birthday was a school day (but thankfully not a Seminary day or I would have been making biscuits at 4 a.m.), she left to school after opening her gifts.

Then I got busy planning how I could make her birthday afternoon special. We had a fantastic birthday party planned, but not for another week. Bailey didn't want me to pull her out of school to go to lunch.  

Side note: we were in the middle of some extremely busy months. Every day had been scheduled and overscheduled since the beginning of March. In fact, Dan, Brandon, and I had just returned from a trip to New York and Ohio the night before Bailey's birthday. So, I hadn't given much thought to birthday plans.

I thought it would be fun to invite Bailey's friends over for a quick surprise party after school.  We could have a few treats and celebrate for awhile before everyone started on homework, etc.  I texted four of Bailey's friends and invited them to come over and Brandon and I devised a plan to delay Bailey's return. 

We sent Bailey a text to tell her that Brandon (instead of me) would pick her up after school. When he arrived to pick her up he "remembered" that he had to run by the public library for a minute. This would give her friends time to get to our house and get ready for the big surprise.  

It worked like a charm, except for the fact that they took a LONG time at the library. So, these were the *pretend* bored faces of her friends as they anxiously waited. I put them to work helping me put the final touches on the decorations.

 And then the birthday girl walked through the door - and she was genuinely surprised!

 I had bought and made some munchies. The five friends ate and laughed and visited.

 And here's the guy who helped me pull it off!  He happily helped himself to the food.

Bailey had requested a chocolate cheesecake, and I surprised her by finding a recipe for a delicious brownie mosaic chocolate cheesecake.  Yummy!

After we ate we watched a video of pictures of Bailey in the first 8 years of her life (we had made it for her baptism.)

 And the girls looked through all of the scrapbooks of Bailey's early years. There are a lot of scrapbooks from those years because . . . well, that was the time of life when I had the time and inclination to scrapbook!

 When it got close to dinner time it became apparent that no one really wanted to go home and everyone's parents were okay with them staying longer, so we had Dan pick up some Popeye's on the way home - Bailey's favorite!

 After her friends left Bailey changed back into her dress (for better pictures, I guess) and opened a few more family gifts.

  

What a fun birthday for an amazing 16 year old girl. 

And thus we conclude Porter birthday season 2013.  Whew.