Rachel's Sweet Sixteen

Sunday, January 4 was Rachel's sixteenth birthday (wow, I feel so old - I remember when she was born and now she is sixteen!). We drove up to Ellerbe Friday after lunch and got there in time to go out to our favorite Ellerbe restaurant, Mi Casita. Then we played the "A Christmas Story" edition of Monopoly - that was pretty hilarious.

We celebrated Rachel's birthday on Saturday January 3. We went out for a birthday dinner at Chili's (both Rachel's and Cy's favorite restaurant). Everything was going smoothly until the waitress came to refill our water glasses and Mom said, "Rachel needs more water because today's her sixteenth birthday." (Rachel had asked us not to tell them it was her birthday.) So a few minutes later a bunch of them came out clapping and singing, and Rachel's face turned the same shade of red as her sweater. The free dessert seemed to make up for it though.

When we got back to the house, Rachel had a party with a few of her friends (think Strong Bad's Teen Girl Squad). She opened presents and Mom made her wear a Sweet Sixteen tiara and sash (as you can tell from the picture below, she wasn't terribly thrilled about that part at first). We ended the party with a few rounds of Apples to Apples - me, Cy, Mom, and 5 teenage girls. Good times. It seemed like Rachel had a really good birthday. Happy Sweet Sixteen Rachel!