I'm 15 for the moment...

I am now 15 years old. 

A whole year older apparently. And it just so happened that the 8th was when we officially celebrated it. And of course, that's when Mom gave birth to me (thanks Mom!). But I feel like I became 15 a while ago. I can't exactly pin down the date, but it was a gradual process that, combined with various situations, made me a year older. 

For the sake of birthdays though, I turned 15 on Monday. :) And I had a fabulous birthday! 

The whole birthday celebration thing was kicked off on Sunday when, after church, we had the Hinterbergers over. It was Mikaela's birthday so we decided to spend it together as a combine party. We had so. much. fun. 

There was the usual food preparation time (which took about an hour) and the usual busyness of everyone in the kitchen, or many hungry teens crowded around the salsa bowl and seeing how many chips they could eat before told that it would ruin their appetite. Actually, no one ever told us it would ruin our appetites, because we all know that it won't. :) Then the main course was ready, butternut squash lasagna. Mom did a wonderful job in making more than enough and making it extremely tasty.
Everyone loved it to say the least. 

We went on a classic walk out through the pines, through Toad Lane and then Toad Extension and then up and over and back home. The weather was a bit chilly but by the time we had all gotten our circulation going we were tying our sweaters and coats around our waists.

As we neared the house most of the conversation was revolving around one thing: cake. 

Momma H. had made a very special pumpkin shaped chocolate cake. As per Mik's request, it was going to have green mint frosting. As you can imagine, this was quite an exciting cake! While Mom H. frosted the cake we exchanged gifts, it was really quite fun--I normally don't like opening gifts that much. Don't get me wrong, I like getting and opening gifts, but in front of people it's sometimes hard. Not with them though. Hahahaha!

We alternated gifts, Mik would get one, then I would get one. All of them wrapped in the comics section of the newspaper. Among other things I received Sherlock Holmes 2, The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne and then perhaps my favorite, one of those knitted infinity scarves.
It's the very color of October itself and I'm wearing it as I type. It's what I've always wanted and what I will always use. I love you guys so much!!!

For those of you that don't know, I think I should just give a little brief on who these people (the Hinterbergers) are, because they're quite literally an extension of my family. To put it extremely to the point: there's 6 of them, 2 parents, 3 boys (Josiah, Jonathan and Joseph) and 1 amazing girl (Mikaela). They live an hour away but somehow we're always together. We both attend Grace Community Church (where we met) and became members on the same Sunday. We were destined to be best friends and we went on Spring vacation together. That's a VERY basic outline of these wonderful people. If I were to write anymore, it'd be quite hilarious and nonsensical. 

Then it was time for the games to begin. Or at least, Josiah thought so. Two bandannas, two chairs, and two spoons later I was sitting opposite Mik and Josiah was instructing me on how to "play the game". 

To get it over with, I was told to put the spoon in my mouth and knock Mik on the head, she would do likewise and I was never really told the point of the game. That apparently turned out to be how long it would take me to figure out that I was gullible.
Ha.Ha.
In my defense, it only took about 3 hard knocks on my head for me to realize that Mik wasn't putting the spoon in her mouth but was actually using her hand. I laughed. And then I laughed some more. And so on. 

By then, Momma H had finished frosting the masterpiece and they all sang Happy Birthday. Since Mik and I both really don't like that song we were hiding behind a balloon. But then things changed, they began yelling the song at us and by the time it was finished, I had just listened to the very first Happy Birthday song, screamo style. We clapped and yelled and it was grand. 

The cake was delicious and sooooooo yummy. And I'll just say that and not go on about it anymore, because I really could. Then we watched Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, in the midst of which, Holly arrived and this meant that when the Hints had to leave, I was not too thoroughly depressed because with Holly, the party was far from over! There were some celebratory fireworks and then we said "goodbye." 

Holly and I. <3 I made her that necklace for her birthday and she made me mine for my birthday! :) 

 And that was just Sunday. Monday was even better. In short, we woke up at 4am, did school, went on a cold walk, went shopping (and had a lot of fun doing it too!) came home and sang worship songs, and went down to Soup Night at Grandma's.

We had enchilada soup and Mom made a chocolate cake. Matthew (my cousin) thought that Holly and I were quite the gigglers and I got a knife from Papa T. It took me a few times to understand how to open and close it, much to the parents anxiety, but I got it down and I'm a pro now. :D Here's a picture of it:

 Hahahaha, nooo, I'm not that dangerous, now am I? Oh, and you can also see part of my infinity scarf there. :) It was a very wonderful, blessed birthday and I'm excited about finding out what God has in store for me in my 15th year of life.