happy fifteen.

i don’t even know where to begin.
and so i sit here, just staring at the screen, wanting so badly to be able to take this storm of feelings and find words that are worthy.

my baby girl turned fifteen years old yesterday.

for starters, we had our traditional family celebration pre-breakfast…

we are following a new trend to have a tower of donuts in place of a cake… for now, our kiddos seem to love it. {and it saves time!}

party favors for the younger siblings…

yesterday was a really rough day emotionally. and while i can only say so much about mothers, daughters, and teenagers in this space. more specifically: me and my teenage daughter. i will say, life can present the most unexpected challenges.

i’m looking through the pictures from her birthday, and i’m sitting here all kinds of weepy. i continue to think about the little bundle of brown skin and dark curly hair that was in my arms fifteen years ago. thinking about how my girl was the cutest-chubbiest of all chubby babies, and how she is the most incredibly beautiful young woman today. cue more tears.

we started our day with the family party, we woke up extra early to get out the door and have breakfast at one of our favorite local restaurants.

then… i picked her up after school and made an unexpected stop by pinkberry on the way home. secretly, i had planned a surprise yogurt bash with her girlfriends, family, and some family friends —

my favorite moment? that split second she looked up at her dad and smiled at his puckered face donning pink glasses:

going with the “pink” theme, the bash included confetti + pink party totes filled with pink party favors:

fun idea:

the night before this bash i was trying to create a “cake” topper that was not a candle and could be used in the yogurt when i thought of using pipe cleaners!

ta-da:

there is more i’d like to say, but i am emotionally drained.

the weekend is almost underway, our thick snow is slowly melting, and we have a mini-massachusetts road trip planned for tomorrow. do you have any idea what that means? country music, baby. we’ll be singing our way across the open roads. do you have any plans?

happy weekend!

p.s. 38 days till the Red Sox opening game. you knew that, right?

*****

party details:

pictures can make things look pretty and more time-consuming than they are. really, this entire day was very simple to put together.

for the marquee light letters:

i used Danni’s tutorial here via oh hello friend. i skipped a couple of steps, i wasn’t trying to make perfect marquee letters for this party, i was simply trying to get the effect – quickly. i will probably go back and improve these letters now that the party is over and i ‘m thinking about hanging them in our play room.

so, if you check out her DIY post. i used the same 12″ cardboard letters. i found mine locally at Jo-Ann’s. i cut along the edge of the letters to remove one side with a knife, i didn’t use a ruler, and didn’t leave an edge. I skipped spray paint. i planned on using a string of circle bulb lights but after calling a dozen stores here in new england and driving to a half dozen others – i couldn’t find any. this was the day before kiana’s birthday, so there wasn’t time to have any shipped to me either. so, i used one strand of white christmas lights.

i marked the holes for spacing, used a drill to make those holes, and placed one light in each hole. that’s it!

i hid most of the wires behind the letters when “happy” was standing on display on the table. since my letters are not hanging, it was challenging to get them to stay balanced and stand up straight, so i used a few zots placed on the bottom of the letters to help them stand up on the table. afterwards, these peeled right off.

poof ball party favors here. my kids loved these, they are still playing with them! think: designer spit balls. there was a serious birthday battle! big papi causing the most raucous! ::wink::

white tissue garland, here.

wrapping paper found at paper source

polka-dot totes, pink nail files, pink face wipes, polka-dot compact mirror, and pink glasses found at Forever 21.