Adele is 18!

Adele deeply felt the full impact of legally leaving her childhood. She felt the celebrations should fit the magnitude of her feelings. She went through several iterations of her birthday "weekend" and this is how this "action figure"brought in a new stage in life:

FRIDAY NIGHT
Let the celebrations begin! Tennie came home for the weekend she, Adele and Ceci went to Little Women, followed by pizza at The Pie, followed by a Goodly Cookies run.

SATURDAY DAY/EVENING
Adele's day plans fell through (hot springs with friends) and she fretted about a plan B. Finally, she and her sisters hit a fun little store they all love, met a friend at Sugar House Coffee (Adele's favorite homework spot), and then went out to a super yummy sushi place, just the three of them, followed by a movie at home.

SUNDAY (ACTUAL BIRTHDAY)
After church and Come Follow Me we prepped for a birthday dinner with local family. She didn't want the traditional treasure hunt, but instead asked for memories instead. Hmmmm. So I brainstormed and looked through old Hello from Seattle letters I used to write before starting this blog and came up with the following snippets of Adele. Each had a clue attached, to keep with the treasure hunt tradition.

Remember in Auburn when Adele was about 8 and Edie Hardman was her Primary teacher? Adele had a strong desire to touch everything as a child, and sister Hardman had very interesting hair. In the middle of class, Adele walked up and touched her hair!

Remember when Adele was 6 and we were in Hawaii. Adele had a FIVE DOLLAR BILL! In a store where she wanted to buy something we encouraged her to “break her 5”. She then ripped it in half!

As soon as Adele could walk she went for peoples shoes. She tried on every pair of shoes she came across.

Remember the Family Night where we talked about the importance of being nice and not inviting contention into the home? Adele exclaimed, “I could really do that if I were an only child!”

Remember the time we spent a night in Nevada, breaking up the trip to Utah? Adele asked if I heard the birds tweeting earlier that morning. Knowing her complete distaste for the state of Nevada I said, sarcastically, “What do birds in Nevada have to tweet about?” To which she quickly replied in a bird call, “Casin-o, Casin-o, Casin-o!”

Remember when Geoff took Adele with him on a work trip to DC when she was 3 and Ink about her a bag of 1,000-piece chicle gum for her birthday. Adele was in heaven. Right then and there she chewed about 750 pieces, filling up their small trash can with barely-chewed wads. This is what I wrote about her in that week’s Hello From Seattle soon after their return:  She loves chewing her endless birthday gum so much that she’ll dress up in coat, hat, gloves and boots and go stand on the porch so she can chew a piece.  When out she’ll chew a piece just enough to get some teeth marks in it, spit it out and start another.  This chain chewing can go on for an hour and keeps her quite entertained.

Remember when Adele was 3 and she made up her own little lingo? She would say things like, “Let’s go to Trader Jodie’s” or “I want Frenchie” for French toast.

Remember when Adele was little and anytime something was hot she would say, “Hot, hot, hot…hot chocolate!”

Remember when Adele was small and she was scared of public toilets flushing, as if they might swallow her whole?

Remember when Adele was really small and we bought her ladybugs? I wrote this in a Hello From Seattle about the day:  Today we bought (Adele) some ladybugs.  Tennie is growing her indoor garden and has the caterpillar process to attend to so we wanted Adele to have something of her own.  In contrast to Tennie who is bug-loving, Adele said, “I have so many it is ok if I smash one” (There are 1500 ladybugs!!!)  In the backyard she didn’t seem to mind too much that they were crawling on her, but if she saw one on the ground she would slyly walk over and stomp the bijibies out of it.  Tennie found one that was nearly dead and was cradling it in her arms hoping that through positive mental force and verbal encouragement it might come back to strength.  She put it on the ground and turned for a moment and Adele went over and stomped it to smithereens.  Tennie was mortified and let the whole neighborhood know.  It was a pure manifestation of their individuality.

This was from one week in a Hello From Seattle when Adele was 3:  Adele is so relieved to be eating dairy again.  Last week in one of her prayers she said, “Dear Heavenly Father, I love my friends.  I love Jesus.  I love normal milk.  And normal cheese…the orange kind without soy – it’s yummy!  Amen.  Another prayer last week went like this, “Dear Heavenly Father, I love my friends.  I love Jesus.  I love candy – all kinds; and gum!  I love dad.  Amen.  After clear warning Adele called Tennie “stupid” (she just had so see how it rolled off her tongue) and so went to the bathroom for the consequence…soap on the tongue. She came out with a contorted face and Tennie asked her what it tasted like.  Adele paused searching for just the right description and said, “It tastes like pee…with salt and pepper!” 

Adele's quick wit lives on too! Lots of good laughs with the treasure hunt.

Adele requested chicken tacos with slaw as her birthday dinner, and we fed the crowd. She also confessed she doesn't really like cake, and could she have donuts instead?

We had a sign up to capture favorite things, as well as an eye-level section where the little guys could draw her a picture, which all did.

 

Knowing Adele's love of quizzes and this or thats, I created a little quiz to see who knew the birthday girl best. Turns out it was Ceci. How would you have done? (This is Adele's with her answers, some of which she couldn't choose.)

Geoff had put together a slideshow of Adele's life in pictures, so we concluded the party watching her adorableness through the years. Since she had no expectations other than dinner, she was pleasantly surprised and had a great actual birthday.

(Britt provided all of the birthday pictures with people in them. Thanks, Britt!)

Loads of family and friends, and even many acquaintances, reached out expressing good wishes and what they love about her. It made her feel so good. In her own unique way she draws so many people to her. She is so easy to love.

I failed to mention that Nikki was out of town for her birthday, so she took her and Ceci to the same yummy sushi place earlier in the week.

And the next day life went on as normal.