Happy 15th!!

Cora is 15.  Her birthday fell on a Sunday this year.  Dave's early morning meetings were cancelled, but mine were not. That left us with a small window to open presents before I left.  

This box has was buggin' her.  She could not figure out what it was. I had ordered The Book Thief in hardcover for her, but the shape was totally confusing her.  I was so enjoying her torment that I did not even wrap the box.  

Cora requested pizza for her birthday dinner.  If you know her that is quite the statement. This pizza Kita had told us about from her friend Holly.  I don't know what they call it but we call it "Holly's kinda Hawaiian pizza"  Seriously amazing.

Also requested was Angel Food Cake with whipped cream and strawberries.  I did make the cake, but took some batter out to try cupcakes.  I like the cupcakes better, so did Cora but she felt they should be bigger.  Dave still liked cake better, he likes the soft white part.

One of her presents had been 'The Seeker' movie.  Something she had seen just a bit of a few years ago.  She only remembered one line and we researched from that line.  Our library system did not have it, so I found it on Amazon.  When we watched it that night, she told us to have very low expectation since she really did not remember it.  Not to bad tho. Today they did not have school.  I had heard about this gigantic play center.  Cora has been sad for 10 years that ours went out of business.  I took them up as a surprise today.  We packed a lunch and went to order windows and look at siding colors then continued on.  She was so incredibly excited.

We ended up staying for just over 3 hours.  I got in and played with them.  The kids made up a few game to play inside, we had a snack, and played some more.

This black light game was so fun.  Tons of light up balls in the walls.  There was two sides and they played against each other.  Balls would light up at random and you had to run around your area to find and hit them to turn them off. Really fun.

You climb from level to level inside this mesh.  I felt motion sick just turning around from side to side to get up there.  So sad.  It seems to be getting worse, soon I won't be able to do anything:(  It was a great surprise and a wonderful day with my kids.

Cora is lots of fun to hang out with.  She make good choices all the time.  She is such a peacemaker.  Sometimes to the point that it bugs me since she will give up what she wants to make others happy.  I know that is a good thing, but I want her to be happy also.  She does not let people walk over her though, if it is contrary to her values, it does not happen.  I rarely have to ask her to do things twice.  She is helpful and happy.  Cora loves to tease me.  She loves to read and to do anything with her hands.  Drawing, building, crafting, anything.  Cora is having a really hard time deciding what she wants to do for the rest of her life. We still have not broken the knuckle cracking habit.  We are making progress on the not being able to smell.  It is not adenoids, she is going for allergy testing April 1.  That is the soonest available.  Once in a while she will sit on the couch and not feel like helping, she then declares she is acting like a normal teenager for the day. Not sure why, all the teenagers she knows are really good helpful kids. But whatever.  I think she may have a slight obsession with shoes also.  Not a good thing to pass on to my daughter:).  I truly feel blessed to have her as mine and am grateful that Heavenly Father has loaned her to me.  I am trying very hard to raise her how He would want me to.  She is a joy and a light in our family.  Happy 15th Birthday Cora. (Although today felt like we were celebrating her 6th birthday.  I think the oldest one there besides my kids were 5)