That’s right, folks, we’ve got a teen on our hands. Sure, her birthday was back on September 1st, but honestly, if you’ve got / been / met a teenager, you know that time is no longer relevant.

Don’t get me wrong. Zoe is actually a pretty fabulous teen, if you must have one of those (and we must). But there is without a doubt a light switch that gets turned on (or off?) when those teen years start.

On birthday cue, insert the following:

• Remarkable inability to focus (unless on an endless stream of YouTube shorts) or finding the one shirt that is the only one that matches those pants
• Suddenly in touch with “feelings” (keep in mind that hormones kick in 2-3 years before you actually have a teen, and yet…)
• Radically increased amount of dirty clothes, snack wrappers, and even “Takis” bits on the floor
• Radically decreased patience for a younger sister who loves to be loved (and included)
• Slight (and NEW) tendency to omit details that might not be positively received; I refuse to call this lying, though “Is your homework done?“, followed by a “Yes” (that is not true) is a lie, no?
• Dramatically extended amount of time needed to shower, get ready for school, get out of bed for school, and tie the Converse high tops worn daily (yes, I know)

On that last one, most days she literally hops out of the house with one shoe on or awkwardly shuffles out with no shoes on to the car at the last minute, even in 45-degree weather. But let’s get back to the birthday post, so I can finally print this year’s blog before it’s New Year’s Eve…

For her birthday this year, Zoe chose to take a small group of friends to Build-A-Bear at the mall. Thankfully, these kids love the mall (who said malls were dead?!), since Mom and Dad failed to discover until 15 minutes before leaving for said mall that its Build-A-Bear store was actually just a kiosk. I’ll lay some blame on their staff who, when I called to ask, said it was just a “smaller footprint” store. In essence, I guess that’s true, but here’s what it looked like:

Not a “store”. A kiosk. In their defense, they performed the “heart” ceremony, but let’s start with how this works. If you haven’t been to a Build-A-Bear, you don’t know that the kids choose a fabric shell of the stuffed friend they wish to make, then the employees fill that shell with stuffing LIVE while you watch. Finally, the kids choose a small stuffed heart to insert into their creation before it’s sewn up.

Don’t forget the accoutrement: clothes, hats, shoes, sunglasses, purses, pets, OH MY. While the “bear” itself costs as little as $25 (as you can see, they’re not all bears), it’s the accessories that get ya. And the little sister who desperately wants to hang with the teens and picks out the most expensive one. Anyway, I’ll stand by Zoe’s choice of birthday activity – it was a lot of fun, and everyone got the coolest custom party favor to take home.

After building those bears, they got free time to wander the mall (without the little sister), and we met back for Boba, followed by lunch at In-N-Out. If you haven’t had their burgers, don’t get me started. It’s a teenager’s paradise. In between activities they stopped at Selfie stations set up in the mall and looked like paparazzi taking photos of one another taking their own photo. It was an all-around teen party WIN.

Afterwards, we headed back home to enjoy the custom BEAR cake Dad made (and if you haven’t seen the “I love my children” creations I shame him into baking every year, go here).

There’s nothing like getting a bunch of Musical Theater kids together for a celebration. We enjoyed lots of singing at high volume in the minivan (unfortunately, there was no room for me and Ella in that car – HA!), dancing in our living room post-party, and a fabulous rendition of Happy Birthday (VIDEO HERE).

Given that Zoe’s birthday fell on Labor Day weekend, as it often does, her actual party happened the weekend before, but on her actual birthday, as we always do, we headed to Miceli’s with just the family for singing waiters and mediocre Italian food.

And speaking of renditions of Happy Birthday, here’s the Miceli’s singing waiters’ version, which we have videos of since Zoe’s 5th birthday (with varying waiters):

I must say that when/if this daughter stops wanting to go to Miceli’s for a birthday dinner, it will break my heart. I mean, look at that face – what a trooper! I love that face. Even when it has daggers coming out of those eyes or tightly sealed lips to veil what she’s thinking and is unprepared to say–yet… I was a terrible teen, so when the day comes that that river of thoughts comes out of that pretty mouth, I will know why.

Anyway, just another wonderful birthday with our wonderful teenage daughter. We take none of them for granted and wish for many, many more! And now, on to the OTHER cutie pie daughter’s birthday post so I can print this thing. Maybe a wish for 2024 would be to stop beating myself up about my sluggish posting behavior and be grateful for a chance to write at all. A gal can dream.