Celebrating Grace

 A quiet start to Grace's birthday, in which Queen Gretchen keeps watch of the birthday ring and gifts. 

 Pointe shoes and an egg were the perfect choices for her birthday ring ornaments this year! 

 She began her day with cards and gifts from David, Emma and I. 

 A week of ukulele camp on Outschool! 

 She had been wanting rose water since homeschool day at Old Sturbrige Village when we used it in lemonade we made! 

 The table is ready for a sweet gathering later that morning. Scones, clotted cream, strawberry jam, watermelon and homemade lemonade that we made fresh that morning. 

 Having Jennifer and Abigail here to celebrate was the most normal thing we've done in months! 

  The girls have been friends since they were eight weeks old and have celebrated every birthday together ever since! 

 Since we didn't feel right having a larger gathering of her friends I got in touch with their moms to see if they could send cards and letters to her. She was in awe of all the wonderful messages she received in the  mail! 

 Then it was time for her family party on Zoom! I had saved the gifts that her grandparents and aunts and uncles sent for her to open then. She did that and then we sang to her and all had birthday treats together! 

 Singing over Zoom is not easy! 

 After we said good-bye the girls got ready for dance. At dance she received many more birthday wishes, cards and gifts! Our dance family sure knows how to make a girl feel loved! 

 After dance (hence the leo she's wearing) we did the birthday ring. It was truly a perfect ending to a very special birthday! 

Thank you to everyone who helped to make her pandemic birthday so very magical! From the cards, texts, calls, messages, letters, gifts, people stopping by, everything about this day just radiated joy for our sweet firstborn girl! Thank you for loving her as much as we do, everyone! It means the world to her and to us! We are so grateful! xo

Dear Grace,
May this next trip around the sun be as full of love, joy, kindness and magic as you are! We are so honored to be your mama and daddy and we couldn't be more proud of the young woman you have become! We have no doubt that you will indeed do something to make the world more beautiful, and we cannot wait to see what it is! Enjoy, sweet girl, and know that we are with you every step of the way. Always.
XO,
Mama and Daddy

Happy Birthday, Grace Elizabeth!

Tomorrow I will be back with pictures of the wonderful day that was Grace's fourteenth birthday today but for tonight I shall leave you with this one that perfectly captures the magic of the day! From start to finish this day was so compltely Grace. It was full of all the things and people she loves best! Birthdays in our family are a really big deal. They aren't big in the sense that we have grand birthday parties but they are big in the sense that we spend the day celebrating the birthday person in all the ways they love best. And this year, even with a pandemic in full swing, was no exception! If truth be known, I think the pandemic somehow made this day even more magical. Everything about this day was so very Grace. From the cake she chose to the cards her friends sent (via mail!) to celebrating at home (in the backyard and on Zoom) to people stopping by with gifts and calling and texting and posting on Facebook and Instagram  and all the birthday wishes at dance (yes, she's wearing a leo in this picture has she had just gotten home from dance) truly made this day one of the best! Honestly, the only way this day could have been any more perfect would have been if we had made it to the farm to go blueberry picking (as is our tradition) but alas there was just so much goodness going on that we could not fit that one in too! Thank you to everyone who made this day so completely wonderful for her. It truly is one that she will never forget! xo