Elena's Sweet Sixteen

On September 17th, Elena turned sixteen so we had her birthday celebration the weekend before. We had close to fifteen teenage girls staying in our house for a sleepover and tubing the next day. It was a little crazy, to say the least! However, it was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, especially Asher!

Elena (second) with some of her friends..
and you can see Kayla there in the background.

Asher was absolutely delighted with the variety of food we had.. chicken nuggets, sandwiches, fruits, veggies and chips! I think he tried everything at least twice.

The twins climbed into one of the present boxes and thought it was about the funniest thing ever. Better yet, all of Elena's friends thought so too. I don't think either one of them was put down the entire evening!

Umm.. can I get some help out of here?

Elena and her cake

Make a wish and blow those candles out!

Asher's first taste of birthday cake
(wait til he realizes his birthday is 1 1/2 months away!)

The next morning we headed out onto the lake!

This was Asher's second time on the boat, but my first time watching him.

The first run of tubers- Kayla, Ian, Kendyl and Abby

Ian trying to stand up...

Asher and Maggie
(I think he has a thing for blonde's..)

Esther

and little Emma

Don't forget.. he's only been home for three weeks.

Emma playing with Emily

Esther and Abby

Brianna and Asher
(Brianna's family attends our church and they were some of the first people to meet Asher once we arrived home. Asher just ADORES Bri and her older sister Sara and they are so good with him, even when he's pushing the limit by choking them!)

Haven't shared a good picture of Ian in awhile..

Another tubing run.. looks like a storm is coming!

Elena and her friends tubing

Asher couldn't wait to get on the tube.. just look at that face!
He sure is a ladies man.

I wasn't sure how he would do..

But by looking at that face you can see he was loving every minute of it!

Emily, Maggie, Kayla, Asher, Elena, Lauren, Stephanie & Marygrace

Some of the girls

Right after I hopped on the tube, the boat started moving and the tube started sinking!! See my head just barely sticking out of the water??

But, we all held on and were back tubing in no time.

Little known facts about Elena:

• She was the first one of us to get stitches, earning them on her 9th birthday
• Was the only one to have curly hair as a baby.. and now it's straight- go figure!
• Is the only blond child and happens to be the spitting image of my mother
• She's been blessed with the gift of wanting to serve others, and is always doing that
  
• At 6 months old, she weighed more than I did.. and I was two years old!
• Got her first haircut at age two, when I took the scissors to her locks.
• She's (almost!) always smiling and in a good mood.

Happy 16th birthday Elena!!