Bethany's 15th Birthday

Bethany's birthday turned into a month long celebration. It began the beginning of February when her Carnahan grandparents came to visit. They have a tradition of taking each grandchild on a birthday dinner date, then making a generous donation to their college fund. Since we live 800 miles south of their home, Bethany got to celebrated a few weeks early. Her dinner choice - Chijis. She loves their chicken fettuccine and the chocolate brownie volcano dessert.
Aunt Lori came to visit during Presidents Weekend so we had a 2nd 'early' birthday celebration. This time "On the Border" was her choice - she loves their Mexican rice, chips and salsa. Then Aunt Lori treated us to a movie! Beth's pick "Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief" because the actor playing the main character is very cute. Russell survived, barely...
Then came birthday weekend... Tucson has a unique 4-day holiday called "Rodeo Days". As a friend described it, "the residents head to California, and the tourists go to the Rodeo". Bethany's birthday was fell on the Saturday of that weekend. She had planned to have a group of friends go to a movie together, then have cake & ice cream afterward, but her dad's final surgery was rescheduled for that weekend. So her traditional Friday "Girls Night Out" with Erica turned into her birthday party - dinner at Macayos, movie "When in Rome" and a sleepover. They were very silly in the morning - watched "Wee Sing" (Russell's absolute most hated toddler DVD) and then Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" in preparation for the Johnny Depp version. Erica had never seen it before. It's as strange and creepy and 'druggy' as I remembered.Bethany loves ice cream cakes, particularly this one. She had the same cake last year, but we learned last year NOT to put candles on an ice cream cake so got a little cupcake for the candles. However, we realized that in our cupboard of candles (many, many, many candles), we didn't have a '5'. Bethany grabbed the 50 instead. It was poetic since Russell has handled his baby turning 15 as emotionally as he handled turning 50. It was the perfect candle.You can't tell from this picture because Russell is horrid about smiling for the camera - he thinks he looks 'dumb'. So this look is better??? Anyway, he had so much fun wrapping her gift. All she wanted was an Itouch (we're very grateful for after Christmas sales!). He disguised it as the 'balloon holder' - had it wrapped in multiple boxes with oranges, hotel shampoo and soaps, then attached the helium balloon to it.
The Itouch was her 'big ticket' item, but we picked up a few silly things also. She does like those werewolves! Erica gave her the boots which completed her Jacob look! Six months until the Learner's Permit - AHHHHHH!