Happy Birthday Hope Shalom

Yesterday we celebrated our daughter's birthday.  We always allow our kids to choose the activity and dinner that they want for their birthday.  I would have let her stay home from school, but she really wanted to go.  Any of my boys would have chosen the get out of school free birthday pass!

Hope wanted  to take her birthday money and go shopping for the evening.  We drove to Chattanooga and we had a great time together.  We spent the whole evening in the mall just looking at girl things.  She spent most of her birthday money in order to finish out her fall wardrobe.  She is a great shopper.  I kept looking at the front of the store for pretty items.  She never stopped at the front.  She always headed to the back of the store and looked at the clearance racks first.  She never would buy anything full price.  She is a much better shopper than me.

While we were at the mall her brothers made her dinner of choice.  Hope knew all along that she wanted to go shopping. She chose an easy meal that she happens to love so that we could shop without having to worry about making dinner.  The  boys made her hot ham & cheese subs with marinated lettuce.  Dinner was almost finished when we got home.  She had requested a cheesecake with cherries for her birthday cake.  I made that ahead of time!  I didn't trust those boys with that task. 

We all had a wonderful evening.  The only thing that was missing was our oldest son Matthew and his girlfriend Chelsea.  This morning I was driving Hope to school and she mentioned that she was really tired.  I asked her why because I knew she had gone to bed on time.  She giggled and said that Matthew had called her right before she went to sleep, and they spent a long time talking together on the phone.  I knew he didn't get off work until 10:00 last night so I wasn't too upset that he kept her up late.  I was just thankful that he took the time to call her.  It was the perfect ending to her birthday!

grace and peace,
julie