Carlie's Sweet 16!

It's here!!!  It's FINALLY HERE!!!

We were ALL pretty excited to have Carlie turn 16--only because we desperately need another driver in our house!  Her long awaited birthday finally came!  Lots of different happenings all surrounded her birthday so here they are in the order it all happened:

First!  She bought her first car--yes SHE did!  She's been saving up her money for over a year now and has worked hard teaching piano/playing for shows/babysitting etc.  She bought a 2009 Toyota Corolla STICK SHIFT car on May 31st--so she had 21 days to learn to drive this before her test!!!  YIKES!  But she took on the challenge and I am proud to say, (after a few tears and cuss words) SHE CAN DRIVE A STICK!!!

We had her actual party the weekend before her birthday.  We really didn't have a free weekend this month so we squeezed it in on a Saturday night.  We had 25-30 teenagers in our backyard from 6-10 pm.  We fed them and had lots of fun stuff set up for them outside--music, tetherball, ping pong, beachballs everywhere, and of course swimming:)  Amazingly, no teenager was hurt during this event and everyone had a great time:)

Some of my most favorite of Carlie's friends: (don't tell the others:)
Tayte, Kayleah, Thommy, & Lois

I waited too long to take a good group pic:/

The night before her birthday, we had a "surprise" visitor on our front porch.  Buddy the Elf sure gave my husband a good scare on Sunday night.  He had received a text that someone left him a loaf of zucchini bread on our porch swing.  He wasn't properly dressed but didn't want to leave the bread out over night.  He opened the front door, screamed like a girl, and then demanded that I come downstairs to see what was on our front porch!:)  HILARIOUS!!!  This is the birthday tradition that our Appleby ward does for each Young Women's birthday.  LOVE Buddy!

On her actual birthday, her good friend Lois shows up with a Jamba Juice and a sweet/fun activity for Carlie.  She put up a "16" on our garage door and in each of the envelopes she wrote a favorite memory she had with Carlie.  LOVE LOIS!  She is always so thoughtful:)

 

So all in all, Carlie had a great birthday.  The next day--June 21st--Carlie went to take her driving test!!!  And it was a great day because she passed it ON HER FIRST TIME!  So she is now a stick-shift driving girl so yeah...she pretty much ROCKS!  Happy 16th Birthday Carlie Mae!!!