Seventeen!

Yesterday was granddaughter Megan's Seventeenth (!) birthday. It was also the first day of school (Senior Year). She had a long school day, followed by two hours of marching band practice.

Needless to say, by suppertime she was exhausted and barely functioning.

Stay awake just a little longer!

Last year her birthday fell before the first day of school and we had quite a party with all her grandparents and her boyfriend included. The highlight was when she discovered that her parents had bought her a car (used, but well-rehabbed by her dad).

This birthday was a lot quieter. She had requested a spaghetti dinner and a dinosaur cake. Anne Marie makes a great spaghetti sauce; the bakery made a cake with a dinosaur motif. Since it was a school-marching band practice day, we just had our little family, which includes friend Gwen.

Megan was so wiped out that she dropped on the sofa and napped until the meal was on the table.

Before birthday cake she opened her gifts--nothing to match last year's car! In fact, they weren't even wrapped; they were just in the mailing packages they came in, because they arrived just before dinner time. (Whew!) So there was opening, but no pretty paper.

Trying out her new manga art pens.

Megan had perked up a bit by the time the cake was brought to the table. In fact, she had a goofy contest with her mother: as Anne Marie lit a candle, Megan would blow it out. Finally, both candles were alight at the same time and we got to sing "Happy Birthday."

Do you remember a nutty video that was on You Tube last year in which a couple of young guys did a "Do you want to see how animals eat their food?" demonstration? If you do, you will understand the final photos. Take one tired-silly teenager, cake, and the above-mentioned video, and this is what you get.

And that was the end of her brief energy revival. She washed her face and headed off to bed at 8 o'clock.

The rest of us visited for a while longer.