Birthday Celebration

This is what happens when you don’t have enough candles

Today my middle child, Hannah, turned 21!  Where did the years go?  Honestly, it feels like she should only be about 5 or 6 years old.  But here we are, she’s a grown adult with all the rights and privileges of an adult (with the exception of renting a car and running for president. btw, she would make a much better president than the clown we have now).

Being the daughter of parents who try to practice some kind of simple living, frugal living and her own desire to consume less, we opted for an experience gift to celebrate her big day.   Today, Hannah and I went to Kohler Water Spa to celebrate.  We spent the day be pampered.  She had a facial and manicure while I had a massage and pedicure.  We sat in the hot tub, steam room, sauna and swam.  We ate delicious spa food which included chocolate mousse, drank infused waters, enjoyed some granola and green tea.  We also had some champagne to celebrate this milestone.  It was honestly a perfect day.  I have decided that now that I am the mother of adults (my youngest is 17), experience birthday gifts are the way to go.  Honestly, she is going to remember this day we had together forever.  But, I doubt that she could even remember what we gave her for her 19 birthday.  I am going back to 19, because for her 20th we also did an experience birthday.  I did offer to buy her one thing in the spa store and an extra (I had 20% off) and she declined.  She felt that everything was too expensive even with the discount and she stated again that she does not want more stuff.  So we left, having spent exactly what I planned for, without extras that no one needs.

Tonight we are celebrating with vegan hamburger mac and cheese, salad and banana cake.  We did celebrate last night as well when her brother was home.  Instead of cake, I made almond butter bars .  When searching for candles, I realized that I did not have a 2, but I did have enough numbers that I could get to 21.  My youngest suggested I buy a 2 for future use.  The other kids suggested I not do that, that the hodgepodge of candles makes it uniquely us.  I think they are right.

I think that she is planning on going out tonight, after dinner with her boyfriend, so that she can have a drink.  Being a girl who likes to be asleep early, I doubt it will be a late night for her.  But, I really hope that she has some fun. We live in suburban Milwaukee so I doubt they will be going downtown and the options in our little town are somewhat limited, so that alone could make it a very early night for her.