Sweet Sixteen

Yesterday was the feast day of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.

It was also The Kid's 16th birthday.

We always did big parties for her before we went off to seminary, and even managed to do one for her while there. Mrs. Ref was always the creative force behind those. This year was no different; she wanted to do something special because, "You only turn 16 once."

I didn't point out to her that you also only turn 4 once, 11 once, 23 once . . .

Tuesday after work, I drove to Bozeman and picked up a couple of cakes from Costco. Mrs. Ref had contacted the Upward Bound leadership and told them the plans. Very few people knew about it. Yesterday we drove up to Butte, dropped the cakes off at Point A, picked up The Kid and two of her friends at Point B and took them out to see "UP" (a very good movie, btw) and out for a birthday dinner. Then we dropped them back at campus for their evening classes.

We killed some time picking up a few other necessary items for the house and then returned to campus at 8. All of the other kids trickled into the dining hall and were filled in about the party then. Turns out that The Kid shares a birthday with another kid in the program, and there was a third who was given a belated birthday wish. The three had been kept after class under false pretenses, and then came wandering into a dining hall full of people and cake and ice cream.

She was duly surprised. We all had plenty of cake and ice cream. And a good time was had by all. And we didn't leave Butte until almost 9:30 -- which made for a late night getting home.

Yep, my little girl is 16 now. Like I tell people: It's not that she's 16 that gets me, but I wonder when I became old enough to have a daughter who's 16.

Wow.