Happiness Journal

When her older sister had a surprise party for her 16th birthday she started asking every year, “will I ever have a surprise party for my birthday?”

We would tell her that if we answered that question it wouldn’t be a surprise. She hated that answer.

I always knew that her 13th birthday would be her year ~ just like it was my year many, many birthdays ago. She would be young enough to enjoy having us around but old enough to really appreciate the surprise.

This was her year!

Last night Tom and I pulled off a reverse surprise party for some of Abigail’s friends. As they all stood out in front of the movie theater, wondering why they all were there, we arrived yelling surprise and blowing party horns. I think they were still clueless until we told them they were spending the evening with us celebrating Abigail.

Smiles all around.

As the last girl left our house after a night of watching Into the Woods (I know Abigail would have loved it), eating pizza (one of her favorites), drinking Hansen soda (another favorite), drinking milkshakes (family tradition) and creating beautiful owl drawings (one of her favorite animals and something she absolutely loved doing), Tom and I walked back into our empty house with smiles on our faces….we pulled off a surprise party for our Abigail!

Last night my heart was happy watching Abigail’s friends be teenagers.