Happy Birthday Samantha!
You turned 11 years old today. Eleven!!
I remember your birth day well. A full seven days past my due date, a phone call to the hospital early that morning to check in and confirm they were ready for my induction. The tears of nerves and relief with the news we could indeed leave for the hospital but tears mostly of joy and excitement to meet our new baby girl!
I blinked and now here we are celebrating your 11th birthday and your final year of elementary school and you have grown up so much and so quickly even just over the past few months!
You are quickly catching up in height to your teenage sister! And while you have matured and grown up so much, you are still so much fun and so silly and can easily laugh at yourself and you are still not too old to snuggle with your favorite stuffed animals or me which truly makes me the happiest!
Over the past months – maybe even from the day after your last birthday – you have been talking about and planning for this birthday. We were supposed to be returning from your first overnight field trip today. We had planned out how Daddy and Gabby would pick up your cake and regardless of how tired we were we would celebrate with dinner takeout of your choice and cake and icecream and presents.
We talked about having your first “big” pajama party with friends – what food we prepare, what activities you wanted to do, all the friends you so badly hoped would be able to attend.
And then the coronavirus hit the world hard and everyone’s plans changed including of course your 11th birthday. First the field trip was cancelled which you handled just fine but quickly asked if you could still stay home from school on your birthday. Then school was closed – at first through mid-May and then for the rest of the year. By then we knew a pajama party or really any kind of party with friends was not going to be an option for May.
But while you were disappointed by all those changes and cancellations, you never once got really upset, never complained, even though I would have understood 100% if you had! I would not have blamed you one little bit if you cried or complained or gotten angry even. But you didn’t. The same easy-going attitude you had as a toddler came back in full force and you chose to just go with it and look on the bright side of the situation!
You saved a new dress to wear – which let me say, was beautiful on you! You made sure all of your remote learning school work was completed by Thursday so you could still take your day off school. You had your favorite foods for lunch – prosciutto, capicola, Genoa salami and a huge bowl of pasta with meat sauce and tons of grated parmesan.
You had a surprise drive by visit by your bestie, complete with horn honking, huge homemade poster, cookies and a balloon! It was so hard for the two of you to not give each other a huge hug but it didn’t stop you from smiling and laughing and enjoying each other’s company any less.
While you did not have school, you did have a Google Meet with your classmates and teachers where everyone sang happy birthday – for you and everyone else who has celebrated a birthday since you were last together.
You chose your other favorite food for dinner and we got sushi takeout from the best Mizu!
Your cake was the cutest baby yoda cake ever and was a delicious lemon cake with lemon curd filling from your favorite bakery Sweet Traditions. We had some homemade strawberry icecream to go with the lemony cake – a great combination by the way!
We ended the night with a family movie night watching “Ugly Dolls.”
I hope it was a special day for you! We love you so much and more than anything wanted you to know how special you are, how loved you are, and how this family and this world is a much better place because of who you are!
Happy Birthday to our sweet Samantha!