Birthday Girls

Both my girls turned a year older this month and we celebrated with extended family at a restaurant, but we also celebrated their individual birthdays at home with just me, husband, and both girls. I made their favorite food. My oldest loves chicken laab, my youngest loves spicy smoked sausage, and they both love purple sticky rice. We don’t normally eat sliced cucumbers with meals but we do enjoy it as a snack from time-to-time, plus, it went well with the chicken laab. I also don’t make purple sticky rice often. I think the last time I made it was 15 years ago. The batch I have was given to me by my mom about a month ago, so that was very sweet of her. I would have had to buy some when I dropped by the Asian grocery store to get herbs for the chicken laab if I didn’t get this random batch from Mom.

This photo was taken in 2010 when my oldest was eight and my youngest was three. They were so tiny and full of joy. We had moved to our new home just seven months earlier and was still trying to decorate the house. We had moved from a small 800 sq. ft. condo to a 2400 sq. ft. house and had no clue how expensive it would be to decorate it.

Last December, my oldest graduated with her bachelor’s degree in biochem. It was an overwhelming day. There were so many people at the ceremony, and people showed up early and took the good seats. We went pretty early ourselves, but not early enough to get those seats, so we sat off to the side. They had huge screens above us which is how I was able to get a photo of my daughter walking across the stage. Afterwards, it took us a long time to locate her because cell reception was horrible, but we eventually found each other.

I can’t believe she turned 23! Not to take the spotlight away from her, but, you know, that means I’m also 23 years older…lol.

My youngest took her senior photos last fall. She went with Studio Sloss who was also the photographer for her school’s swim team. She only swam for the team her sophomore and junior years. She decided not to join this year because she had a lot going on and didn’t think she’d have the energy to also compete. The photo of her yawning was given to us as complimentary by her photographer. He found this photo (and another one not shared) candidly humorous. Husband and I agreed.

She turned 18 and she’s so ready to graduate high school. She’s been accepted to the Colorado School of Mines and plans to major in computer science and engineering.