Seventeen

Emma's 17th birthday party was a success, but the evening came to a dramatic end. The teens were playing hide and seek. They do it all the time here.

They turn off every light in our house and the outside lights too. Then one person goes in the front yard to wait til everyone has hidden and they have to find them in the dark....no lights (but every once in a while you see a cell phone light behind a couch or from a closet LOL). It's very dark and looks like great fun. Charles and I sit in our room working on computers or watching a movie and occasionally hear a scream or a burst of laughter. The boundaries are anywhere in the house except parents room or older sister's room, who was at work...and anywhere in the backyard.....no front yard or garage.

By round one they could not find a guy named C. They looked everywhere and then played 2 more rounds (they thought he was still hiding and being stubborn). After the third round they could no longer find T. They looked everywhere.

It was starting to look like we were in a murder mystery. I had come out by then to get the dog because I realized (after 3 rounds finally) that she was probably freaking out a little. (She was fine though) So I came in to the teens looking for these guys. T finally walked in the front door after he'd found a great hiding spot and then jumping the fence so that no one would know where he was (but I know). But C we had to search for. He had dissapeared after round one. It was weird. He was no where.

We went to the front yard and scoured it, we shone our flashlights up on the roof, we beat bushes and looked under cars. Then I decided to move my car back into the driveway because they had had the ping pong table out on it and I saw a kid walking up the street.....C, sculking around my neighborhood. He had just up and gone to the park at 10pm for an hour or so! The teens were glad he was found but a little mad at him. He's lucky he came back then because his ride was leaving. His ride picked him up before he got to the house, which was probably a good thing because the teens were a little ticked off. ;)

I'm just thankful we found him and he's all right. All kinds of things were going through my mind while the search was on!

And so ends a 17th birthday. She is growing up.

Y'know it's one thing to be sad that your oldest is growing up, but when all but one is, it hits you harder. You feel a little older.