My surprise 16th birthday party

OHMYGOSH.
This turned out to be a really long post.
But,
OHMYGOSH, so much excitement has taken place.
Read on.

Today started off as a fairly normal Saturday. I woke up around 8:45, ate some peanut butter slathered waffles, did a touch of homework and drove on an actual highway for the first time ever (and lived to tell the tale). I was then told that we were going to take family photos and I needed to wear a dress. Now, you've got to understand that I don't just bust out in a dress for any old thing. Really, only for church. Saturday is my day to wear whatever ugly/out-of-dress-code/comfortable clothing I want, and definitely not a dress. I was confused, because mom was claiming that I was taking these family photos with my camera, using my tripod and the remote shutter app. And it was supposedly impromptu, but I was then presented with a choice between 3 different dresses all new, purchased earlier this week, for the "impromptu" photo shoot. And this all just started to sound fishy. My family doesn't really do spontaneity.  And I started thinking; "my birthday is coming up this week" and then "when I asked my friends what they were up to this weekend, they all said that they were just 'busy' Saturday afternoon" and then "why would I have to wear a dress if we aren't actually taking family photos". I deduced that there was probably some kind of surprise party, but I had no real idea of what was in store.
You've got to understand that I don't really do surprises, and I had no intentions of having a 16th birthday party beyond pizza and dessert at my Grandma's house with our close family-friends. Also understand that my birthday parties have been really low key for the last 5ish years. In recent years our family and our close family-friends and maybe 1 or 2 friends from school would spend the afternoon at my grandparents house and property, racing go-karts and playing wiffle ball. Nothing fancy or frilly, but very authentic and meaningful, while still being low-key. I loved those birthday weekends with the crepe paper streamers and homemade desserts and long games on the large lawn. LOVED THEM.
But we moved and some things changed. We live halfway across the country from our beloved Fresnan friends, and my grandparents now have a yard the size of a driveway.
Last year we celebrated with our Austinite family-friends at a restaurant and my family went to San Antonio for the weekend to go explore. Such fun.
All this to say; I had decided that I didn't want to do a big 16th birthday party. My birthday is just so close to the start of the school year and I felt like I didn't have my life together well enough to plan a party. I was excited about our low-key pizza and dessert situation, but I was surprised by the parental units.
They chose to surprise the heck out of me with a progressive birthday party with a limo full of my friends. The whole afternoon was crazy awesome. Nothing could have gone any better. I had so much fun. And so I want to share some photo evidence of all the fun and excitement. Yes? yes.

First we went to the cathedral of junk, a place that's been on my "places to adventure to" list for awhile. It is an art installation created by Vince Hanneman, dubbed a "yardist" for his amazing creation. It is structurally sound 3 story playhouse type thing that would be so much fun to sit and play i-spy in. It's the actual epitome of ecleticticty. There is just stuff everywhere. But not in a hoarder type way. It's all organized by color and such. I took loads more photos of the amazing sight, and I'll post them separately later this week. They're crazy awesome, I swear. For now I'll just show y'all the cute ones of my highly photogenic friends and I being cool.

Then we headed to the graffiti park and took some fun, colorful pictures and added our mark to the spray painted chaos. It was fantastic. My normally calm and rule-abiding friends became different people when in possession of cans of spray paint. It was hilarous and a bit scary at the same time. They Just before school started (about 3 weeks ago) I visited the park and it's amazing how drastically the artwork can change is a few weeks time.

After a quick Whole Foods restroom escapade we headed to Zilker Park to chill and open gifts. These girls are expert gift givers (and gift wrappers). From coloring books to loch ness monster socks, I can't wait to use and enjoy these thoughtful gifts. Thanks everybody!

My parents gave me this gorgeous titanium ring and it's basically the best.

Our next stop on the agenda was dinner at a sandwich making food truck. The food was quite delectable; it exceeded my expectations for a food truck (blew them out of the water, actually). 

In our family we have a bit of a tradition that includes writing (or just generally expressing, if you're that bold) things about the birthday person. Sometimes we write on stars or cards, sometimes we fill out questionnaires, sometimes we go in circle. Anything and everything goes, really. It's just nice to have some things people have written about/for you in a box some where to go and reread when you need a boost. You know? Anyhoo, while we were waiting on our dinner my friends wrote and colored and doodled on some blank card stock and stuffed them in envelopes. I have yet to read them all, but even from the outside I'm intrigued. 

On our way to dessert we made a stop at the fountain on the UT campus for yet another photo opportunity. Right after this photo was taken my camera battery died, so that's why there's no more photos for a bit. And yes, water was consumed from champagne glasses. Why not, right?

We then went to THE CUTEST bakery for dessert. We all got cupcakes and mine was s'mores flavored and had a little white candle lit with the crembrulee blow torch. It was exciting. I wasn't hungry though, so I brought it home and I've eaten it as I wrote up this post. The marshmallow frosting has changed my life. I NEED to know how to make it. It's like extra sweet and thick meringue which was retained it's fluffy, light texture. It's magical. Like eating a cloud.

Today was amazing. I was shocked and touched by how much planning and deliberation my parents and friends put in to pull off such a surprise. Thank you all so very much. I had such a blast. I'm just sitting here, still smiling in awe of the whole afternoon. 

To all my progressive birthday adventurers; Thank you all so very much. Thank you for coming, for being awesome, for going with the flow, for being your fun, awesome little photogenic selves!

To my mom, dad, and dear friend Margaret; Thank you for making all this happen. You guys are the best. Love you!!!