Twenty Birthdays

My firstborn is no longer a teenager! Tonight was Sarah's 20th birthday. We didn't really get to celebrate because the boys and I were in school all day, and we came home just in time for Sarah to rush off to NPC.

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Poor girl: here it was her birthday, and not only did she have to take a test in biology, but she also had to give her first oral presentation in English Comp II. She was very nervous, but it went well. She was the first in her class to present, and the professor told Sarah she set the bar high for everyone else to live up to!

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When she got home from school, we did sing Happy Birthday while she blew out the candles on her cake (above). And now, a fun retrospective of the birthdays in Sarah's life:

27 Oct 1990: One-year-old Sarah loved that birthday cake!
26 Oct 1991: At age two, Sarah seems suspicious of the birthday cake!
24 oct 1992: The gifts are taller than three-year-old Sarah!
27 Oct 1993: Four-year-old Sarah has gotten the hang of this whole birthday thing!

29 Oct 1994: Says five-year-old Sarah, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth..."

28 Oct 1995: Six-year-old Sarah hopes to blow out her candles before brother Jacob does! (Jacob was four.)

28 Oct 1996: Is seven-year-old Sarah plotting an extra-special wish?

27 Oct 1997: Sarah thinks it's great to be eight!

27 Oct 1998: Sarah now feels that it's fine to be nine!

23 Oct 1999: Sarah had 2 cakes for her tenth birthday. This first one was 4 days before her birthday, when she had a big party with lots of girlfriends over to celebrate...

...and this one on her actual birthday, Oct. 27, with just our family. Doesn't she look perky and cute in the new short 'do?

26 Oct 2000: Sarah was in heaven when she turned eleven!

27 Oct 2001: Sarah says her twelfth birthday was her favorite. We celebrated with her cousins and other relatives at a park in Mesa while we were there for the weekend.

27 Oct 2002: Sarah officially becomes a teenager when she turns thirteen!

27 Oct 2003: Sarah with her brothers on her fourteenth birthday. Dylan was 6 and Jacob was 12.

27 Oct 2004: Fifteen-year-old Sarah with her birthday presents. Mom surprised her at school with the balloons and the cup filled with gifts.
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Oddly, I have no photos from Sarah's 16th and 17th birthdays. We remember that Sarah and I went to see the movie Elizabethtown for her sweet sixteenth. I don't care for chick flicks, but Sarah and I both love to gaze adoringly at Orlando Bloom on the big screen! It's a mom and daughter thing...

3 Nov 2007: Sarah celebrates her 18th birthday with two of her best friends, Emmi and Tahna.

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Happy birthday, my sweet Sarah! It's been an amazing twenty years!