HAPPY BIRTHDAY 21ST TO ME

Sunday Lunch/School Birthday/Bethell's Beach/Skype Date

Well I am official 21! It's crazy to think I am 21! Anyways, I got a couple of days of celebration! Yeah! The first day of celebration was on Sunday! I had been missing Mexican food, so Paea asked what I would like for dinner, and I said I would make a meal from home! I chose to make chicken enchiladas! They were so good! It felt like home eating them. Cooper really enjoyed them! We decided to do my main meal on Sunday, so I would have more time to prepare it, and so we could do something fun on my birthday! It's tradition in my family to take the birthday dinner picture, so I made sure to take the traditional picture.

Now the next thing I needed was a birthday cake! At our house, we usually do the star birthday cakes, and make them very fancy! I wanted a cake, but I wasn't sure what to do, because I knew if I just had a regular cake I wouldn't be satisfied. I decided I would make my Dad's favourite birthday cake! Another plus is that it is a pretty easy recipe! So I had Paea get all of the things, and well we met a few difficulties along the way. First it needs a yellow cake mix. This is a problem, they do not have a yellow cake mix over here. So Paea got a vanilla cake mix. So we made it work. Then the next step involves instant vanilla pudding, well they don't have vanilla pudding either. So for this, we made it from scratch! Yup, we made it! Then the next step involves pineapple! This should be easy right? Crushed pineapple from a can? Well if you thought it was easy, you'd be wrong. You see Paea doesn't have a can opener. Ha ha So now you have two girls are trying to open a can with a knife and scissors. Yes, this is not safe! But no worries we survived! Following this the final topping is cool whip. Well cool whip isn't over here either. Nor is any kind of cream that is whipped already unless it comes from a can. This was fine though, we can just get heavy whipping cream and whip it ourselves. Well of course the story can't stop there. Whipping the cream couldn't be that easy. So we are baking the cake, and Paea wasn't home. We couldn't find an electrical mixer of any sort! So guess what we did! We whipped it by hand! To top things off, her whisk is about six inches tall and maybe a centimeter wide. This did not make it go very fast. Anyway, we whipped it, and whipped it, and whipped it. As it was starting to get close to looking like whipped cream, Paea gets home. Guess what!? She walks in, "Oh girls I forgot to give this to you, yup it was an electrical mixer." Ha ha it was so funny! We laughed, and thought well at least it was an adventure! After all of that though, it made a very tasty cake! It wasn't exactly like it tastes when mum makes it, but it was very good!

We got the cake made, and now we were waiting till my real birthday to eat it! So the next day, I go to school. I had tried to keep a secret, I'm not really sure why, but I did. Well don't worry my friends that work at the school, and Jim, made sure that everybody knew it was my birthday! During the morning meeting, all the students sang happy birthday to me. When they sing happy birthday, the first sing in English, then Samoan, and last in Maori. This was very fun! The kids were very cute! Then during morning tea, the principal Trevor Diamond, made an announcement about my birthday to the staff. The staff made sure to tease me a lot. They all wanted to give me a birthday present of "the hot young electrician" that was working in the building...ha ha. They enjoyed a little banter with me. After school, I came home, and I was able to talk to my family for a little bit! This was very fun! Then Paea came home! She wanted to go up to Bethell's beach and have a picnic on the beach. So we packed the food, and the cake, and we took it up to the beach! I must say, it's pretty crazy to say that I had a picnic on the beach for my birthday in the middle of February! There aren't very many people who can say that with a February Birthday.
     We drove up to Bethell's beach, and it was gorgeous! It is a black sand beach. Now in the afternoon it had been a little rainy, but now by the evening it had cleared up. So when we got there, there was absolutely no one else at the beach! It was incredible! We also got there just a little before sunset, and a little before the tide came in. It was incredible. I have never seen anything so beautiful! The pictures don't do it justice!

Once we had got there, we sat down and ate our dinner! We had watermelon, and these spaghetti bowls (it's kind of hard to explain). But they were very good. Then we got to eat birthday cake!! Yeah! They even sang to me again! This was a lot of fun! Paea and Cooper aren't into taking pictures. So Paea volunteered to take it, and Cooper tried to run out, but we caught him in it before he could run out. 

After we ate, it was time for us to go exploring on the beach! This was incredible, there were some caves that we got to go through, we got to see the river that comes down to it, and just enjoy the beach! It really was so much fun! We played a little bit in the water, and even had a small water fight! It really was fun to have a beach birthday!

That was the end of my New Zealand birthday! Then the best part of my birthday is my United States birthday! After school on my Tuesday 22nd, February, I got to come home and have a big group skype date! My whole family was up at my house, AND I even got to talk to Carol and Chuck! We did a group call! It was so great to talk to everyone! I have missed talking to everyone! I loved it! I also got to open my packages. This was a lot of fun! I enjoyed everything. It was a little weird not to have Ashlyn helping me open my presents. I think this is the first birthday in about four years that she hasn't helped me, but she was the one sitting in the chair telling me which ones to open. It was a lot of fun! It  really was such a great 21st birthday! Thanks so much to all my family for making it such a great birthday! Thanks Mum and Dad! Thanks Carol and Chuck! Thanks Natasha, Danny, Ashlyn, and Bryson! And Thanks Natalie and Kolt! You really made it a special day for me even when I am on the opposite side of the world!

(P.S. I don't think I have ever been this tan for my birthday before! I am usually white in February!)