Entries about birthday

When I woke up this morning, something felt different... I was 14! But if we are going to get into the details, I wasn't really because I was born Victoria time...but Hannah and my dad let me have a wonderful birthday celebration anyways. At eight in the morning my dad woke me up with my mom and grandma on Skype. I was able to talk to them for a while, and I got caught up on things with my mom. By the time I was finished on Skype, Hannah was already downstairs and cooking breakfast, so I decided to get dressed and ready for my big day. Then I called for my dad to lead me down the stairs and when I opened my eyes at the bottom, I saw that most of the apartment was decorated with balloons! My dad took some pictures of me and then we all sat down to enjoy and wonderful chocolaty breakfast--chocolate chip pancakes with Nutella. They were very enjoyable, and we even had some left over for the next day. Then, as usual, I opened my presents at the breakfast table. I started with Hannah's, which were conveniently hidden around the house. I was given a clue sheet to help me figure out where to find my gifts. Each set of clues made a sentence that told me where to look. Try and see if you can figure it out:

First gift:

1. The opposite of out:
2. ____ cat in ____ hat:
3. Bronze:
4. A fancy outfit:
5. Um, ah, hm, etc:
6. A type of artist:

Second gift:

1. Rhymes w/ pin, win, sin:
2. Hey diddle diddle, ____ cat & ____ fiddle:
3. Do re:
4. Not a raven:
5. Between curly and straight:

Third gift:

1. A place to picnic:
2. The 2nd word above:
3. F1, miss, E5, miss, B3, hit!:
4. The opposite of stop:
5. A pair:
6. Like prison, but smaller:

I think I did it quite fast, actually. And by the way, if you read on you will find the answers to all the clues. My presents from Hannah were as follows: Mascara (in the third dresser drawer), a lip pencil (in the microwave), and eye shadow (park place, battleship, go to jail (in the monopoly box)). My dad also had a clever idea with his gift. I was given them in a particular order, first was a kinder egg (with 14 cents taped to the side). Second was a bag of chocolate soccer balls (with 14 cents taped to the side). Third was a package of marshmallows called "Nubes" (with €14 taped to the side). And last was a package of bobby pins (and in the wrapping there was a cheque for $140). My dad said that the bag of chocolate was supposed to have €1.40 with it, but he had used that part of his coinage for tolls the previous day. He then presented me with another fantastic gift, although this onewas more temporary. He had rented the Disney movie Brave, as I had been telling both of them how great it was and how I wished we could see it. My last present I had gotten earlier that year, in June... a fantastic, red laptop...I still have yet to name him. If you have any ideas I would be glad to hear them.

After breakfast, cleanup and presents, Hannah and Dad went to check out the market which was almost directly on our doorstep. I opted to stay inside. They came back with a few more presents for me, a watch (with the union jack as it's face) and a pair of earrings (both with the union jack on them). I think I might have just revealed an obsession of mine...

After the goods had been put away I was made a fruit salad of mango, pineapple and kiwi. Unfortunately the mango was a little unripe, and the pineapple a little too ripe, but the part of it that I did eat was very good indeed. Energized, I decided that I wanted to walk up the bluff again, as yesterday we had seen two ways to go up. When we tried the set of stairs we had not been on yet, we came to a pair of caves, both with metal bars in front of their entrances so not to let anyone get in. Soon enough the paths met up again and formed into one. We went on a short circular path at the top that over looked a different part of the city. We saw what we thought was a school, but then later decided it must have been a recreation centre, because we didn't think that many schools were equipped with three soccer fields, a track, a basketball court, and a small outdoor arena surrounded by bleachers. On the top of the actual bluff we saw a house that had been damaged by a fire we had heard about. The house itself seemed reasonably unharmed, but the forest around the property, as well as the pool, was quite damaged. After this I decided I wanted to start heading back so we climbed down and explored the city for a little longer. When we got back to our apartment Hannah made some very good tomato soup and we had a baguette alongside that, as well as oil and vinegar as dip. I then decided to try my luck at Monopoly, but it seems that I have no luck when it comes to rolling dice. Either that or the gods of business board games hate me.

After the very taxing game I said that we should all take a rest... except for Hannah because she had a meal to cook. But it didn't take her too long to whip up a fabulous home-cooked meal of macaroni and cheese. My dad sang his praise at the dinner table, and I told her that I enjoyed it too. I also liked the Caesar salad we had with it... see, I do eat my vegetables. After dinner my dad brought out some New Years hats, necklaces and sound makers that we all enjoyed and picked out which ones we wanted to wear when the time came. Then came the greatest part of the day... the BIRTHDAY CAKE. I picked out a chocolate coffee cake that was fantastic. And because there were only three of us to share it.. we have some left over for the next day. After cake we watched Brave, and I enjoyed it just as much as the first one. I highly recommend it, as well as the movie Tangled. After we finished the movie we still had an hour and a half to kill before midnight so we decided to look at some best of 2012 and 2012 reflection videos. I personally think that Google's is the best. My dad also showed us some Rolf Harris whom I liked a lot, and I showed the two of them some David Garibaldi, who I think is also fabulous. But soon after we began our countdown...and before we knew it, it was 2013! Fireworks sounded outside, although they were too far away and above the clouds so we couldn't see the actual thing. We heard some people in the streets, but we decided to stick with our small and closed celebration which was just for us. But after we finished our couple minutes of celebration we didn't feel like it was time for bed yet, so we searched our favourite websites (Netflix and hulu) for something else to watch. We were caught up on all of our favourite series (modern family, the middle and elementary) and the only one we weren't caught up on we weren't allowed to watch until my mom came home (Downton Abbey). So we settled for an old favourite, a series we used to watch but then everyone but me said it was getting boring, it's a series called Merlin. I think it's great... but the rest of my family has clouded judgement. After we finished the show we were all very tired and promptly hopped into bed, and into a long, deep sleep..the first one of the New Year.