Celebrations: The Sweet 16 edition

Sister Strings turned sweet 16 this week. Yes, that's a cheesecake, because she doesn't like "normal" cake OR chocolate!  She was delighted to receive this for her big birthday gift this year:

If you're technologically challenged like I am, you're probably wondering what that is. She's been begging for this for a while, because she LOVES to draw digital pictures of animals on the computer.  Before this, she only had a mouse to work with and would draw simple things like this:

After 5 minutes with this digital drawing pad hooked up, she was thrilled to announce how much easier it is to draw things now and produced this quick sketch to demonstrate:

Uh...Don't ask me how she learned this.  I'm just a homeschooling mom.  LOL.  She's working on something more complex now that I'll have to share later.  It's very humbling when your children exceed your knowledge in certain areas, ya know?  I guess I'm working myself out of a job.  That's the idea, though, right?  Here she's looking very natural holding her newest cousin that just recently joined us and came for a visit this week:

 My sweet baby is growing up to be a charming, beautiful, and talented young woman, and I'm very pleased to watch how God is moving in her heart and life.  I'm greatly looking forward to seeing God's plan unfold in her life as He gradually reveals to us His will for her journey into adulthood. 

And to add to the excitement of the week, we all went to the zoo, because you know this girl LOVES animals.  I wouldn't be surprised to find her married to a farmer, vet, or zookeeper one day...who happens to be musical too. :) Here are some zoo highlights, but I will spare you the gazillion photos that Brother Brass took that day, as he has all of the sudden decided that he likes to be the photographer. 

 Taking photos to make drawings from...

 Miss Melody loved the Lemurs best...

 Had to steal the camera to get a pic of the photographer...

And last, but not least...the tour guide...

A fun and eventful week.  Next week we hit the books!  ...A little bit anyways...  :)