Happy 13th Birthday, Rachel!

On July 20th, Miss Rachel turned 13 years old! Finally an official teenager! She doesn't like cake and cupcakes so she dropped plenty of hints every time I was on a computer that she wanted me to make her some homemade ice cream, preferably vanilla. I ended up making both vanilla and chocolate ice cream, and they were pretty good!

Ingredients. You see those vanilla beans? Although they smelled so good, and made the ice cream taste delicious, they were stinking $8! For only two! Next time I will be buying them on Amazon where they were only $22 for about 54! Wegmens is sooo overpriced!

This little stinker didn't feel like sleeping that night, so he got up to help me make ice cream at 11 pm. Ha, too cute. Vacation ruins any schedules!

The vanilla beans smelled so good!

When we made the chocolate ice cream, Andrew's favorite part was unwrapping the little chocolate squares!

So delicious. Rich, creamy, and smooth!

13 Candles! She blew them all out at once! And if you look closely, you can see how humongous her ice cream sundae bowl is!

Happy Birthday, Rach!

Ice Cream Toppings: Chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, crushed Oreos, mini M&Ms, chopped nuts, cherries, gummie bears, whipped cream, and sprinkles!

Suzanne and Aubrey--glad the Shields were all here to help us celebrate!

Ha, the little boys were in Heaven!

Cute Aubrey!

Leslie making her sundae!

And one last picture of Evan: so stinking cute. He is getting so big and fun!

13 Wonderful things about Rachel:

1. She is both a fun loving girl and a serious girl at the same time.
2. Rachel has such a creative mind, and she is always doing a new craft or sewing a quilt!
3. She is the most independent girl in the world! Completely opposite of myself, she never procrastinates anything and she is always on top of her game!
4. She can be quite the crack up.
5. She has lots of love for her family, although she gets annoyed with us too!
6. Rachel has always been such a hard worker: from school, to at home, to at church. She manages her time, helps everyone around the house, and goes to church activities and Personal Progress lessons.
   
7. She can't wait for me to leave for college, but I know inside she will truly miss me :)
8. Rachel and I are very alike when it comes to one thing: we both hate sports. So together, we don't feel like pathetic losers while Suzanne is at swim team and the boys play soccer.
9. She will tell you how it is. Straight up. My hair looks ridiculous? She lets me know. I smell because I haven't showered in maybe three days? Man, you smell. So brutally honest!
10. Rachel is awesome at serving and helping others (most of the time--unless it's me, ha!!
11. She is such a great friend and an example to her friends.
    
12. Rachel is her very own person. She is not like Suzanne or myself, who have many things in common. Rachel is unique.
    
13. She loved her birthday! She better have, because I spent lots of time on the ice cream! :)