Our eldest is legally an adult...

 ...and she will always be our first baby and hopefully retains all the wonderful things of her childhood long into her time of legal adulthood! As an unschooling family, and a mom still in the process of deschooling, we aren't big on these standard and set milestones (or at least I try not to pay much attention to the external pressures that place ages next to specific things that "should" happen in a certain time frame). That said, should Kali wish to, there are some things she could do now without getting into trouble that she could not a mere two weeks ago... 

But enough about that! I mostly wanted to give you a rundown on the various ways we chose to celebrate this dearly beloved human! I should probably start by giving a quick update on the long dreamed of trip to the Philippines - as I'm getting some questions about why Tala has gone home without Kali. That was, most certainly, not by Kali or Tala's choosing - but instead due to the Philippine government's regulations. Thankfully we came to this realization weeks before the set departure date, giving time for all to adjust to the idea of a postponement of this dream. The hope, assuming Covid regulations change to make it possible, is that Kali could go next spring during fruit and festival season! So it's not a cancellation, just a delay. 

Maybe for starters, I'll share the ways that some things have changed and others have not. Kids have clearly grown. But they still love to be goofy. One of the fun aspects of Kali's small outdoor bday gathering this year was an attempted reenactment of a birthday party photo from 4 years ago. I think they did pretty well:

It was fun to have a few additions to this year's picture. Maybe this one can be reenacted 4 years from now?!

It is still relatively uncommon for Kali and her parents to be sleeping much at the same time in any 24 hour period. She is still much more a night owl than us, which we discovered (much to our dismay initially) almost from the start. 

She is very much like her father in a number of ways - not that he likes to spend time reading in a laundry basket. They both can easily get lost in a book and are both highly distractible (note the book she chose to read on this particular occasion - Driven to Distraction).

Her sweet and kind nature can still bring joy and fun to any space that she is in. 

She is not afraid to be goofy (and very orange) - she actually relishes it! She is also eager to embrace new experiences and challenges when she sets her mind to it - like moving from being an orange-dressed supporter at blood drives to donating blood herself.

She is a patient, sensitive, caring big sister and cousin. She takes delight in little people and honors their dignity, respecting them even when their requests or needs may seem unreasonable or inconvenient. She will speak up if she feels Alida and Terah have not been heard out (trust me, I've been called on this on multiple occasions and am so grateful for her accountability).

From little on up she has been interested in being involved in what the rest of us are doing. And "helping" has now become helping! But she has been a delight to include in home and farm and family projects (if we can get her out of bed in time to join us!). I remember early on marveling at how fun it was to do errands with Kali. She made a string of 12 stops around town more enjoyable! 

She is very generous and has very little attachment to material things (now anyway - there were the days where she was very sentimentally attached to every little shred of paper she had touched and become attached to. But I'm more and more convinced with each child that that must be some very important developmental stage that many children naturally go through and make it, along with their parents, to the other side). 

And, finally, she is eager to stretch her wings and fly (while she had been hoping that would be in a plane over the ocean, she will have to seek out some other ways to stretch her horizons and embrace new experiences until that time is possible).

In the meantime, we are going to savor all the times we have together. And here's some of the ways we soaked up fun times on and around Kali's 18th birthday!

While not exactly for her birthday, a fun road trip kicked off her birthday week. She, along with Tala and our dear friend, David, did a little two day jaunt to Cape Charles. They were able to stay at the same small cottage that we stayed for a much needed getaway by water soon after Nora died and returned the summer marking 10 years since her death, that time introducing Alida and Terah to that special place. It was really sweet envisioning Kali there with other loved ones. I'm glad she made it safely as she successfully held her breath through half of the Bay Bridge Tunnel. They also took a lengthy detour so she would "wade" in the ocean. One thing about Kali: wading in water, no matter the time of year or temperature of water, normally ends in swimming - this time was no different!

The days right around Kali's birthday are all getting really fuzzy in my mind. Kali couldn't even be very helpful with the chronology. I know this much - we had a lot of special meals together and played games (and did fit in some canning and salsa making and green bean processing in the cracks). We had a T.W. birthday meal early on the Thursday before Kali's birthday since my parents were headed out for a long WV stint before the actual anniversary of her birth. For that meal we enjoyed fried eggplant and okra and fresh corn on the cob! I'm always so glad when she chooses fried eggplant for one of her birthday meals. :) And clearly she has enjoyed corn on the cob for a long time now!

The first of several Smiley's ice cream cakes came out later in the evening! We just finished off the last of those cakes tonight and I think all concurred that the ice cream cakes were yummy but going forward we would just pick the delicious ice cream and choose our own toppings. 

We then had a T.W. birthday meal (minus my parents) on the eve of Kali's birthday. This featured Tala's delicious burgers at Kali's request - another menu choice stamped with the approval of all of us. This was planned for her actual birthday but weather had us move her gathering with friends to allow for an outdoor get together. 

I'm chuckling that I have very few pictures of Kali's birthday celebrations that don't involve us sitting around the table with a spread of food. She requested potato crusted quiches for her birthday brunch and I added in some pumpkin cranberry chocolate muffins for good measure. 

The game highlight of the day was playing Elusis. No, I'm not going to even try to explain it here. Suffice it to say, it takes a lot of cards (especially if the pattern chosen is very complicated or the people trying to figure it out are very tired). Both were true in the instance pictured here. 

The day featured a fun zoom call with one of Kali's two birthday buddies. Years ago around the table with friends we realized that 3 of them all had the same birthday. 

Then a very typical birthday celebration commenced with a few close (and thankfully fully vaccinated) friends: an evening around the fire making pizza pockets, roasting the last corn on the cob of the year, laughing and playing games. 

While Covid made for a 2nd year without the tradition of a trip to the Rockingham County Fair and it also had us reign in the number of people joining for birthday festivities, I think (hope) that Kali still felt well loved and celebrated. Because she is!!