Happy Birthday -- the 14th for C

We celebrated our young friend C's birthday today. Yesterday was her actual birthday, but my husband and I don't like to intrude on her family's plans for her, so we had our special day with her today. C is 14 now...... hard to believe that I've known her since she was in the second grade.
In fact, the way I met C was through the Reading Partners program at our local school, which was started up by our dear friend Frankie.

Frankie, like me, loved books and loved to read. She thought it would be such a great idea for "senior" adults to tutor young children in reading. I didn't qualify in the "senior citizen" category because I wasn't old enough, but the school let me join the program anyway. C was one of my students and we just 'clicked' right from the beginning. We've been friends ever since.

And today was C's day. It was warm and sunny and a beautiful day-- much nicer than all the rain and wind of yesterday. Being that she's getting older, and she's very social and outgoing, we gave C the option of either going out for lunch or dinner, according to what her schedule was (being that this week is Spring Break here); and we also told C that she could invite one of her friends to have lunch with us if she'd like to.

C picked lunch-time.... and she invited her girl friend L to join us. So off the four of us went... to Babbo Bruno. Our favorite place, and C's favorite restaurant as well. We took her there last year when we celebrated her 13th birthday. And we've brought her there from time to time during the year.

We were at Babbo Bruno's last week, and my husband asked the owner if he could order lobsters for C's birthday and surprise us with a special dish. And so he did. Stefano himself brought out two large platters and put them in the middle of our table. They will filled with lobsters, shrimp, mussels, and homemade pasta.... all smothered in a light tomato/garlic sauce. Totally delicious, and C felt very special to be having lobster for lunch. Her friend L hadn't ever tasted lobster before, but my husband showed her how to get the meat out of the shells and she loved it also.

For dessert, we were all surprised. Stefano had fixed up a special dessert platter... four different desserts (flourless chocolate cake, Italian cheesecake with orange sauce, panecotta with raspberry sauce, biscotti... plus fresh strawberries and ice cream). There was a candle in the chocolate cake, and Stefano and his family sang Happy Birthday (in Italian) to 14-yr-old C. It was a magical lunch for all of us.

C was thrilled with her gifts...... a pretty leopard purse that I filled up with silver heart-shaped earrings, a silver bracelet with blue dolphins, an ankle bracelet with blue beads, a silver necklace with a blue dolphin, lip glosses and a pink suede mirror, and a pair of movie-star sunglasses that C called "Miss Larrie" glasses. (I knew she'd love those because she's always loved mine!) C has always loved dolphins too.... and my husband made her a special one-of-a-kind dolphin birthday card on his computer, which she thought was "So cool!"

I wrapped up a party-favor bag for her friend L...... a small yellow silk purse which I filled with girl-y goodies-- lip gloss, emory boards, a pink suede mirror like the one I gave C, and a little gold shoe filled with chocolate.

Fourteen. C is getting to be a young lady now. She's a girl-y girl...... she loves pretty things, and shoes, and jewelry...... and she loves cats, and dogs, as well as dolphins. She has my sense of style and my husband's sense of humor. C's parents have told us that no other couple that they know is as close to C as we are. And truly, my husband and I couldn't love C any more if she were our own daughter. She's very special to us. And to think that if it hadn't been for Frankie and her idea of that Reading Partners program, we never would've had this wonderful child in our lives.

There are no coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. That's what Frankie always used to tell me. And I firmly believe she was right.