happy birthday natalie!

 My younger sister just turned 17 today (now she can officially go to R-rated movies on her own... or buy dried ice... weird) and we had a lovely little birthday dinner for her. She insisted on making her own cake (she has a slight obsession with baking) and made us all eat vegetables for dinner. Lots of vegetables. Well, we were allowed to eat some chicken with our veggies this time, which was a step up from last time she cooked...

I have to say it was a pretty good cake, despite her addition of unrefined sugars and a variety of healthy flours. It was a pound cake with lemon curd and fresh berries on the inside with lemon buttercream frosting. Yum.

Oh, and this is the necklace I was wearing today. Sorry you aren't getting any outfit pictures, once again no one would take photos for me and I just wasn't feeling self-timer photos today. Promise I'll make Natalie take some photos for me tomorrow.

One of Natalie's friends gave her henna tattoos, which we of course proceeded to put all over each other (Natalie also has one right below her belly button, it's pretty classy ^^) As you can see, Natalie got a nice normal tattoo, down the back of her neck. Quite pretty actually, something she'll probably be able to leave on for awhile. I, on the other hand...

Yep, there is henna on my cheeks. I come home from pilates and find them putting these on and they swarm me, trying to figure out where they could put a tattoo. Their original suggestion was above my eyebrows. Really? Really. Thankfully I got them to back down to the cheekbones, though I'll still have to wash them off before I go volunteer tomorrow, sadly. 

Oh. My. Goodness. So exhausted. I went to bed much later than was advisable last night, then got up at 7:45 to go out for breakfast with Natalie and the parents for her birthday. It was quite good (I got french toast and sausage) but still. Much too early. To be honest, I ended up taking multiple (short) naps throughout the day. Didn't really help. So now I'm going to bed and don't plan on waking up for a long time... Good night :)