Yesterday was a special day in our world as we welcomed a teenager into it! Rylie is my sweet stepdaughter who I’d like to remember as being a tiny 6 year old who loved me to frenchbraid her hair into piggy tails, and now she’s an inch taller than me and we can share shoes. Time is flying by and she’s growing so gracefully it’s almost unfair to all the other kids around her, but she’s so kind to them that they love her anyways. 🙂

We planned a “simple” pool party that I soon dubbed the “Royal Birthday” since we went a little overboard. We just figured you only turn 13 once, and when your kid brings home the best possible report card all year they deserve something special. So we hired a DJ and got a cool custom cake, and Rylie’s mom, Dana (and her crew) did an amazing job on all the hot pink zebra details as well as a nacho and candy bar! Whew…I’m tired again just thinking about it all.

Of course I brought my camera gear and took a bunch of pictures and someone said, “Oh I can’t wait to see these!” and I kind of laughed to myself and thought, “You probably will never see them!”. I have soooo many personal photos on my hard drive that I haven’t even looked at yet. I have big plans for them, but sometimes I just never prioritize a time to do that.

I didn’t want these pictures to hide on my hard drive forever. So I came home last night and stayed up til 2:30am putting together a VideoShow of the party. Talk about a fast turnaround time! So here’s a few pictures and if you want to see the fun we had you can watch the video at the bottom. What can I say, I’m a dorky stepmom.

DJ – Perry from North Florida Express DJs

Cake and cupcakes – Bite of Your Life Custom Bakery and Sweet Shop

I think so she looks so sophisticated in her zebra-striped one-piece:

Rylie turns 13! from Kylene Gay on Vimeo.