Sweet Sixteen

"It's easy to impress me. Just good friends, good food, and good laughs. I'm happy. I'm content" -Maria Sharapova

As I write this a little over a week after my birthday party, I can't help but smile because somehow my party had been everything I hoped it could be and yet nothing how I dreamed it would be. I had an fantastic time, full of friends and good cheer, and I can't help smiling just remembering it! When people think of sixteenth birthday parties, you might think of a packed room, the music's beat, and a crazy party revolving around you. You might think of a few friends spending the night-full of laughter and too much candy. However, you could also think like me and want exactly in between-a good number of friends, great music, and plenty of laughter! However, I also wanted to fulfill my life-long dream of a black and white masquerade ball! Okay well...there wasn't much dancing, so you might not call it a ball. However, a masquerade ball sounds better than a masquerade party so we're sticking to that. After spending a large majority of my October break (the week before) planning to every minute detail, my party had finally arrived!
Due to my nagging OCD, I got a lot of eye-rolling from my mother when I went- "That doesn't match.", "No, that gold thing cannot be above the window with that banner", *Let's take everything off the table I just planned and redo it because there's too much red on one side* However, the decorations came out just as I wanted them too!

Tasty Table full of food!

I might be overly proud of my piano decorations

Allons-y had too much fun with all the balloons in the house

Once everyone started to arrive-to a very excited, but very nervous me. We let the games begin with 20 Questions,  a great icebreaker if you wanted to know. After taping a random person(and one eiffel tower) to the backs of everyone and people guessing: Benedict Cumberbatch, Romeo, Shakira, J.K. Rowling and ummm what's her name...Marilyn Monroe, we moved on to eating...or a lack there of. For some weird reason people decided eating wasn't important and I was left with a surplus of overly sweet food + junk food. Next, I directed people over to my homemade photo booth; where 47 goofy pictures were taken and now will just have to be cherished forever!

We're basically some musket-wielding Charlie's Angels or something

How adorable are these lovely ladies!

Sam- who somehow looks gorgeous while being goofy

A hostage!

Classy and Sassy

Can I hear a Wild West Whistle?

                                                 

Alex looking like some gallivant prince until you see that his damsel isn't distressed, just crazy

Christina - "Lollipop Lollipop oh lolli-lolli-lolli-POP, Sam-"I'm Beautiful! Anya- "I have a rat! Isabella-"I'm getting leaned on...LOOK GORGEOUS!

She finally escaped!

'The- I'm- only- 90- pounds- please- take- this- picture- quickly' face

I'm smiling, but also getting a gun held to my throat....hmmmm

The picture that makes me laugh way too much!

When your evil villain face is really you just laughing...

After some low-key talking time, that included sitting on the floor around Alex talking about books and filling out memory note cards about yours truly we decided to play "the peach ring game'(I'm mostly calling it that because I'm unsure of the actual name). This consists of everyone standing in a circle with toothpicks in their mouths and a peach ring and trying to get the peach ring(a candy) from one toothpick to another without using your hands. This results in some intimate moments and pictures that I won't post here; I'll only post the less embarrassing ones.

It's harder to play this when you are shaking with laughter

This is obviously the reason they started dating the next week... Yo' Welcome

Alex: "I cant' do this!" when Tessa is all focus

I feel like my birthday party ended up becoming this nerdy get-together including book talk, an argument over whether Phantom of the Opera is scary, a tragedy, of a romance(obviously it's a tragic romance), and outrage over an insult against The Fault in Our Stars.  I love that, on the majority, my friends felt comfortable enough with each other to put up with the silly games I picked out and for the most random aspects of my party(and myself).

When 'Baby, I love you' gets out of hand...

*Mingling*

Da' Boys

"Hey, girl, Hey"

Honestly, this is basically my favorite picture of the party...

"Ayyy' Sexay Laday"

My face says it all-"I'm having my Sweet 16!!!!"

Adorable we are- Adorable is us.

After playing 'Baby, I love you' which is actually the best game ever and included some very creepy sayings,inside jokes("Can I have yo' number?!?!" "You're looking sexy, don't ya know"),a lot of laughter, and of course embarrassment it was cake time which eventually led to presents...

After noticing Anya take notice that this is my "Are you really doing that?" and "What did you just say?" Face 

Me: Look at me candy Anya: "Okeyyyeye"

When you give Megan you're camera you should expect a scary floating Alex head or the 'Demon American Boy'

This sweater is soooo soft, I luv it. (Thanks Shae-Shae)

I also received these homemade letter from Anyay of our Friend name.

Each letter stands for M-Maddie, Megan, Myra A-Anya, Alex J-Jewel, I-Isabella, C-Christina, Chris, K-Kaely, S-Sam, Sabrina, Shaelyn. I can't wait to find a place for these letters on my wall! I also got some amazing presents from other people- including a CD from Alex, pictures from Isabella, tea from Megan,adorable Consulting Detective-Blogger friendship knecklaces from Christina, and a truck from my dad! Although I can't drive just yet I will be rollin' around in a Short-bed Sierra GMC white Truck! Ahhhhh! Well I appreciate all of the presents I got from everyone and want to say a big Thank- you to all my friends and family for coming and helping with my party and just basically being overly sweet to me on my birthday! Lots of love and hugs to everyone for making my birthday spectacular! Jewel. 

Four Days=Countless Amounts of Fun!

Due to the fact my teachers needed not one, but two 'teacher work days', that took up yesterday and today, my fellow students and I received a four day weekend! After school on Friday I went to lunch with my madre at the 'Joe Caribe Bistro and Cafe'. They specialize in 'fresh, ethnic and Caribbean flavors' according to their website and I would certainly that their food is not only fresh but amazing! My personal favorite is the Vegetarian burrito which not only has your average burrito ingredients but whipped sweet potato, which might not sound good but it definitely is! Anyway, after a late lunch and some car shopping for my sister I headed home exhausted after a long week at school.
The next morning, I joined my school's Key Club to take part in cleaning up the Bear River, my school's namesake actually. Donning elastic gloves and grabbing trash and recycle bags, we set to work combing the river banks for any trash that inconsiderate and laze people left over the summer. Although we mostly found cigarettes, glass shards, and bottle caps; we did find a surplus of butane gas, a suspicious head of a genie sculpture, a goat skull with a feather wired to it(I suspect homeless voo-doo), and a food-saver. I hope our Key Club and the other groups who were taking part in river clean-ups across Nevada County and elsewhere made a difference for the environment and our community.

Beautiful Morning cleaning at the Bear River.

After I headed home, I went to the 28th annual Draft Horse Classic hosted every year at the Nevada County Fairgrounds. We arrived mid-day, the perfect time since this is when the barns are primarily open, and set to going through each barn.

This big guy wasn't very happy to be getting a bath!

You can't tell in the picture, but these horses are nowhere near regular size!

Some random mules mid-Draft Horse

After eating a baked potato(they're the best around) and getting a 'Nevada City Cappucino' which is actually a lot like a frappucino...just better, I went home and got ready for a Comic-Con Dance, hosted by a Mormon Church in Nevada City. Of course when I heard the words 'Comic-Con' I at first held back the tears that I didn't attend San Diego Comic-Con and meet the beautiful Benedict Cumberbatch and of course the numerous other beloved actors and then I realized I could be Benedict...or Sherlock actually. So, acquiring my mother's purple shirt, my great-grandmother's coat, and my father's magnifying glass; I transformed myself into Miss Sherlock Holmes, or as my Dad put it 'She-lock Holmes'.

Yah I did spend 10 min. taking selfies of myself with this magnifying glass. No shame...

Complete Sherlock Outfit

Megan, Kaely, and I(I'm that white flash in the corner) 'sherlocking' while Anya looks really excited for some reason...

I ended up having tons of fun at the dance with Megan, Kaely, Anya, Andrea, and numerous other people all dressed up as everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Avengers. Megan and I both went as Sherlock, while Kaely was John Watson(both Megan and I's "best 'friend'-'man') and Anya went as the Tenth Doctor, which she nailed especially since she had gotten a pixie cut earlier that day.(which looks adorable by the way).
The rest of my weekend was spent taking my first Driver's lesson(since I'm permitted and all that!),  facing the smoke from the King Fire to take a short trip to Nevada City on Monday, and doing homework(since the Teacher's had to give us tons!). If you take a closer look at my Draft Horse Classic pictures you'll see a haze in the background similar to the haze in this picture...

This isn't a Delta fog setting in this is smoke from the King Fire, that has burned thousands of acres and made a cloud of smoke big enough to see from space. I hope everyone affected by the fire is safe and I want to thank all the firefighters for trying their best to keep this basically uncontrollable fire under control! I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend(four days or not)! Jewel.

A Football Game, Friends, and Funnel Cake

Hey Guys! Sorry I haven't been blogging for a little over a week, my computer wasn't working very well so I took it to Doctor PC to have it fixed and lucky for me, they did a great job and I'm back up and blogging! Anyway, moving on to what this post is really about...my high school kicking butt in football! As fall creeps ever closer and football seasons starts I can't help but anticipate hot coco, sweaters, boots, and innumerable memories with my friends and family! Personally, Fall is one of my favorite seasons(pshhh not just because my birthday is in October),but because it's perfect movie watching/book reading/sleeping weather! It's also wonderful because of high school football games! Depending that I only have a solid 710ish students at my school, everything is very homey. This includes football games...complete with parent made funnel cakes(for band!), the best hot chocolate ever, and tri-tip sandwiches!
So last friday night, decked out with innumerable Bruin shirts and face paintings, courtesy of the before-hand Pump-Up Party, my friends and I headed to one of the first home football games against Union Mine. We had tons of fun yelling school chants(WE ARE BR! WE ARE BR!),cheering for our amazing football time, and just overall goofiness!

Although this has been thought of as the 'pirate face', I like to think of it as a 'Bruin Growl'

Megan, don't look so scared...it's only a wild Anyay!

Anya...your wink is scaring off Megan, so that may be a sign that it isn't gonna help ya get the boys...;)

I'm very proud to announce that we kicked Union Mine's butt with a score of 29-6! Although it was looking worrisome the first quarter, they showed what Bruin blood is made of!

Poor quality...a.k.a iPhone picture...

Although I do not  have evidence of Isabella licking powdered sugar off of funnel cake plates, it did happen and I really don't blame her depending the funnel cakes are totally worth $5. But do not fear there are more pictures of my friends and I in our general crazy style.

I caught the bubble on camera! Kudos to myself...

Personal, new, favorite picture of my friends and I! 

Even though your high school football games may not be as overall incredible as mine; I still encourage everyone to attend a football game this season and have a splendid time with friends, show your school spirit, and eat whatever wonderful food your school offers! GO BRUINS! I hope we have a spectacular season! Jewel.