Friday night was the night of my daughter's 16th birthday party. She won't turn 16 until the 19th of this month, but her birthday falls during our winter break and many people go out of town for the week. So we planned the party a little early.

I was a little apprehensive about how things would go. She invited over 30 teenagers and I was afraid I'd spend my entire evening making sure they were all behaving themselves. Only about 20 showed up and there was no trouble out of any of them.

They played Guitar Hero World Tour, talked, roasted hot dogs and made smores over the bonfire outside, talked, ate cookie cake, talked, played "Red Rover, Red Rover", talked, and just had fun hanging out together.

I am proud of the choices she's made in her friendships. She's a great girl!