Happy Birthday Sade

Yesterday was Sade's 18th birthday and we spent the day brunching and doing girly things. I forgot my camera, so the best cell phone pictures I got were these:
And here's my good friend Suzanne who helped us celebrate and who has also been a big supporter of Sade.
At our brunch, I read off a list of things we've done over the last 11 years. (Today, the 26th, is our 11-year anniversary.) Here they are in no particular order:

1. Big Brothers Big Sisters BBBS charity golf tournaments
2. BBBS pancake breakfast
3. BBBS group picnics
4. BBBS Holiday Santa luncheon at Rock Bottom
5. Aquatennial Parade
6. Holidazzle Parade
7. Anoka Halloween Parade
8. The Corn Maze
9. Spooky Town
10. Picking out first Halloween costume
11. 11 years of back to school shopping
12. Hundreds of trips through the McDonald’s drive-thru
13. Hundreds of Happy Meals
14. Movies—your first being at the Omni theater
15. Como Zoo
16. Minnesota Zoo
17. Tubing/Sledding
18. Hayrides
19. Skating at the Rollargarten
20. Strawberry picking
21. Raspberry picking
22. Apple picking
23. Carving pumpkins
24. Cooking lasgna
25. Baking brownies
26. Celebrating 11 birthdays
27. Bowling parties
28. Pool parties
29. Rollergarten parties
30. Jack’s parties
31. Melia’s parties
32. Sonya’s parties
33. Art projects
34. School projects
35. Trips to the library
36. Children’s Museum
37. Science Museum
38. Minnesota Institute of Arts
39. Walker Museum
40. MOA Camp Snoopy
41. Clothes shopping
42. Hanging out at Caribou drinking hot cocoa
43. Breakfasts at Curran’s
44. Hanging out with your friends
45. Hanging out with my girl pals: Suzanne, Julie, Layne, Dawnee, among others
46. Doing homework assignments
47. Planting flowers
48. Cleaning up a park
49. Sleepovers; the one with Sarah in particular
50. Skeeter, Travis, Jellie, Jammers
51. Cheering me on at my graduation
52. Helping me with my wedding
53. Being a junior bridesmaid at my wedding
54. Being at Rosalie’s graduation
55. MN Roller Girls
56. Twins Game
57. Hanging out with brothers Angel and Alfredo
58. Doing things with baby sister Juanita
59. Taking you to babysitting classes
60. Taking you to financial classes
61. House on Second Ave.
62. House on Portland Ave.
63. Apartment on Cedar Ave.
64. House near light rail
65. Duplex on Minnehaha Ave.
66. Duplex on 38th
67. Trip to Chicago
68. Riding bikes
69. Playing board games
70. Iraq protest march to the state capitol (we froze our butts off)
71. Swimming at the lakes—Minnehaha, French Regional, Bryant Parks
72. Being patient while I went to school and while I was in Kazakhstan
73. Opening Christmas gifts
74. Buying presents for your family
75. Barbecue with all the bigs (Anna, Mark, me) and your brothers and sisters
76. Street Fairs
77. Puppet shows at the Heart of the Beast
78. Raking leaves
79. Scrap booking
80. Baking cookies
81. Rayquan’s birth
82. Hale Elementary, Anderson Middle School, Roosevelt High School and others inbetween
83. Seeing you through first to 12th grade
84. Filling out job applications
85. Your first job
86. Meeting your friends: Valerie, Jasmine, Kayla, Marissa
87. Manicures
88. Making lists of things we like to do and don’t like to do
89. Thinking we’ve done everything already
90. The 8th floor holiday display at Dayton’s downtown
91. Riding the light rail on its inaugural day
92. Taking you around college campuses
93. Working on your math problems
94. Being your big sister for 11 years
95. Searching for Suzanne's car in the parking lot at Mall of America
96. Playing tic-tac-toe on my living room rug
97. Almost losing you and Juanita at the Holidazzle Parade
98. All my lectures about staying in school
99. Walking Iggy.
100.Today you turn 18. You’re no longer just my little sister, you’re now my friend.

Thanks for the memories Sade—they're priceless.