My 16th Birthday Weekend!

This is going to be a long entry, it seems like I had a whole birthday week! In my family we have several birthday traditions, I don't know if I've mentioned them before, but I'll recap. For girls, on the 9th birthday, you can get your ears pierced. 10th, for boys and girls, you get a pocketknife. For girls on 13th, it's lipstick. Anyway, we've made up another one for girls, on their 16th. On Valentines Day, I was told the surprise. I got to go down to Portland to get my own signature scent at The Perfume House, which is like, the biggest perfume place in the U.S.

So first off, Mama and I left on Friday afternoon. We rented a car and I got a bit wooshy after a while. I was sewing lace onto the neck of my new dress, but I stopped to take pictures. Here are some highlights.

We stopped close to Portland to go to the Pendleton Mill Store to look for fabric trim for my 1850s wool dress. We didn't get anything, but it was fun to look!


After that we went to my Aunt's apartment to drop off our stuff, then we went out to dinner at Justa Pasta. It was a crowded little bistro setting, and the food was great. We then went to an English Country Dance and learned a bunch of really complicated, fun, Austen-type dances. We then went to Powell's City of Books, and I was so tired and overwhelmed that we went back to the apartment.


The next day, we went to The Perfume House.
All those opened perfume bottles on the counter are the ones we smelled.

My Aunt fell head-over-heels in love with this one perfume, Daim Blond. She wouldn't stop sniffing her arm all day! It was even funnier because she has always sworn not to do perfume!

My perfume scent is called Fluers De Oranger by Serge Lutens. I completely adore it.

After that, we had lunch,

And wandered all up and down Hawthorne street, browsing the clothing stores and such.


My Aunt and Uncle bought me a beautiful wrap skirt made from recycled saris. It's reversible too!
After shopping, I went ice skating with my cousin at Lloyd's Center, then we all got Indian food at a little streetcart downtown. I took a few pictures on my camera, but they're too small to be visible on the computer. We went back to the apartment to do henna tattoos. It was so fun! It's supposed to last for 3 weeks, so we'll see.

We went home the next day after breakfast and a little more shopping. On Tuesday, I had my actual birthday. I chose Kahlua Torte instead of cake; it was delicious! My little sister's birthday was a few days later, and she had a chocolate cake. She has food allergies, but the cake turned out great. She turned 10, so that meant she got a pocketknife!

Needless to say, I'm just still so thrilled at my perfume and I'm so grateful for everything.

I'm off to do homework! Have a great day :)

~Sophia