Have you ever seen the movie Thirteen Going on Thirty? That’s me. I’m a thirteen-year-old girl stuck in the body of an adult (snoozefest).

But luckily, I have Shasta (this is the nickname her mother and I made for her). Shasta is the daughter of a good friend of mine, and I ADORE this child. She is my connection to the teen world, and I run LOTS of stuff by her when I’m writing YA.

So you can imagine my delight when Shasta invited me to her thirteenth birthday

party! This was my chance to hang out with three thirteen-year-old girls (along with Shasta’s mom), do crafts, watch If I Stay, eat sushi, and dress up like a monkey. Yes, you heard me right.

So the night started with Shasta, who aspires to be a make-up artist, doing everyone’s makeup…except we ran out of time being silly, and she only had time to do her own. 🙂 Then we headed to a sushi bar and to T.J. Maxx afterward for a little bit of browsing.

We got back to Shasta’s house and got into our animal costumes. Shasta had handpicked them for us, and we all had to wear them for the rest of the night. I was a monkey. The costume was surprisingly comfy and cozy, except that my tail kept knocking into stuff all night. 🙂

Next we opened Shasta’s presents. Shasta is a sucker for a sad story, so I had to get her a few of my favorite sad YA books for her birthday. You’ll note Simon Versus the Homo Sapiens Agenda is in that pile. Not sad, but I loved it so much I had to get her a copy. *Side note: My good friend Greg Howard had lunch with the author and came back with a SIGNED COPY for Shasta, totally outshining my unsigned copy. But I couldn’t have been happier for her!

Next we put in If I Stay and hit our craft project – decorating clipboards! This was my contribution, and since Shasta, her mother, and I had been planning this night for months, I was able to save a bunch of magazines for us to cut up with our favorite quotes, pictures, and slogans and affix them to our boards using clear contact paper. All the girls’ boards looked fantastic, and we all had them to take home with us to commemorate the special night!

We finally hit the hay a little after midnight, and I slept like a baby monkey after our exciting night. I giggled nonstop and had an absolute blast during my night as a thirteen-year-old girl, and Shasta and her mom assured me we could do it again sometime soon. Yes!!!!!