Merry Christmas?

Yes, it has been an insanely long time between posts and there is definitely news to report. But first, I need to do a Christmas update. As usual, we opened a few gifts on Christmas Eve and then saved the rest for Christmas Day. The gifts we opened on Christmas Eve tipped Emily off that something was wrong, very wrong. When she woke up on Christmas morning, she quietly said, "Mom, I think you and Dad used the wrong list."

Sisters

In fact, we had used the wrong list! She had started a list of clothes that she wanted for school and then separately started a Christmas list. Ultimately, she shared the clothing list with me, but not the Christmas list. I kept telling her that I didn't see the things she said she wanted on the list she shared, but neither of us took the time to put two and two together. So, the end results is that she got a bunch of clothes for Christmas, but nothing else. And, Chad and I now have more shopping to do! LOL.

How could this happen? And why does Emily need clothes for school? Well, both questions have the same answer. Since my last post, I bought a house, which we moved into on the 23rd. It is in a district with great public schools, so Emily will now be a public school kid - no more uniforms! That said, it also means that the past month has been incredibly hectic, which is why I just grabbed a list and ran with it. Oops.

Anyway, this means that Emily is switching schools midyear, which she is okay with. Her new school is across the street from our house, so she will be able to walk there when the weather is reasonable. Next year, she will switch to the 9th grade campus, which will be a drive (or a bus ride), but even that won't be more than 10 minutes away.

Halloween

Before it becomes too much of a distant memory, I thought I would give a quick Halloween update. First, Emily did some market research on the whole Killer Queen idea and decided to kill it. It turns out that "Killer Queen" means absolutely nothing to the kids in her grade. LOL. So, she just went as a prison inmate.

I thought I would be able to get more photos later in the day, but that didn't happen, so these are the only two that show her costume. She went to a Halloween party in the evening, but didn't do any trick-or-treating. On the one hand, she said she didn't want to, but on the other hand, she thought it was sad that she didn't. She did help me pass out candy, though. We had a good turnout, with people ranging from probably 4-years old to 20-years old. 

As is usually the case, the whole holiday went too quickly, but there is always next year!

Quick Check In

Yes, it has been a long time between posts, so I thought it would be good to do a quick check in, particularly since last week was a week of check ins for Emily. We had her 14-year check up with the pediatrician and her fall parent-teacher conference with her advisor. Not surprisingly, she is doing great on both fronts. She is officially 5'3" which is over an inch taller than last year at this time and she is expected to continue growing, so there is no doubt that she will be taller than both me and Abbie. School-wise, she is doing well in her classes. However, the workload this year has been significantly greater than the past few years, much to her dismay. Also disappointing, she feels like she hasn't really connected with any of her teachers this year. In past years there has always been at least one teacher that she really liked and that seemed to really like her. That definitely makes classes feel more like drudgery.

Emily has taken an interest in learning to sew, so I found a woman that she can take sewing lessons with. We had one lesson a few weeks ago and she took to it really well. Unfortunately, school has kept her so busy that she hasn't been able to practice with it since then. Hopefully she will still remember what she learned when she finally gets a chance to work on it again.

She is also busy with babysitting gigs. She now has two families in the neighborhood that she babysits for. The one job just requires her to play endless hours of dinosaurs and transformers with a 4-year-old boy. The other job is a bit more demanding in that there is a 6-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, both of which sound pretty active. It tires her out, but both jobs are walking distance and both pay very well, so that is good.

Emily's favorite holiday, Halloween, is just around the corner. She has a prison inmate costume that she is planning to wear. She is considering splattering it with blood (red paint, obviously) and wearing a tiara with it, which would make her a Killer Queen. LOL. She has a party that she is planning to attend, but she isn't sure how late she is going to stay out on Thursday, as she has been so busy and tired lately. Regardless, I will be sure to get photos!

Back to School!

Ready for the back-to-school party

The summer that seemed like it would never end has gone too fast. Emily's class had their back-to-school party at Pinstripes last Friday. We went and set up her locker yesterday. Today is the first official day, although it is only a half day. 

1st day of school!

Her schedule involves the usual suspects - art, show choir, English, French, cross country, honors algebra, physical science, and world history. The biggest challenge will be for both of us to adjust our sleep schedule. I have become accustomed to going to bed late and sleeping in, so having to be out the door before 8am this morning was a little painful for me, but Emily was pretty chipper about it!

Keeping Cool

All in all, it hasn't been too bad of a summer so far. We have been trying to keep cool, though. We tried the pool one day. It felt lovely, but the chlorine bothered Emily's skin, even after just a couple of hours in the water. 

To try something completely different, we decided to take a short trip to Carlsbad, NM to see the caverns. It was still hot during the day, but the low humidity made the mornings and evenings really lovely. Of course, the caverns themselves were very cool, which felt great. 

Emily was okay with the trip but her opinion is that if you've seen one rock, you've seen them all, so she lost interest in the caverns pretty quickly. LOL.

 

Tomorrow, she will return home from another week in Minnesota, which provided some cooler weather, but also a lot of rain. She won't have to worry about that when she returns home. We aren't expecting rain any time soon (sadly).

We are just about three weeks from Emily's first day of school, so I have already started ordering her books and we have already picked up most of her school supplies. Now, she just needs to get that pesky summer work done!

Summer Camp

For the 2nd year in a row, Emily had a great time at summer camp. She came home saying, "I loved it! I can't wait to go back next year. The food was gross and there were flies all over it, the lake was gross and smelly, and some of the girls in my cabin were really rude." Um, what? LOL.

Birthday at Camp

Apparently, despite all the downsides, she really appreciated the time without technology. It sounds like she had plenty of time to reflect, write and draw in her journal, and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Cards with Lola

Ready for the Dance

Unfortunately, she started noticing a sore throat shortly before camp ended. By the time she came home, she had a fever and felt pretty miserable. It turned out to be an adenovirus that dogged her for the next couple of weeks, so the rest of June was pretty subdued. She did a short trip to Minnesota, but was pretty fatigued for most of it. 

Now that July is here and she is back to her old self, she has gotten back to doing daily workouts. We have also managed to do some organizing in her room, which will come in handy when school starts again. As for her summer work, that is still on the "to-do" list. Somehow it always comes down to the last minute!

Happy 14th Birthday, Emily!

It's hard to believe that 14 years have flown by already, but they have! This birthday is unique in that it is the first one for which Emily has not spent the day with us. Yesterday, I dropped her off for two weeks at summer camp. When we booked it, she knew that she would be celebrating her birthday at camp, but she was totally fine with it.

On the way to camp!

We sent along bubble wands and noise makers for her cabin mates, so hopefully that will be fun. If nothing else, maybe it will be a good way to break the ice with a bunch of girls she has never met before. There should also be birthday cake at camp, so all is not lost. LOL.

With her camp counselors

Because she knew she would be at camp for her actual birthday, Emily had a small birthday party last Friday. It was a low key swim party. We got lucky and the weather cooperated and the girls seemed to have fun together. 

Lounging in the pool

Unfortunately, we also discovered that Emily, who loves to swim, has developed a sensitivity to chlorine. It turns her cheeks bright red and causes them to sting terribly. Aunt Elizabeth recommended a product that can help, so we will have to try it when she returns from camp. In the meantime, she is going to try to avoid putting her face in the water as much as possible. Easier said than done, no doubt.

As for the rest of summer, Emily is doing a one-week, half-day fashion camp after she returns from sleep away camp. Then, she is going to Minnesota for about a week. Beyond that, we don't have much for plans, but she and I may arrange a few day trips. I'll keep you posted!

Action!

After a couple months of very little activity, Emily finally has some new events to report on. She recently returned from a week in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Her class spent 4 days and 3 nights visiting museums, etc. 

On the bus!

Fancy dinner

She shared a hotel room with three other girls (which is always taxing) and the schedule was jam-packed to avoid any idle hands issues, so she came home pretty tired. Fortunately, she had a long weekend to recover. 

She also got invited to one of the biggest social events of the year - a bat mitzvah party for one of the girls in her grade. The evening portion was a neon party at an event center downtown. There was tons of dancing, food, music, etc. 

Pre-party

This also made for a tired Emily, as the party ran from 7pm - 11pm, so she didn't get to sleep until almost midnight. Although the party was on a Saturday, Monday morning school seemed to come a bit too quickly for her liking. 

Finally, we had her spring choir concert on Tuesday this week. I managed to get a decent video of one of the pieces. You can see Emily on the first row of risers with her hair in a French braid. The song is pretty long, but even a few seconds of it will give you a sense of what she has been working on in show choir this year.

As for the rest of the school year, Emily's last regular day of class is next Friday, which is the same day as Abbie's graduation. Emily has her end-of-year class party at a rollerskating rink that afternoon and then Abbie's ceremony is in the evening, so it will be a busy day. The following week, Emily will have a few final exams, but I don't think it will be anything too major. Then, summer break!!

Quick Update

A recent BeReal selfie

I have not gotten any good photos of Emily lately, so I had her send me a recent photo so I would have something to post. Life has been very quiet around here. Her biggest interest right now, besides drawing, is actually strength training. She is taking a weightlifting class for her PE requirement this spring, so she spends every afternoon in the gym. She is very into getting stronger and developing some muscles. At home, she finds all sorts of workout videos online that she likes. I did one of the arm videos with her one day and it was miserable. :) She really likes the challenge of a good workout, though, and she likes seeing that she is getting better at it over time. 

Other than that, she is ready for summer vacation. She is still doing well in school, but she is tired and ready for a break. Her two-week summer camp is early this year, so she will get a little bit of a break, but then will head to camp by the beginning of June. She is really excited about it, though. As long as the weather is a little cooler than last year, she will be in good shape!

Spring Break

Just a quick update - Emily is very excited to have made it to Spring Break. It is a pretty laid back break for her. With Abbie and me heading to Jamaica for a few days, Emily will hang out with Chad, while also making sure that the cats don't get too bored. :)

She continues the constant hunt for scary movies. She watched Bone Marrow recently. It was recommended by Abbie's friend Eleanor. I didn't watch most of it with her, but what little I did see looked awful. I think she agreed that the story was pretty depressing. She also likes dystopian films, so last night we watched I Am Mother. This one actually got a good Rotten Tomatoes score, but I don't think either of us were happy with the ending.

As for what else has been going on over the past month or so, the answer is 'not much.' The girls competed in the Show Choir Invitational, but it sounds like it was sort of a comedy of errors, so they didn't place very well, 13th or 14th as I recall, but I don't know how many teams were there. School continues to go well and Emily seems to stay on top of her work without much prodding from me. She is already starting to think about summer break, though. She is looking forward to pool weather and her two weeks at sleep away camp.

No News is Good News?

A whole month has gone by and there is very little to report. But, I suppose that no news is good news. Everything has been rolling along smoothly here. Emily is doing great in school this semester, really staying on top of her homework and exams. Her acne seems to be coming under control, which is good news and has her very relieved. 

Things have been pretty quiet on the friend front, but I did take her and a few friends to see Night Swim earlier this month. Emily was very excited about it because it is a horror movie, but is rated PG-13, so its not off limits. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 22% on the Tomatometer, so there is that, but it sort of worked to our advantage in that the theater was empty when we were there. LOL. Movie quality aside, the girls seemed to have fun. Also this month, Emily discovered the Scream movie franchise. She devoured all six of them. I have to admit they do get sort of funny toward the end. 

Also this month, the middle school narratives arrived! Her are a few quotes from Emily's teachers:

From History:

I have loved getting to know Emily both in class and in advisory. I love seeing her artistic skills on display, whether it's in project form or in the margins of her notes. Something I especially love about Emily is her ability to incorporate creativity and even humor into her assignments while still making sure that historical content is front and center.

From English:

From the very beginning, Emily demonstrated both her serious work ethic and her love of learning as an English student. No matter what the activity, she is always ready to engage with the day's lesson, and her enthusiasm and insights add greatly to the class culture. In fact, Emily is such a committed English student that she asked to start a club for students with a similar love of reading, writing, and literary discussion. When Emily writes about literature, she also displays an ability to make abstract connections that are beyond her years. 

From French:

Emily's quiet determination is a lovely contrast to the occasional hullabaloo which can exist in this class! I love her individuality and the way she takes care of her work without fuss.

From Science:

Emily is always willing to volunteer and help in class. She is a very hard worker and you can tell that she takes her academics seriously. She has a great personality and makes me feel good when she pretends to laugh at my not so funny science jokes.

Math, Choir, and Drama had nice things to say, as well, but these were the quotes I liked the most. As we head into February, Emily is looking forward to the three-day weekend for Presidents' Day and is getting ready for a Show Choir competition at the end of the month!

Winter Break

Annual School Photo

Emily has been having a good winter break, but it is going too quickly. She can hardly believe there is less than a week left before school starts again. She is definitely not ready to go back. She did get those two bottom teeth extracted, and has slowly adapted to chewing with even fewer teeth in her mouth. Other than that, there hasn't been too much excitement to report. Her face rash cleared up but she is still struggling with lots of acne. I suppose it comes with the territory when one is 13. 

Christmas Day

I think she had a good Christmas this year. It was a bit different without Santa, but again, that comes with the territory at this age. The elf didn't appear right away, but apparently she didn't want to see Frisbee anyway. Poor Frisbee. She also wasn't particularly interested in watching Christmas movies, complaining, "I have seen this so many times." LOL. She got lots of good bedroom decor this year, which I think she was happy about, and also received the above-photographed Moose mug, just like in Christmas vacation. Abbie received one, too. I think Chad and I thought it was funnier than either of the girls did, though. 

As for New Year's Eve, I think we are planning on a rather quiet night. Abbie will likely be out with friends, so it will be up to me and Emily to pick a movie. I have had such a hard time convincing her to try good movies lately. I practically had to beg her to watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off earlier this week. She ended up enjoying it, but it was a miracle that she even tried it. Yesterday I tried to convince her to watch Uncle Buck, but no luck. Instead, we settled on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which is good, too.

Thelma and Louise

Other than movies, Emily has been entertaining herself by playing with the kittens - Thelma and Louise - that we got in November, doing daily workouts with her friend Morgan, having the occasional sleepover, reading a little bit, and drawing. She continues to be a pretty big homebody. I often invite her to accompany me to the store or out to eat, but she usually declines. Fair enough. There will be plenty of running around when school starts up again.

Holidaze

Trick-or-treating

All of the Halloween festivities feel like a lifetime ago. Emily had the two sleepovers - one at our house and one at a friend's house - and did her trick-or-treating. She didn't get much for candy, but it was fun to run around with a friend.

Sleepover

Perhaps needless to say, two weeks in a row of no-sleep activities left her pretty tired. Then, she and Abbie went to Minnesota for Thanksgiving, which made for a busier break than she would have had otherwise. 

Now, we are in the final push before Christmas break. She had her winter show choir concert last night and will have her winter theater production on the 13th. There will also be final exams to contend with. I am sure that the break will be a welcome relief when it finally arrives. She has been struggling with a mysterious rash on her face, likely an allergic reaction, which has been making it tough to sleep. And, her teachers seem to be piling on the homework and projects. So, as you can imagine, she is walking around in a bit of a daze, trying to keep up with everything.

So far, the only thing scheduled for the Christmas break, other than the holiday itself, is a tooth extraction. Yes, she needs to have two more baby teeth pulled to make room for some adult teeth. That is scheduled for the 19th and sounds to me like the perfect excuse for some much needed R&R!

Halloween Sleepover

Let the Halloween whirlwind begin! Today, the middle schoolers are wearing their costumes to school. Emily is going as Alice in Wonderland this year. Originally, the plan was to be 'Demented Alice in Wonderland' but I guess the 'demented' part was going to be too difficult to explain so she just went with the original.

Tonight, Emily is having six girls over for a Halloween sleepover. We have decorated the house with a few spiderwebs and gourds. Emily has plans for pizza, all sorts of junk food, and a movie. I am a bit worried about the drama that can come from shoving all these girls into a small space for a long time, but Emily says, "Oh yeah, don't worry. There is always crying at a sleepover party. It usually happens at 3am when people are overtired." Ugh. Perhaps this is part of the Halloween terror. 

For the actual Halloween, she is planning to go to a grade-level party with a friend of hers. Then, next weekend, one of her friends is having a belated Halloween/birthday sleepover. Hopefully this will be enough Halloween-related activity for her.

In other news, we had her annual check up a few weeks ago. She continues to grow and is currently 5'1.75" to be exact. She is incredibly excited because the doctor now projects her to be at least 5'5" tall. Having always been the littler little sister, she is very excited about the prospect of being the bigger little sister. We also had her parent-teacher conference yesterday. Not surprisingly, she is doing great and her teachers are happy with her. :)

7th Grade!

Its hard to believe, but Emily has been in school for almost three weeks already. So far, 7th grade has been going well and the friend situation seems to be under control. She likes some of her teachers better than others, but that is to be expected. The biggest piece of her schedule that took a little while to nail down was her athletic requirement. She started the year enrolled in field hockey, but very quickly realized that she knew nothing about field hockey and had no interest in playing it. Instead, she switched to cross country and seems happy with the choice. On days that are too hot, they stay in the weight room and she seems to have taken to that as well. 

Obligatory 1st day of school photo

A couple days before classes started, one of Emily's friends arranged for one last summer hurrah - a bunch of girls got together for dinner and a live performance of Frozen. Emily was a little torn on whether she wanted to sit through a musical or not, but she was so glad that she did. She absolutely loved the show. 

Since school has been in session, there have been a few football games and a few sleepovers on the weekends, but nothing as fancy as their evening at the theater.

As we inch into fall, Emily's thoughts naturally turn towards Halloween - her favorite holiday. There is at least one scary movie on her "must see" list that is either already in theaters or will be soon. She also already has plans for her costume, but I can't give it away yet!

Summer Camp

It has been a couple weeks since Emily returned from her two-week adventure at summer camp. The short version of the story is that she really enjoyed it, but she doesn't plan to go back. LOL.

Induction Ceremony for Trojans vs. Spartans

The longer version of the story is that she really enjoyed the people she met - lots of girls that she really enjoyed hanging around with and getting to know. However, 14 days/nights in 100+ degree temperatures without any air conditioning, even at night, was not her favorite. 

Neon Dance

She definitely came back with more maturity and confidence. She now knows that she can spend two weeks away from home and do great on her own. The key is just to find a camp with cooler temperatures or air conditioning!

Hawaiian Dance

One thing the camp was really great about was taking tons of photos and uploading them daily. Then, the app software used facial recognition technology to identify photos of your child and highlight them for you. That definitely saved me from hours of scrolling!

They also made it easy to send emails every day, which definitely helped with initial homesickness. Emily received at least one letter every day she was in camp. She became friends with a girl who had been attending camp for four years and had only ever received one letter, which was to tell her that her grandparent had died. Poor thing. 

The girls all exchanged phone numbers so hopefully they will keep in touch. There is one girl who only lives about an hour from us, so maybe they will even get together at some point.

When I picked her up, I was pleased to see that Emily did a great job keeping track of all of her stuff. We got her home, got everything washed, and got her settled in. She still has some summer homework to complete, but the first day of school is still over a week away so I guess there is plenty of time. LOL.

Dog Days of Summer

We have reached that point where the only options for keeping cool are hiding in the air conditioning or finding a place to swim. Emily has been doing both over the last couple of weeks. After two weeks in Minnesota, during which she kept busy with day camps, shopping, and a Taylor Swift concert, she returned home and has been swimming, playing with water balloons, and going to water parks with friends.

Pre-concert

 

If you look carefully at Emily's hand in the photo above, you will see the other big development from this summer - we finally got her a phone of her own. I think it will come in handy when the school year starts up again, but for now, she doesn't use it much.

Late into the Night

Other than trying to stay cool, we have been busy getting Emily ready for her two-week camp adventure, which starts on Sunday. She has a huge packing list and everything needs to be well-organized and labeled. This camp seems like a pretty well-run machine with all sorts of systems in place for getting campers moved in and settled.

She will be in a rustic cabin with 8-12 girls and 2-3 counselors. There is no electricity, so no lights and definitely no air conditioning. Fortunately, I think the kids spend a lot of time in the lake and the pool during the days, but I don't know how comfortable the nights will be for sleeping. It sounds like they keep everyone pretty busy, but also provide downtime in the afternoons, so hopefully she will have fun but won't be run too ragged. 

Once she returns from camp, there are a mere two weeks left before school starts up again. Hard to believe!

Thirteen!

We officially have a teenager in the house! Emily turned 13 on the 3rd (obviously) and we celebrated with a pool party on the 2nd, followed by a small sleepover that night, followed by a small family party on the actual birthday. I left for Switzerland on the 4th, so it has taken me a while to get a post made, but at last here we are! 

She requested chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, which we had, but then there were leftovers. Emily was a trooper, though, consuming probably three cupcakes on the day of her party and two cupcakes on her actual birthday. It was a tough job, but she managed to suffer through. LOL.

All of that chocolate must have given her the energy to grow because I returned from Switzerland to find that she is now as tall as I am. We confirmed it both by standing in front of the mirror together and with a tape measure. It appears that she is now 5'1"! Needless to say, she is pretty pleased with this.

Meanwhile, the summer seems to be flying by! Later this week, Emily will fly to MN for two weeks (with Abbie), then she will be back in Texas for two weeks before her two week summer camp at the end of July. Once that is over, it will be August and we will already be thinking about the new school year. Crazy how quickly the time goes.

School's Out for Summer!!

We made it! Emily is officially on summer break and she is definitely pleased with the change. :)

Last Day of School

 

The last few weeks weren't too hectic, but there were a couple of award ceremonies (at which Emily received an award for French - her least favorite subject, ironically), a geography project, and final exams. The exams seemed to go reasonably well. As for the geography project, most of it was completed in school, but the at-home component was to make a food from a foreign country and then bring it in for people to try. Emily opted for a Japanese dessert and we made a Japanese strawberry shortcake. 

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

 

It was a very long, involved recipe that turned out great but also just tasted like an American strawberry shortcake, so much more work for not much additional benefit. It did look beautiful, though, and some of her classmates thought that she bought it rather than made it. The fact that I went to Michael's for a doily and a disposable cake box probably didn't help matters.

Emily has made herself a rough summer schedule that involves reading in the mornings, etc., but I don't think she has actually implemented the plan yet. We need to get her summer reading books so that she actually has something to read in the mornings. Perhaps more importantly, Emily's 13th birthday is less than a week away and we have not yet sent out the invitations - yikes! She has the guest list, but I need to finalize some details before we can send the invites. She would like to have a pool party with a larger group of friends and then follow it up with a sleepover with a smaller group of friends, which is sort of a tricky maneuver to pull off, so we'll see how it goes. Stay tuned!

End-of-Year Activities

Spring always gets busy with end-of-year activities. We kicked it off with Emily's induction into National Junior Honors Society a couple weeks ago and it will continue over the next few weeks. Next Tuesday is the middle school choir concert, and I believe that Emily has either a small solo or will be featured as part of a small ensemble, so I am interested to see how that goes. The following week, the choir will be competing in a local competition, followed by some fun at a local indoor water park. There will also be the usual end-of-year class party, which will be at a local arcade this year.

NJHS Inductees (apologies for the poor image quality)

Emily has also become busier lately because she decided to pick up an after school volleyball class that meets on Wednesday afternoons and has been participating in a memoir-writing seminar on Friday afternoons. Needless to say, with everything going on, Emily has been pretty tired lately. She uses the weekends to recharge her batteries as much as she can, but she is definitely ready for summer break!

As for summer break plans, Emily is planning to spend some time in Minnesota, and also planning to spend two weeks at a sleep away camp. This will be her first time going to sleep away camp and I think she is really looking forward to it. Hopefully it will be a great opportunity for her to spread her wings a bit.

Spring Break

Emily had a pretty quiet spring break this year. We didn't go anywhere or do anything particularly exciting. Many of her friends traveled, though, so there weren't many people to hang out with. We did manage to make a trip to the mall and get her some swim suits for the summer.

While at the mall, she had to get some pretzels and take a selfie for her friends because her group calls themselves the Pretzel Gang. Two of the Pretzelers are Morgan and Laila, who Emily continues to have tea parties with every other weekend. The girls take turns hosting and this past weekend, it was Morgan's turn again.

Emily loves getting dressed up for these events. I think the next one will be back at our house again. There is also a watch party for the latest episode of The Owl House coming up. This is an animated series that they all seem to love, so we may be hosting that sometime soon, too. With any luck, it will correspond with the next tea party. :)

On the school front, Emily has a volcano project due next week. With any luck, this will be the last volcano that we ever need to build. It is definitely not my favorite activity. We bought all the supplies over the break and Emily has the shape the way she wants it, but there is still plenty of painting, etc. to do this weekend. 

Sorry there isn't more excitement to report, but sometimes boring is a good thing! :)

Middle School Narratives

It is one of my favorite times of year again - narratives season for the middle schoolers! This is when the teachers take time to write individualized feedback for each of the students in their classes. It is great to see what they see. There are usually compliments and areas of strength along with areas to work on. Here are a few tidbits in terms of Emily's strengths:

From her Earth Science teacher: "Emily is an enthusiastic, dedicated learner who exhibits a positive outlook and attitude in the classroom. She communicates well with students and teachers, and asks questions when she is unsure of the material."

From her English teacher: "Emily enters English class each day by sharing a gentle greeting and lovely smile. She is not only a talented English student but a wonderful citizen as well . . .Emily LOVES to write and our Quickwrite Wednesdays. She possesses strong writing stamina and is able to take creative risks. Emily's writing contains "voice," a skill that is not common for sixth grade students." 

From her French teacher: "She is a bright and kindhearted student who always comes to school with a positive attitude." 

From her Geography teacher: "Emily is smart, creative, and hardworking. She naturally asks the bigger picture questions in class, and she is very easily able to empathize with someone else's perspective. These are two skills that show her maturity."  

From her Math teacher: "Emily is a sweet and respectful young lady. She is focused and attentive in class and has strong organizational skills." 

In terms of her areas for improvement, there seemed to be consensus that her teachers would like her to speak up more in class, both in terms of projecting her voice and also asking questions in whole-class settings. That is definitely consistent with what I know about her. She likes to hang back and observe more than she likes to get into the middle of things. 

While I find the narratives exciting, I think Emily has other things that she finds more exciting. As for what she has been up to, drawing is always on the agenda. Here is one of her recents:

She also thoroughly enjoyed having an entire weather-related week off from school a couple weeks ago. She, Morgan, and Laila managed to get together for a tea party. Emily and Morgan got everything set up and I was impressed with how elaborate it was.

As for something that Emily does not enjoy so much, we are still doing weekly violin lessons, but Emily is not a fan. We'll have to see how it goes, but this may be our last academic year for violin. That said, I had fun capturing the photo below during lesson this week. Notice the little spy in the window.

Our crazy kitty is often finding her way onto narrow ledges both inside and outside the house, and seems to enjoy hanging out on the roof of the house. I suppose that it makes for a good view, but it makes me awful nervous.

"Holey" Christmas

Rather than a holy Christmas, Emily had a rather holey Christmas. Shortly before Christmas, she had her four canine baby teeth extracted, which left pretty big holes in her mouth. Her adult canine teeth have already formed and developed mature roots, so they need a little encouragement to erupt or else they will end up impacted. It was a quick procedure and she did great with it, but it was still something different for her to get used to. While she was still under IV sedation, I didn't think she could hear me and I was telling the oral surgeon how tough she is about stuff. Imagine my shock when she came to and, eyes still closed, said, "Thanks for saying that." Definitely took me by surprise.

Christmas Eve (with Home Alone in the background)

Also, shortly before Christmas, Emily took the plunge and got her ears pierced. She definitely wanted them pierced, but it was more painful than she expected so she has already decided that one set of holes is more than enough.

Now that she is back to school, things seem to be rolling along pretty smoothly. So far, there hasn't been too much homework and she has been having fun with friends on the weekends. There is not much excitement for the next few weeks, but in mid-February her entire class will be taking a three-day trip to the state capital, which will likely be eventful.

Holiday Spirit?

What a busy six weeks it has been. I feel like I always say that, but Halloween feels like a lifetime ago at this point. Just two days after that holiday, Emily came home from school with a fever. Sure enough, it was Covid and Abbie and I caught it, too. Emily had a booster more recently than either Abbie or me, so her symptoms were negligible and she enjoyed the time off from school.

Fortunately, we were all better well before Thanksgiving rolled around. We had Grandma P. here to help us celebrate, which is the first time that we have had company for a holiday since the BC times (before Covid).

Recent art

Emily doesn't care much about the Thanksgiving meal, but she does like dressing up and watching the National Dog Show. The art above is one of her recent creations, with the dress being inspired by the outfit that she wore for Thanksgiving this year. One of the things that she likes about drawing on her iPad is that it makes it easy to do the shading in her pictures. However, she has been drawing on paper more and more recently and she just got some new paint pens that make shading just as easy as on the iPad, so she is happy about that.

As for Christmas, life is a little different this year. For one thing, Emily now knows the scoop on Santa. We still have the elf visiting us right now, but Emily has started being the one to move her around the house. After all these years, I think she was happy to finally touch Frisbee without fear of killing her.

Gingerbread houses

Perhaps the weather is also making it hard to get into the holiday spirit. As you can see, Emily went to a gingerbread house decorating party after school last week. It was a beautiful 70 degree day. Perfect for keeping the mess outside, but definitely not Christmas weather. 

It is also hard to get too excited about the holidays when there is so much going on at school. This is the last week before break and there has been lots of homework and tests to get ready for. She finishes at noon this Friday, so hopefully we can enjoy a week of shopping, baking, and watching holiday shows before Christmas actually arrives.

Happy (belated) Halloween!

She doesn't look very happy in this photo, but I think that is all part of the costume. Emily had been looking forward to Halloween for a very long time. They dressed up for school last Friday, so yesterday was a regular uniform day. She also had a couple of friends over for a Halloween sleepover last Friday night, but they didn't do as much Halloween-related activities as she had hoped. On Sunday, we baked pumpkin spice cakes in the skull-shaped muffin tins. Then, last night she went trick-or-treating with the same two girls that slept over on Friday night. All in all, there were lots of activities, but she wasn't as happy with this Halloween as she had hoped. She worried that maybe she is getting too old for Halloween, which I assured her she wasn't.

Annual School Photo

As for other updates, Emily had her annual check-up a few weeks ago. She is now 4'11.5" which puts her in the 36.6th percentile and keeps open the possibility that she will ultimately be taller than Abbie. Of course, this delights her to no end. :) At school, the first quarter is over and we received Emily's report card. She is doing well and has a 92.8 overall GPA. We were supposed to have her parent-teacher conference last week, but her advisor was sick and needed to cancel at the last minute. We will need to reschedule and I'll keep you posted on any nuggets that come out of that meeting.

Finally, it may not be scary, but it is a bit gory - Pumpkin the kitty managed to get a nasty puncture wound on her chest. We have no idea how it happened, but it was pussy and infected so we had to take her to the vet last week. The result is that poor kitty needs to wear the cone of shame for 10-14 days. This is a double-whammy for her because she can't go outside with the cone on. Needless to say, she is not a fan of the cone. We did have a good laugh at her expense, though, because when we brought her home, she ran around the house backwards, desperately trying to get the cone off her head. She has since accepted her fate and has quit meowing constantly. This has also been a good excuse to feed her some extra tuna fish, which doesn't hurt her feelings.