Casidee's 14.

Yesterday was Casidee's 14th birthday.

In a perfect world I would have left her a lunch of her choice in her locker, and probably have decorated her locker as well.  After school she would open her presents and we would have eaten chicken manicotti (here) and brownie sundaes as her chosen birthday dinner.  And maybe we would have gone and seen the Desolation of Smaug which is now at the dollar theater.

But alas.

This world is not perfect.

As it happens, yesterday was also Casidee's choir festival, which took place during school.  Which meant no  lunch in her locker.  (You can see their assessment performances here.  Cas is on the front row on the right (your right) with a red necklace on).

But they were bused to the mall for lunch so she was quite happy with the money I gave her to buy lunch that way.

As it also happens, yesterday was her orchestra performance combined with a performance with the high school orchestra.  

This took up the evening.  She was to be at the high school at 5:15 to practice for the first and only time with the other middle school and high school orchestras that they would be performing with that night.

Between getting home from work and taking her to the high school, I didn't have time to make chicken manicotti, but I didn't have to worry about feeding Cas because the high school was providing pizza.

We did have time for her to open her presents before she left where, like mother like daughter, the little bookworm finally got her kindle... and a play-dough jar of change from Cali.

I ran her to the high school where it took us a good five minutes to find the room she needed to be in, as neither of us have really been to this high school before, and then Tayler and I tracked down the auditorium and spread jackets out to save seats front and center.  Then we ran to the new Zurcher's by our house and bought birthday balloons to give to Cas after her performance.

A quick stop at the grocery store for cheese and tortilla chips and I had barely enough time (with a text to The Man: Will you defrost some hamburger?) to throw a pot of taco soup together, while telling Cali and Tayler to hurry and make a sandwich if they wanted to go to the concert, we wouldn't have time to eat the soup (they did), and we left to the high school again.  (Run on sentence much?)

We sat in our pre-saved, front row seats, which was good because there was room to stash the bundle of balloons down below stage level, and enjoyed the night's entertainment.

This girl of mine.  This girl that I only understand half of what she says because I don't speak "fan girl".  And she's proclaimed herself a fan girl of at least a dozen things.

Beyond 5
One Direction
Sherlock Holmes
Dr. Who
Harry Potter

Okay, maybe just five things, but that's a lot of inside quoting and referencing that I'm only catching half of.

Don't even get me started about when she starts cross referencing.

In only two years she'll be driving and dating.  And in only four years she'll be heading off to college.

Slow down.  Enjoy it.  Don't be in such a hurry to grow up.

It comes soon enough.

Casidee's Christmas Concerts

Playing a bit of catch up here with Casidee's Christmas concerts.

Somehow she ended up in choir as well as orchestra this year.  It's interesting since she didn't actually sign up for choir, but whatever.

Also, it's helpful that the orchestra teacher and the choir teacher are the same person.  So the concerts were all held on the same night, which I appreciated since having three nights of concerts the week before with Tayler and Cali.

It struck me how much better Casidee's orchestra is sounding since they started last year.  I'm really excited to have her grow in the talent.

A big thank you to Brynn who was willing to crawl up to the front and get the videos for me.