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.

First Day of 2013-14.

The first day of school.

Again.

Officially.

For everyone this time.

Our three middle schoolers:

We are so in trouble.

Frying pans, who knew?

If you understand that reference and why I went there, bonus points to you.

Casidee is ruling the school as an 8th grader this year.

(for more on Jay's first day go here, for Brynn's go here).
Our elementary crew:

We have two fifth graders and a third grader this year.

Cali's already killing me with her eclectic style.

And it's only the first day.

She revamped her outfit five times until we finally settled on this.

Tayler and Sean get to be on Student Council this year.  They had their first meeting about their responsibilities before school this morning.

We got a letter saying they had to earn money for their student council shirts and sweatshirts.

Tayler was all over it and has already earned her money.

Sean was like, "why would I earn money for that when I could earn money for a video game instead?"

Which is typical behavior for both of them.  We'll see if Sean changes his mind as everyone else has shirts, but I don't know that he will.  That boy is comfortable in his own opinions.  Which is not a bad thing.

And so it begins.

The school year of 2013-14.

A Day in the Life of a 7th Grader

There's many moments as a mother when you hope against all that you are, that you are enough.
Enough that your children will not only love you, but be good people in this world.  Maybe even despite you.

Our middle school had a "bring your parent to school day."

Cas and I talked about it a bit.  I told her that I wouldn't be offended if she didn't want me to go, but frankly, I didn't want to be the only parent that showed up either.

That would just be awkward for me, let alone her.

So we asked a neighbor friend who was in the 9th grade, do parents actually go to this?

And she shook her head, "only parents of bad kids usually go."

So it was settled.  I wouldn't go, and we wouldn't worry about it anymore.

Until the night before when Cas came home from school and stated that teachers had asked in classes if anyone was bringing parents and there were people who raised their hands.

She wanted me to go.

Things I observed during my day as a 7th grader.

1.  It hit me full force how much I enjoyed 7th grade myself.  I met some amazing people that year and, thanks to facebook, can still be in touch with them.  Friends that I hung out with clear through graduation were friends that I made when I entered 7th grade.  Even though Cas isn't going to the same school I went to in 7th grade, I had memories hitting me at every turn.

2.  Cas is pretty comfortable in her CTE class.  I got to watch them on their first day in the kitchen as they attempted rice krispie treats and that girl was in her element.  Especially when other kids were staring with furrowed brows into their pots, "is it normal for it to burn?"

Well, I guess the answer to that would depend on who you live with.  At our house it's not uncommon for me to tell The Man, "just don't scrape the bottom when you dish up."

I can say that Casidee's group made perfect rice krispie treats.

Not a bad breakfast, if I do say so myself.

3.  I loved watching her in her orchestra class.  Just straight up loved it.  Her teacher is dynamic and they would play along with other music and I just couldn't help but smile through the class as I listened to them.  I think it's awesome that she's learning to play an instrument.

4.  I'm an English nut.  A geek to the core when it comes to grammar.  In fact, I'm working on a bachelor's in English right now (The Man says, "isn't that a useless degree?  I've always heard that English and history degrees are useless."  Seriously, it depends on what you plan on doing with them!  psh.)  So I found myself paying extra attention in her English class.  Her teacher is the cutest thing and the class had a great collective personality... most of it coming from the boys that Cas was grouped with.  They sat in groups of four and she was the only girl in her group.  A proud mom moment came when they proof read a paragraph.  The teacher asked how many mistakes were found and the boys in Casidee's group were adamant that there were 12 mistakes.  Cas insisted to them that she had 13.  "No way," they told her.

Guess what?  There were 13 mistakes.

That's my girl.

They were also asked to arrange strips of paper in order of how they needed to be used in essays.  Casidee's group laid them out in order, though haphazardly.  Their teacher checked them off as being correct and then as they sat there waiting for other groups to be checked off Cas began to line the slips of paper up in a nice, straight column.

One boy gasped.  "She's making it pretty!"  As in, how dare she.  And, she's such a girl.  There was a lot of good natured banter in that group.  It's an honors class and I told her to be nice to those "nerdy" boys, they'll always be the fun ones and she'll be glad she knows them.

5.  The girl never uses her locker.  She totes her books around all day long in her backpack.  This is craziness in my opinion, but I noticed that she's not the only one who does it.

6.  She pointed me out to her friends in every class we went to.

It made my heart happy.

Except when she pointed me out as, "my mom is the mom with the 9 inches of flashcards in her lap."  Um, I'm sorry but I have a science midterm to study for!  And I got a lot of flashcards memorized as I sat in those classes with that girl.  Make fun of me...

7.  The last class of the day for her was Chinese.  Holy cow, I don't know how she does it.  The teacher spoke a lot, and gave directions a lot in Chinese (mixed with hand signals).  Before the class began a boy sitting next to Cas said he bet he could guess which mom belonged to Cas.  I overheard that and looked up at them (I may or may not have been looking at 9 inches of flashcards) and saw them both staring at me.  So I made a face.  Immediately Cas comments, "not that one, I have no idea who she even is."  Another boy said, "that's your mom?  I thought it was your 21 year old sister!"

I'll take that, even if it's unrealistic.

Over all, I loved being there with her through the day.  I loved seeing her interact with those she sat by, I loved watching her get things that her teacher taught.

I loved that she seemed so proud that I was there and that I belonged to her.

Teachers would ask me who I belonged to and I felt just as proud to say it was Casidee.

I don't know if I'll be given the chance to go to school with any of the other kids, but after yesterday, I sure I can.  Because the kids who live in my house and belong to me, are pretty cool to hang out with for a day.

Thanks Cas, for sharing your day with me.

Beginning Orchestra

Once upon a time Casidee signed up for orchestra, even though she'd never played an instrument before.

We had an old hand me down violin from Grandma Julie that used to be Aunt Kristin's so Cas decided she'd give learning how to play it a whirl.

And she fell in love with it.

The teacher said that this years beginning class is way ahead of where the beginning class last year was.

They're learning things and playing songs in their first concert that last year wasn't able to do until the end of the year.

They replayed a song and let parents swarm the front of the stage to get better pictures of their kids.

Which I loved because Cas was in the middle so it was hard for me to see more than her shoes and the top of her head.

 And when it was all said and done her boyfriend, Max, showed up out of the blue with flowers.
And they were even green, her favorite color.

She hadn't even known he was coming.

I love that his family is teaching him how to treat his girl.

And in return I'm teaching Cas how to treat her boy.

Our kids need to learn these things.

Way to go Deeds.

Considering you've only been doing this for three months, I'm seriously impressed.