Back home

Made it back home just in time for the Michigan State-Nebraska game, aka, A House Divided:

Thanks to my brother-in-law who gave us our Christmas presents early (since my original MSU shirt got stolen by some jerk!) because Paul ended up wearing it when the Spartans kicked some Husker butt!

The girl's name up in lights:

The girl made Regional Honors Orchestra!

Catch up: Happy birthday for the Girl

To be honest, coming back from Jersey from my mom's house a week before my girl's birthday, I wasn't at my game when her birthday came.  But we did take her out to breakfast before school on her actual birthday:

And it was a decadent brunch that had loads of coffee, chocolate, nutella, bread, and cheese:

I felt pretty lame about only doing breakfast out considering that I had spent a lot of 2013 up in NJ and wanted to give her a proper party.  So with the help of some of her friends, we were able to pull off a surprise party a week later--she never suspected, needless to say:

And what's not to like when you have friends, an awesome taco bar (a sweet gift from her aunt):

fireworks,

and uh, apparently at times, lack of parental supervision:

Sigh.  My girl is growing up so fast.

Bike baskets: a difference of opinion

I finally got the bikes tuned up and the girl has really taken to some freedom that the bike offers.  Besides riding it to school (and not having to wait on the school bus), she has been enjoying not relying on me to go meet her friends for after school events and programs.  Frankly her new independence is a mixed bag (She says she's going to a friend's recital then text me later that she wants to hang out after it) but overall, it's satisfying to see her embrace it. 

To make it more practical I installed various storage receptacles, including a nifty basket:

The cool bike basket on the front, I mean:

But shockingly she didn't find it nearly as amazing:

Ending school on a high note

The girl finished out middle school on a high note.  We attended the Middle School Honors award ceremony and she was one of the students that received all 3 awards for the district and state:

Then tonight she had her final concert at school.  All the kids "graduating" from middle school had a chance to introduce a song, including our girl:

And we were psyched that she had a solo in the program!

It was a sweltering day but worth it to see the girl enjoying playing the viola:

And given that the humidity was a thousand percent, I'm psyched that I actually looked dry in the picture.

Birthday Portrait

Had a great birthday, with loot from my Amazon Wish List but the capper was this flattering portrait the girl did of me:

HA! Needless to say, I would LOVE to look like this. If I get my hair cut like this, will I look like this?

TKD test

The girl passed her big TKD test.  Lots of kicking, sparring, defending, and breaking:

Like over 8 hours of it. I joked that I deserved a black belt for lasting/watching the whole thing. Well at least we've got a couple of years before she'll have to test again.

Next time I'll bring provisions.

Weekend: The girl was busy

The girl had her last Quiz Bowl meet on Saturday as a middle schooler.  She was captain of Team B.  Unfortunately, due to some schools not showing up, they had high school teams compete against middle school teams, and well, none of her school's teams made the afternoon rounds.

More painful than that was how the kids struggled with pop culture that wasn't in the last 5 years.  When the question asked which actor was "in Bill & Ted's Big Adventure as well as all three of the Matrix movies directed by the Wachowski brothers", NO ONE buzzed in with Keanu Reeves.  And when another question asked what female trio lead by Diana Ross bumped the Beatles off the Billboard charts in 1966, a young man buzzed in, "The Spice Girls?"  I'm pretty sure every adult head in the room hit the desk at that one.

Overall, the girl did well and I was proud of her.  Though it did make me itch to play Trivial Pursuit again.

Later that evening, she met up with some friends at an Anime convention (called Nashi-Con) at the "formal" on Saturday night.  She had missed the Con during the day while she was at the Quiz Bowl meet but went the next day with friends.

Pretty sweet life the girl leads, right?

SC Philharmonic Youth Orchestras

The girl performed with the SC Philharmonic Youth Orchestra's String Orchestra last night. She had a nice viola solo, which was a great change-up from a violin solo. In the humble opinion of a mom of a violist.

Hope she continues playing the viola--still enjoying listening to her play.

Performance at the Columbia Museum of Art

The girl was invited, via her orchestra, to be a part of a performance art piece at the Columbia Museum of Art in January.  The instructions said to bring a sound, so I supplied the girl and her friend with dominoes and a jar of rice.

Apparently there was perhaps a tacit understanding that the girl was supposed to bring their instruments.  Erg.  Oops.

But it turned out to be all right.

It was a bit of a challenge as an audience member with a cough as it was a very quiet, subtle piece that lasted 75 minutes. But overall, an interesting experience.

Academic Team Meet

Today, I got up at 5:15am to follow the girl's academic teams' bus and watch the meet today.  It took me a bit to catch on to their format: A "toss-up" question is asked and any one on either team can buzz in and earn 10 points with a correct answer.  Then that team gets first crack to answer 3 "bonus" questions that the team can confer briefly and produce an answer together.  If their answer is wrong, the other team gets a chance to give a correct answer.  Each correct bonus answer is also worth 10 points.  A total of 20 toss-up questions are asked, so a minimum of 20 questions up to 80 questions are asked.

It was excruciating to watch.  It was all I could do not to yell, "C'mon Man!"  It was so frustrating to watch questions the kids should know go unanswered or incorrectly.  Les Miserables!  Adrenalin!  de Tocqueville!  war of 1812!  Mark Twain!  The teachers/coaches said they keep busy with scorekeeping to not get distracted with wrong answers.  I wish I had had more Words with Friends games going on.

To the girl's credit she did answer some questions that surprised me so I was pleased to hear her buzz in and say Libya, Phillip II, Soviet Union, New England Patriots, and Genji.  And despite that her team didn't make it to the semi-finals (there are 3 teams from her school), the girl ranked 4th overall of all competitors (about 40) in correct answers. 

A bonus for me driving 80 miles out for this meet:

Gas for less than $3 ($2.919)!

I'd say this was pretty much a good day, right?

Saturday: Mud Run and SC Philharmonic

Yesterday I did my second South Carolina Mud Run (click link for post with more details and pix).  I'll confess a few challenges for this one, besides shirking running duties.  I arrived back from California late Wednesday night and despite efforts to get up regularly around 6am Pacific time when I was on the West Coast, I think I just made the adjustment to the Eastern time zone in time for the Mud Run.  Though I vaguely remember thinking yesterday morning, I can't believe I'm awake for this and was it this cold last time?

Also on my last night in California, it seems that all the indulgent food I partook in during the week I was there, decided to revolt.  Out of my butt.  Every hour, starting at 1AM.  Around 5AM, I deliriously questioned whether it's better to vomit out of my rear end or my face.  I realize with such clarity, that of course, I'd take the squirts over puking because I get to sit down.  I caught my flight with an ingested dose of Imodium and handfuls of Pepto Bismol tablets and Tums.  After fearfully eating only a banana and 6 Munchkins at the Dallas airport on Wednesday,  I spent Thursday and Friday, carefully trying to get the nutrition and water that drained out of me the couple of days earlier.  Not sure if I got there, as I was gun-shy to eat almost anything but plain rice.

Thankfully, I had a great team, all those concerns went out the window--it was another dirty, awesome time!

And later in the evening, I took the girl and a friend of hers to see the South Carolina Philharmonic:

Since the girl is in their Youth Strings orchestra, I thought it'd be a good idea for her to hear what to aspire to. Plus we know Winkie Goodwin, the guest pianist, so it was thrilling to watch her perform.  Afterwards, the girl said we should congratulate her and treat her to Sandy's for ice cream.  I told her it was a very sweet gesture but I'm sure that the orchestra had other plans for her and that, um...Ms. Goodwin wasn't 13 years old and probably wouldn't dig cotton candy ice cream the way she did.  But I decided ice cream for the girls was a nice way to end the night and we picked up stuff for sundaes on the way home.

Very satisfying Saturday.

Smart Girl

The invite came in the mail for the girl's induction to her school's National Junior Honor Society:

To which I have to say, there was no National "Junior" Honor Society when I was a kid.  Anyway, I'm glad the girl met the standards for it and she was glad to be able to skip a period of school eating cake and punch in the square with her friends.

The next day, we got up at 5:30am so that the girl could meet the rest of the Academic Team to bus together for a big meet 80 miles away.  Gotta say, I dig their team shirts and their play on the popular phrase:

It's like rounds and rounds of Quiz Bowl but unfortunately, they didn't win.  She did contribute a number of answers.

Next time, sweetie!

Party Time

The girl had her first big birthday bash here at the house over the weekend. 20 teenagers. Wow.  What was I thinking? Trust me, future gatherings will have a LOT less kids. Fortunately, she had a couple of friends who came the day before and helped out so much in terms of setting up. After we burned a twenty at the dollar store, they decorated the front porch:

One of the oddest buys were these balloons from the dollar store that came in "assorted shapes".  Seriously, what kind of shapes are these?

We made one wall a photo booth area and set up a prop station (which you'll probably notice included more dollar store finds like the mustaches, boas, leis, straw hat, sunglasses, and a foam cowboy hat):

I loved the signs that the girl's friend made:

Obviously this friend dislikes wasted cups of soda.  My kind of girl:

They even moved the furniture around and hung balloons and homemade banners around the room:

As the kids came in, I'd lead groups of kids to the photo booth wall and some would try props and pose together.  Some really got into the props and others preferred plain group shots.  Before they left, I printed out pictures for the kids to take home.  Since the party was in the afternoon, food was simple--chips with dips and cookies that the girls made:

Good use of one of the balloon shapes, right?  Less sure about the mustache:

Some kids dug the temporary tattoos and went for a "sleeved" look:

And there were birthday cupcakes that the girls baked and frosted.  The part you don't see is after the girl blew out the candle, a cupcake got smooshed in her face.  One of her friends said it's kind of a tradition--I guess it's not just for weddings anymore!

I'm sure a lot of kids would "just die" if I posted their photo booth pics, but I do have this one I snapped of me and the girl post-party.  I think this party managed to age me ten years and ten pounds.

But the girl had a good time. Happy Birthday to my big girl!

It's Official

This girl:

is officially a teenager.  As you can see, she is totally excited:

For her birthday today, we took her to Drip for an awesome breakfast:

Then she was off to school which was a busy but hopefully exciting day for her.  For dinner, off to Menkoi, South Carolina's first ramen house:

The teenager still so thrilled:

Post dinner we hit Tutti Fruitti, a froyo place near Menkoi.  I loved that this froyo place offered non-dairy choices like soy peanut butter and blueberry sorbet:

And back home the girl blew out candles on treats we picked up at Cupcake:

For those interested, we got the Samoa, Strawberry, and Berry Zinger:

Here's hoping her wishes come true!