Happy Fourteenth

My baby girl turned fourteen today.

We stayed up till midnight together last night to welcome in her 14th birthday. As we sat at the kitchen table, we took a few minutes to talk about all the things she's done this year. I wish I would have written them down as we thought of them last night, but at least I can try to remember a few of the things we remembered, and make a note of them here and now.

She kicked off last summer with her first Cosplay...

For which she made, with minimal assistance, her own Haruhi Susamiya costume...

She also went to her first anime convention. She assembled her costume, learning to sew from a pattern for the first time, and she ordered a wig from the internet.

She got her own cell phone.

She practiced drawing her own style of manga art, both in her sketchbook and using a Manga Art Studio software. She won an award for her safety poster.

She enrolled in Spanish 2, at the instructor's invitation, and did quite well, despite not having taken Spanish 1.

She radically expanded the types of foods she was willing to sample and eat and became quite the chef herself...making everything from homemade, hand kneaded bread to delicious fish tacos to key lime pie.

She enrolled in Mr. N's study skills class and became quite the fan of his "Chumley" quizes.

She made her own Ferb costume and her own Ferb wig for Halloween.

She followed that feat up by making her own plush Ferb doll a month or so later. (To keep him company, she received a plush Phineas and a Perry doll at Christmas.)

She had significant parts in THREE musicals over the school year...the church Christmas musical, the co-op Christmas musical, and the co-op spring musical. For the church Christmas musical, she also helped design and sew the costumes for the four Christmas 'stars'.

She participated in several fund raisers through the year to raise money for a youth trip to Denver, Colorado this coming summer. She got her first taste in waitressing and bussing tables at a Skyline fundraiser. And every Thursday, she taught all of her brother's school lessons for the day so that I could babysit and put that money towards her trip.

She and I attended the Cincinnati Homeschool Convention together, where she selected her own workshops and browsed the vendors hall to help select some of her high school curriculum for next year.

She tested for her black belt...

....and passed the test to receive her black belt!

I hope the video works. She really worked hard this year and accomplished a LOT. But I think I'm proudest of her for her black belt test. A lot of the components of Tae Kwon Do don't come easily to her, and she really has to practice and train hard to accomplish what she does. To prepare for her black belt test, she went to the dojo 4 days a week for several weeks. She practiced every day at home with additional conditioning exercises. She worked with the Jedi regularly outside of class on her board breaking, because that was something that she has struggled with in the past. On the day of her test, she was the only student in the group of junior black belts who broke every single board on the first try.

This year--
I'm proud of her for her perseverence.
I'm proud of her for her determination.
I'm proud of her for her independent learning.
I'm proud of her for her interest in new experiences.
I'm proud of her for her patience.
I'm proud of what a amazing young lady she is becoming.

Happy Birthday, Sweetling.