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Avery Self Concept

Found this that Avery had done at school... interesting to see how she sees herself!

13

I can't believe we have teenagers now! They are growing so tall and changing so much every day right now! Here's a little peek into their lives...

Avery loves dance and is on the teen dance team at DPDC. She's taking lyrical ballet, jazz and hip hop (that's new for her this year). She goes back and forth about joining the Company at DPDC because it's a really big time commitment. She wants to see what other activities she might do in middle school first, before making that decision. She is at the dance studio Monday and Wednesday nights and some Fridays. She is doing a lyrical trio this competition season in addition to the dances with the full team. Avery is also taking a tumbling class at Super CDA on Tuesdays, mainly to learn her back handspring. Avery continues to do great at school. She is a math nerd like Matt and me! She is taking 8th grade math. She is really loving middle school and even has a crush (though we aren't allowed to know his name - ha!) She still plays piano, but doesn't get as much practicing in as she should! She enjoys theater and was in Mean Girls, Jr over the summer. She should be getting braces soon, but she still has two more teeth to lose (she is so dentally delayed!) When she's not busy with her activities, she loves playing Roblox, hanging out with her friends, going to Starbucks and watching YouTube shorts on her new cell phone!

Morgan is still very into sports! She plays soccer for Roadrunners on the Girls 2012 Select team. She had been playing goalie some last season because her team didn't have a dedicated goalie. But, this season they have one, so she's been playing attacking mid-field, her normal spot. I think she missed playing goalie a little at first, but is now happy to be back out in the field. She's also playing basketball... lots of it! She's on the Team MC travel team and just recently made the Herrick MS 7th grade girls team. There were 24 7th graders that tried out for the middle school team and 12 made it. She's already making new friends on the team! Team MC plays year round, but their main season is winter. So, for now she goes to a practice if she's free and plays in the one day shootout tournaments on the weekends. Morgan is doing great at middle school! She's really enjoying science class and also loves the things they get to do in FACS (Family and Consumer Science). They are currently sewing a pillow! When Morgan isn't busy with sports, she loves playing Roblox, hanging out with her friends and scrolling on her new phone.

The girls have a lot of the same friends these days. With middle school, they are thrown together with all the other elementary schools, so they are meeting new kids every day in their classes. But, they still mostly hang out with girls from their elementary school. Avery tends to stick to the same few girls while Morgan can hang out with just about anybody. They don't have any classes together, but sit at the same table for lunch (they have assigned tables). They get along pretty good for sisters! :)

For fun, I went back to the blog post I did when they turned one to compare.

Here's what I wrote about Morgan - Two words to describe Morgan: bubbly and tough! Morgan is such a happy little girl. She has the best giggle! She is outgoing and loves smiling at strangers. She is a very easy child. She eats great, plays hard and sleeps well. She is also super tough. She hardly ever cries, so when she does you know something is really wrong. These things are all still true! She is outgoing and smiles a lot! She also is a great eater and tries new foods all the time. She plays hard and enjoys her sleep!

Here's what I wrote about Avery - It's hard to sum Avery up in two words. She's still our little diva. For such a tiny thing, she packs a lot of attitude already.  Avery has become more shy as her sister has become more outgoing. It takes her a little while to warm up to new people or situations. Avery is studious and loves to figure things out. She gets such a serious look on her face when she's studying how her toys work. She also is very aware of what's going on around her.  Definitely still rings true today! She may not have as much of a diva attitude now, but she is definitely strong willed. She is not one to let others take advantage of her. She is still shy and very studious!

Happy 13th Birthday!!!

On Sunday, we celebrated the girls turning 13 with a fun day! They are officially teenagers!

As always, we started off with presents in the morning. This year, the girls got CELL PHONES!!! Yes, this has been on their wish list forever, but we held off until they were 13. Most of their friends already have phones, so now they feel like they are part of the "club". Ha!

A couple of the things I got them for their birthday didn't fit, so we returned those and did a little shopping. Of course, we had to stop off at Sephora for their free birthday gifts!

We grabbed lunch at Lazy Dog. Here they are on their new phones waiting for our table. :)

We relaxed in the afternoon for a little bit. Avery and I have been binging Gilmore Girls together. Then, we got ready for their birthday dinner out. They picked Gibson's since they had such a great dinner there with Matt when I was out of town. A few pictures before we headed out.

Morgan loves shrimp cocktail!

Avery does not! :) But she loves the bread they bring to the table.

Our waitress brought out a birthday dessert with warm chocolate chip cookies and ice cream.

And we let them take pictures of it for their friends with their new phones - ha! We don't allow Snapchat, but they have an app called Locket that they do with their friends that is similar but geared more towards middle schoolers.

We had a great dinner and are so happy to celebrate this milestone with our favorite girls!

Oh, the guy from The Kitchen on Food Network (and other shows), Jeff Mauro, was having a party with friends in the party room next to our table. I was surprised he would be in Oak Park, but turns out he used to have a deli in Westmont. Small world.

13th Birthday Party

The girls had a few friends over on Saturday night to celebrate their birthday. We grilled out hot dogs and hamburgers, played some games and had s'mores by the fire pit. There was a lot of giggling and screaming, so I think they all had fun! :)

We decorated a little around the house and outside. I bought some lights to put up around the yard. We kind of were going for an iridescent theme, I guess!

We gave the girls their new cell phones for the party so they could take pictures.

Apparently, this Soda Pop song is from K Pop Demon Hunters. They made this fun video!

We played a version of Family Feud with the girls and it was so fun! We split them up into two teams with Avery and Morgan split up.  We had buzzers and streamed the game on the TV. I had set it up with categories that middle schoolers would (hopefully!) like:

• After taking a selfie, what might you do with it?
• Name something you do each night before you go to bed.
• Name an app where you interact with your friends.
• Name something you would see on a GRWM video.
• Name the top streamed Olivia Rodrigo songs to date
• Name the top streamed Taylor Swift songs to date
• Other than LOL, what is a text acronym that you use frequently?
• What does a dog do? 
• What is a word or phrase no one over age 30 should say?
• What’s something you do when you wake up in the morning?

Morgan's team ended up winning by quite a bit. :)

Then, they opened presents. The girls got a lot of nice things from their friends! I think they have Starbucks gift cards to last them a while.

Front row: Lizzie, Maebel, Elise, Abby, Bianca
Back row: Morgan, Rachel, Katherine, Avery & Caroline

After dinner, the girls all made s'mores and sat around the fire pit. Matt got this picture where the smoke from Caroline's marshmallow on fire caught the color from the projector and made it look blue!

They watched about 5 minutes of Mean Girls, but weren't really into the movie. They ended up playing hide-n-seek in the house with their cell phones. Like they would hide and then text each other pictures or clues where they were. They played this for a while!

Then, they all grabbed handfuls of glow sticks and went in the basement for a glow-stick party!

They made this fun video with the glow sticks!

After their friends left, the girls crashed! Last night of being 12!

When you leave your phone unattended

 

I think she's feeling better!

Someone grabbed my phone and took some selfies... ha!

Cinderella camp

While Morgan was at nature camp this week, Avery was doing a theater camp. She spent the afternoons rehearsing and then put on a short play on Saturday. Avery has done some theater at school in a large group, but this was the first time we'd seen her on stage like this. She had such a blast working on the play all week and performing on stage. She got selected as one of the top three performers of the week! She got to be Portia, one of the stepsisters! (Fun Fact - Aunt Erin played Portia in the same play in high school!)

Started off the day with mani/pedis (since we were leaving for vacation the next day!)

The program

On stage with the other stepsister, stepmother and Cinderella

"Cinderella, my flowers!"

"It fits!" (not so much!)

Singing a song with some other castmates

A few videos from the show...

 

     

Some pictures after the show...

Happy Birthday to Avery!!!

Avery's birthday party was on Saturday. She chose to have it at Dazzling Divas, which is a kid spa near us. They do little manicures, glitter up the kids hair and face, put a little make-up on them and then let them walk the runway! They even get to drink "fairy fizz", which is basically sprite with cotton candy melted in. Avery had a blast!

Waiting for the guests to arrive

Playing on the runway before the makeovers

Makeover time!

Manicures

Video of the runway show - Lizzie is giving all the girls 10's on their poses! :)

Group photo

Glittery unicorn cupcakes

Blowing out the candles

Cheers!

Fairy fizz is yummy!

Birthday girl! :)

Dance party!

Signing the birthday door

There was even a rainbow that night!