Emily is Seventeen

Our funny, brave, smart, strong will, athletic Emily is seventeen today.  She's a loyal friend, a lover of animals, a math whiz, an avid shopper, and an adventurous eater.  We are so proud of her each and every day.

Eighteen

It's a little hard to believe...

Sixteen

Our beautiful Emily turns sixteen today.  She is such an incredible human and it is such a privilege to watch her grow as a person every day.  Emily loves her friends and has more than we can count.  She loves to play sports and excels in every sport and in any position she is asked to play.  She works incredibly hard in school and has the grades to prove it.  Time and time again, we are blown away by her report cards, her success on the field, her dedication to her craft (whether it be singing, hours in the yard playing soccer or lacrosse, or repeats the track), and her incredible friendships. We are so proud of the person she is today, as well as the fact that she continues to grow into an even more amazing person every day.  Happy birthday baby girl!!!

Seventeen

 Elizabeth made it through another year and is finally seventeen!  She had a challenging year with COVID and academics, but we are so proud of how she persevered.  She continues to carry a challenging course load at school, including three AP classes during her junior year.  The workload was heavy, but she was up to the task, having her best academic year yet, grade-wise.  She lettered in three sports, captain of two, and excelled in lacrosse during the spring. Her lacrosse game has really exploded over the summer and she's been in contact with a few college coaches about playing, including a campus visit and tour last week.  We don't know where this road will take her, but it will be an exciting journey no matter what she decides.  She went to two proms (after thinking that COVID would rob her of the opportunity to ever attend a prom) and had a fantastic time at both of them.  She got her license and suddenly, she seems to be driving everywhere.  We are enjoying watching her expand her horizons and we can't wait to see what the next year brings, including high school graduation and college decisions!  Happy birthday to our first born.

Fifteen

Our sweet, funny, stubborn, athletic, beautiful Emily is fifteen today and what a year she's had.  She started her year as an 8th grader and ended it on the eve of final exams as a freshman.  She has embraced absolutely everything about high school - from her hard won position as a starter on the varsity soccer team (a dream come true), to her ever-increasing circle of friends, to the rigor of her academic courses - Emily has absolutely thrived.  She has also dealt with the constant changes and disappointments of COVID better than almost anyone we know.  When sports were "paused" over the winter, she hit the gym with a vengeance and came back in the spring stronger and faster, and with a killer throw in.  When her lacrosse team was quarantined and she had to take classes online, she made the best of it, cooking breakfasts and lunches for herself, such that her teachers always wanted details about what she was making.  We have watched her blossom as a person as her friend group grows - she is well-liked by school friends and her soccer friends and they are all always looking for ways to spend as much time together as possible.  She is fun and easy to be around 95% of the time, although she's an absolute terror the other 5%. We have enjoyed watching her grow this year and cannot wait to see what the future holds for her.

Sixteen

Sixteen.  Today is pretty much the biggest milestone we've known in our family and Elizabeth has been pretty much counting down the days.  She's done so much in these last 16 years, I don't even know where to begin.  We are so incredibly proud of her resilient spirit; her incredible pursuit of knowledge; her love of sports; her ever deepening and growing friendships with some amazing people; her love of family; her sense of humor; her (sometimes surprising) kindness; and her unbreakable spirit.  We are looking forward to seeing what her last two years of high school bring, as she embarks on some of her most difficult courses and her college search begins.  Happy birthday to our incredible first born.

Celebrating Fourteen

We aren't much for birthdays around here, but with things so "off" with the pandemic, we decided that we would try to arrange a drive by birthday party for Emily's birthday to surprise her.  In order to pull it off, I asked everyone to come by the day before her birthday, so she would have no idea.  We were sitting outside, lingering after dinner, when her four closest friends and their families caravanned by the house.  She was completely taken by surprise, it was so great!  After grabbing one of Elizabeth's famous cupcakes, the girls ended up kicking the soccer ball around in the backyard while the parents had a cocktail in the front yard.  This was probably her most successful birthday yet!

Swanny's gift included lights.... 

A new hydro flask from Grammy! 

A KitKat and M&M cake made by Elizabeth - it was soooo rich, but soooo good! 

On Emily's actual birthday, she had a scheduled track out workout with her soccer crew. Her favorite distance is 200m, so I had them do 200 repeats - 14, one for each year. 

They were lucky enough to have the chance to swim briefly after the workout.

Fourteen

Emily is fourteen today and she couldn't be happier about it.  Despite the fact that these last few months have not gone as planned, she has never missed a beat.  I can only remember one time since the world stopped moving that she was anything but happy - and it was because she couldn't master a certain number of juggles with the soccer ball.  She continues to be happiest when she is surrounded by her four best friends - none of whom she goes to school with but all of whom she would spend 24/7 with if she had the chance.  She loves being with her soccer team and with her friends from school and pretty much gets along with everyone.  She continues to excel at school, especially math and science.  In three years of middle school, she received only one A- and ended up with more A+ grades than A's.  She still loves to read but over the last several months, I've noticed that she really just loves to learn new things.  I've stumbled upon her listening to podcasts about a variety of topics while doing school work or cleaning up her work area.  Emily is an incredibly hard worker.  We were so impressed with how seriously she took her work during remote schooling; we were even more impressed with her dedication to soccer.  With the exception of only Easter Sunday, she has gone running, worked out or spent time working on soccer skills every single day.  We hope that her commitment to soccer pays off for her when the kids are finally allowed to return to the fields.  Emily is sooooo nervous, but sooooo excited about high school.  We can't wait to see what amazing things she does when she spreads her wings and flies.  Happy fourteenth birthday Emily - we hope that this year is as amazing as you are!

Fifteen

Elizabeth is fifteen today!  She has kept us on our toes since day one and I think that she just might for the rest of her life!  She works extremely hard at school - not only with her academics, but with her music and her athletics.  She is a loyal friend who has deep friendships with a few people and will not suffer the foolishness of others.  You always know where you stand with her.  We are so proud of the young woman she is becoming - strong, loyal, athletic, intelligent and witty.  We love you so much Elizabeth - have a wonderful birthday!!

Thirteen

Today, our baby is a teenager. What a year she's had.  She grew like a weed, getting stronger and faster with each passing week.  She continues to love playing soccer, sometimes as much as seven days a week.  This year, she's put in an impressive amount of work off the field - running, lifting and doing what she needs to do to get better all the time.  She fell in love with basketball over the winter and is liking lacrosse more and more every time she steps on the field.  We are proud of her work ethic in the classroom - two weeks at Choate over the summer, a trip to the state invention convention, high honors and an aptitude for math (not sure where that comes from).  Her best friends, not surprisingly, are the girls who live and breathe soccer just like she does - in particular, her car pool crew, the girls that run with her all summer.  She's looking forward to a summer of fun and one more year of middle school - but she's already looking down the road to high school.  Happy birthday to our silly, funny, sporty, smart, beautiful Emily.  We can't wait to see what you do this year!

Fourteen

Elizabeth is fourteen today and what a year she's had.  Over the last twelve months, she's experienced great disappointments, tremendous sadness, jubilation and pride, and learned to find the silver lining in every cloud.  We could not be more proud of her hard work - in school and on the playing field - and her dedication to everything she does.  She is a wonderful flute player; a tenacious lacrosse player; an enthusiastic basketball player; and a reluctantly good runner.  We are continually impressed by her academic success and pray that it continues in high school, as she has selected the most difficult classes available to a freshman.  We know that she will give it her all, as that is the only way she knows how to live her life.  Happy fourteenth birthday to our Elizabeth.  We are so happy that to be on this wild ride with you.

Twelve

It's a cliche, but we blinked and Emily turned twelve.  She's had a terrific year - of school, sports and friends.  Her transition to the rigor of middle school was seamless and she has really enjoyed all of her teachers and everything she's learned this year.  She had a great year of sports - a great cross country season, a surprising basketball season and a fun spring lacrosse season.  Soccer remains her primary focus and she's happily played in eight soccer tournaments since her last birthday.  She loves all of her friends, especially her soccer carpool besties!  Most importantly, her goofball personality has flourished - she laughs all the time and loves to tell awful jokes; her one liners and facial expressions keep us all in stitches.
Happy birthday to our sweet Emily!  We are so happy to be on this wonderful ride with you!

Thirteen

Elizabeth turned thirteen today.  I know that I say this every year, but I just can't believe it - where does the time go?  It seems impossible to believe that she is entering yet another phase of her life, the teenage years.  Elizabeth is both incredibly sensitive and tough as nails.  She impresses us with her maturity and her ability to weather any storm - not that she is impervious to pain, but that she comes through conflicts bruised and battered, but stronger than than before.  Elizabeth continues to excel academically, thanks to God's gifts and an incredible work ethic.  Her love for reading knows no bounds and while math continues to be her Achille's Heel, she's made tremendous progress over the last year.  She buckled down and really committed herself to her sports over this year, taking her lacrosse game to a whole new level, leading her cross country team at every race and becoming a dependable and reliable member of her basketball team.  She loves animals and wants to save every animal she lays eyes on, regardless of species.  Despite the fact that she drives us crazy and challenges our parenting abilities (and our patience) at every turn, Lee and I could not be more proud of the person she is and the person she is working to become.  Happy birthday to our teenager.  We love you so much!

P.S.  You know you have a teenager when they pick a song by Pitbull for their birthday video....

Eleven

Our baby girl turns eleven today.  She had a pretty rough day, as she's been under the weather for several days and although she gave it her best, she spent a few hours napping after two brutal soccer games.  Going through all of the photos to make her video reminded me of so many great moments that she had this year - she had some really great moments in soccer and made amazing memories with her various teams; she tried a new sport; performed in All State band for the first time; and if possible, became a more voracious reader.  Emily is a complete goof ball, but she is serious (as a heart attack) about school and sports.  She's super competitive and when she sets her mind to something, there's no stopping her.  She still surprises us, from time to time, with her lack of confidence, but we are working on that.  Emily continues to love Jesus and we are impressed with her kindness and her devotion to her daily bible reading.  Lee and I are so blessed to have Emily as our daughter and we can't wait to see what this year brings!  Her lucky number is 11 and we believe that God has great things in store for her this year.  Happy Birthday!!!

Birthdays

As always, the girls received birthday gifts while they were on vacation, which always seems to make their birthday celebrations last a little bit longer (and they love it).  The girls received presents from Grammy and then Elizabeth received a gift from Uncle Peter and Aunty Kathy.  Finally, when we got back from vacation, Elizabeth received a few gifts from us, in addition to Draco.

Opening presents at Grammy's house. 

Ginger Snaps bracelet.

Ravenclaw Pen

Meet Draco

If you are a loyal follower of the CSC, you that Elizabeth loves animals and that she is always look to take on more responsibility.  For the last several months, she's been talking about getting some sort of lizard.  Rather than wait for the inevitable business case, we decided that she could get one for her twelfth birthday, as long as she did the research to figure out which one was best and as long as she picked something that she could care for by herself.  One she heard the news, she dove head first into her research and figured out what would work in our house and with our busy lifestyle.  She eventually decided on a gecko and Draco moved in a few weeks ago.  As hesitant as I was at first, he's actually starting to grow on me a bit....

Researching and watching countless youtube videos with Lee. 

Draco is an albino gecko, so she named him after the very, very pale villain in the Harry Potter series. 

Every time they feed Draco, this is what happens - everyone in the family watches him hunt his prey. 

Not sure how she has any of my DNA.  I'm not sure that I could ever do this.

Twelve

Today is Elizabeth's twelfth birthday and what a year she's had.  Her first year in middle school, and she learned to shoulder the responsibility of multiple teachers, a heavy homework load and many extra curricular activities.  She tried two new sports - cross country and basketball - and learned a lot in both.  She made new friends and strengthened bonds with some of her old friends.  She got serious about school and made High Honors (straight A's) all three trimesters of school.  Elizabeth stepped far outside of her comfort zone and participated in both Regional Honors Band and All State Concert Band - trying out for both and working very hard to practice the difficult music.  She also went away for the first time - attending a two week academic summer program at Choate Rosemary Hall and loving every second of it.  She made a ton of friends, many of whom told me when I met them, that she was such a good person.  Elizabeth is loyal and values loyalty in return.  She is stubborn beyond belief and can be incredibly difficult.  But mostly, she is a kind, generous and thoughtful person and we are so glad that she is our daughter.

This is Ten

Emily turned ten a few weeks ago, in the middle of a very hectic week and weekend - end of school, soccer tournament, etc.  She opened her presents from her family on the afternoon of her birthday and to her delight, she had a Harry Potter birthday, receiving various Harry Potter themed items, which made her so happy.  She also received the priceless gift of Instagram, which she has coveted since Elizabeth turned ten.  But for the rules that accompany the privilege of an Instagram account, I'm sure that she would have posted 50 selfies by now!

Luna Lovegood figurine. 

The sole non HP gift - a hedge hog plush craft.

Harry Potter puzzles.

Hermione's wand....

Birthday loot, for her Instagram account....

Elizabeth made these cupcakes for Emily's soccer team to enjoy during the tournament.

Emily is Ten - Video

It's a week late and some of the photos are not perfect, but here is Emily's birthday video!

Ten

Today, our beloved Emily turns ten and as I reflect on this last year, I realize how lucky we are to be her parents.  She is a kind and loving girl - last August, she cut off eleven inches of her hair and donated it to Locks for Love; she always looks for the good in other people and tries very hard to like everyone.  She is very artistic - she started playing the saxophone this year, loves to sing and enjoyed being in the school play.  Emily is one of the sportiest girls I know - she excels at soccer and lacrosse and can't wait to run cross country (one more year) and play basketball for her school.  There are weeks at a time that she plays soccer seven days a week, sometime 2 or 3 games a day and she never tires of it.  As much as she loves to score, she also loves to stop other people from scoring and is turning into a very good goalie.  Lacrosse is a close second, probably because she scores so much.  She works hard at both sports and we are proud of all that she has accomplished on the field over the last year.  Emily is also studious and hardworking at school - she finished 4th grade with straight A's for the year, which is an impressive accomplishment, considering the extracurricular activities she balances with her school workload.  She takes a book with her everywhere she goes and she also loves to write (although she does not like to write book reports for school).  She loves learning new things and interesting facts - one of her favorite gifts at Christmas is the yearly kids almanac.  One of Emily's best qualities is her sense of humor - she loves to tell jokes; she loves puns; she is always laughing and smiling.  She is incredibly easy going and a joy to be around.  Emily is still a great sleeper, although those napper shots are becoming few and far between.  She loves animals, especially Baxter.  She spent at least two weeks this spring trying to talk us into getting a hedgehog for her - and was extremely frustrated with us when the answer was a firm "no".  She is adventurous and always willing to try new foods and adventures.  She loves, loves, loves Harry Potter and simply devoured the books over the winter.  She could watch the movies on a continuous loop and often spent her recesses talking with other Potterheads.  With all of this goodness comes.....stubbornness; pigheadedness; the refusal to believe that she is ever wrong; and sometimes a surprising lack of self-confidence.  We love every inch of her tiny (but strong) frame; we love every facet of her personality; and we are excited and lucky to be on a life-long journey with her.  Happy Birthday to our kind, funny, beautiful and sporty Emily.  You've finally reached double digits - enjoy it!!

(For those of you wondering where the annual video is, well, it's been delayed.  After 7 1/2 years without a single problem, my beloved iMac completely stopped working two days ago. I completed the video on our backup MacBook but because we haven't updated the MacBook in a while, I couldn't load the video to YouTube - or any other third party host. I will post it once we are back up and running).