Erin Michelle turns 15 today! She has had a fun birthday weekend, starting with a friend gathering on Saturday, then a family day on Sunday, and now her actual birthday today complete with lots of wishes. For the friend party, she wanted to do something similar to what her friend Vera did this summer, which was to meet up at an outdoor shopping area and have a meal. Since two of her new friends from Gibbons live north/east of Raleigh, she chose to meet at North Hills. We shuttled the 3 friends from our side of town up there, met up, and everyone completed the scavenger hunt that Erin had prepared for them. We took a break mid-hunt for some shopping at the bookstore, then had dinner at Pieology (pizza) and cupcakes after the game was over. After dinner, they hung out at the green area and played a couple of games. I think it was a success, and everyone seemed to have fun!
Sunday, we met up with the Summers and Grandma and Grandpa A. at the Buddy Walk! We enjoyed seeing the "new" downtown Kannapolis and the Cannon Ballers stadium. The walk was a lot of fun, and there was a great turnout on the beautiful day! After the walk, we all had lunch at El Vallarta (complete with a waiter robot) and the girls managed to sneak in a quick shopping trip at the Carolina Mall. What a fun day!
Today, she started out her day with the requested Dunkin' Donuts breakfast, then a regular day at school (it's an "A" day, which means she has dance, Spanish, Theology, and English, which are her easier and more fun classes). She requested Chinese food for dinner (no cooking!), and a relaxing evening at home. We walked Finley together after dinner, which is something that she always enjoys.
What's new with Erin? I think the biggest thing is learning to drive. While this is terrifying in one way, she has done a fantastic job with it so far! She took the 30-hour classroom part in July, then completed the last of the three 2-hour driving sessions with the instructor on Saturday. The teacher said that she did a great job and is ready to go! We have an appointment scheduled on Friday morning for her to get her permit. Fingers crossed that the written test goes well!
Other than driving, she has had an exciting year, finishing up middle school and starting high school. After spending eight years at one school in a class of about 75 kids, high school (with a freshman class of 400 kids) has been a huge change for her. She's had to learn the layout of a new school, a new schedule, and has experienced lots of new things like her first retreat, the PSAT, football games, clubs, and much more! She has really done wonderfully with all of these changes, and we are so proud of her. She's continuing her piano lessons outside of school, but she decided that taking the dance elective at school was enough dance, so she is not dancing at HSSOD any more. I think it's been good for her to have more time at home in the evenings to adjust to the high school workload.
She's stuck with her 3 best friends from StMM, and they've also made many new friends at Gibbons. She has Olivia, Vera and Elena from StMM, as well as Sophie, Mady, Maria and many more that she's gotten to know over the past few months from different Catholic middle schools in the area. She has gotten involved in the dance program and two clubs (Franciscan Youth International, a faith/service club and Service Beakers, a science education/service club). She remains very serious about her classes and grades, but she's also enjoying a few new freedoms in high school, including a class period called Flex every other day where she can study, socialize, exercise, or get a snack. Flex is great! She likes being able to have her phone with her all day, and she is doing great with communicating with teachers and managing class announcements, assignments, and schedules herself.
All in all, Erin is awesome! We are very proud of her, and we are excited for her future!
