What Our Girls Have Been Up To: Late 2016 Edition

Since our family blog posts are more of a rarity these days, I am hoping to cover several bases with each post...hopefully without also giving the reader sensory/information overload. For my millions of faithful readers, I'm sure the question many of you have been asking over my months of relative quiet in the blogosphere is this:

"What are those three cute Barrett girls up to these days? What are their interests & hobbies? What memorable things have they done?"

Well, wonder no more...in this post, I will TELL IT ALL (within reason and hopefully in a concise yet enjoyable fashion). Enjoy the many pictures! That's really why you come to the blog anyway, right?

I think I've covered most of our family's summer break of 2016, so I want to start with the beginning of our current school year. This was a momentous year for Lorelai; she entered sixth grade last summer/fall. That's right, we have a middle schooler living in the house; we can barely believe it ourselves. Celeste also got a lot older without much warning; she entered third grade, aka The Grade Where Stuff Gets Real. Aurora may be our "baby," but she doesn't much look it any more; she entered first grade. They are all getting so big!

The school year so far has been, overall, a very positive one for all three girls. They love all their teachers and they are finding lots of satisfaction in their classes and their after-school activities. There have been a few struggles here and there, but who doesn't have those?

Now, for the highlights! I'll take them one beautiful girl at a time.

Lorelai

This year Lorelai has taken on many responsibilities, but she has risen to the challenge and acquitted herself pretty well, all things considered. Sixth grade was a big adjustment for her; she worried a lot about the new class schedule and the new homework load, which has definitely taken up more of her time than it used to. She spends a lot more time on the computer completing projects and e-mailing her classmates for feedback. It means that her "school side" is a little more distant from me than it used to be; I am less aware of what she's working on in each class, and what is expected of her. Thank goodness she is a responsible kid, and tries very hard to stay on top of things.

There have been a couple of days that were hard. She has broken down and cried once or twice; she is a bit of a worrier, and I think she doubts herself sometimes. She has probably inherited that from yours truly! Thankfully, she is slowly adjusting to the heavier workload, and is finding ways to balance her work time and down time. She has friends, but is happy staying home alone to read and relax. That is fine with me; she needs that relaxation, and she earns it every week.

In August, Lorelai turned eleven. Eleven! I can hardly believe that in 2017, I will have a daughter in the LDS Church's Young Womens program. But her 2016 birthday was momentous too; as is appropriate, she received her letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!

She was very excited to be honored with a letter...and with the cute little owl that accompanied the letter, too! However, she told me she was "happy with her current school," and would politely decline the offer. But the Harry Potter-loving part of her got a kick out of the whole thing.

The cupcakes she brought to school to celebrate

A few days later, she celebrated her birthday with a couple of close friends; they went to Funtasticks, a local family fun park. They spent a couple of hours riding go-karts, playing laser tag, and horsing around.

Another "birthday present" Lorelai got was eyeglasses; after a school-recommended professional eye exam, we discovered that she was a touch nearsighted.

Lorelai has tried to be a good sport about having glasses, but I think she has never gotten fully used to them; she still avoids wearing them whenever possible. Hopefully time (and nagging parents) will fix that!

In September, Lorelai was able to participate in a camp-out sponsored by our LDS stake; this camp-out was just for the eleven-year-old girls! It was intended as a preparatory camp for Girl's Camp the following year. Lorelai had so much fun there. She got to hang out with all her friends, make crafts, eat yummy food by the campfire, learn important camping skills (like fire building, orienteering, and water purification), and make a few simple crafts.

 

As an Activity Days leader, I went up and spent the night with Lorelai. I had been asked to do a presentation on fire safety and water purification. Being pretty inexperienced at camping, I was frankly terrified of doing this, but thankfully Pinterest and lots of talented friends helped save me from total embarrassment and help my presentation make a bit of sense.

 Since Nathan wasn't there to put up the tent, Lorelai and I almost had to sleep under the stars; thankfully, a nice father from our ward took pity on me and helped us out.

It was so great to be up in Camp Zion again; our family has camped there several times and we have always had so much fun! Overall, the camp out was an exhausting experience (especially the four hours where I had to give my fire/water presentation; I lost my voice!); however, it was very fulfilling as well for both of us.

In addition to the larger class load and her church activities, Lorelai has kept several after-school activities on her schedule. She is still learning piano from me, and has been making excellent progress this year (more on that in a later post). Early in the school year, she tried out for the school's production of The Little Mermaid Jr., and won the role of Arista, one of Ariel's "mer-sisters." She has been practicing hard for that, and will be performing in the play this coming April.

She also signed up to be part of a Brazilian drum club, which met weekly after school in the fall (more on that in a minute). Perhaps most significantly, she is still playing trombone in the school's jazz band, which keeps her varying degrees of busy throughout the year. The band practices every day at school, and then has several performances throughout the year. In the fall, they had two major gigs; the first was in our town's annual parade sponsored by the White Elephant thrift store. Here's the band getting on their "rig" for the parade:

Just a couple of weeks later, the band performed again, this time at the huge community-wide Pecan Festival (our town is bordered by huge pecan orchards, so it's essentially a harvest festival).

The band performed for about 15-20 minutes and was very well-received (and even received a nice "thank-you" check from the organizing committee, from what I heard!). The band sounded great! If you want to hear them, take a listen to the video below. I say "listen," because Celeste was operating the camera, and did a truly terrible job holding it still. You will probably get vertigo if you try to watch, so just listen to it in the background while reading the rest of the blog!

The day of the Pecan Festival performance was a super, super busy day for Lorelai. Besides performing with the band, she also ran in the Pecan Classic 5K just a few hours before! She took third place in her age group (granted, there weren't a whole lot of kids running in her age group, but still...we were proud!). Then, after the Pecan Festival jazz band performance, we had to head up to downtown Tucson, where her aforementioned drum club had a performance in a bar.

It felt like an odd place for a middle school band to be performing, but everyone there was very accommodating! It was really cool to see Lorelai perform in a different kind of musical ensemble. Here's a clip from their performance (it was pretty dark, so once again, you're just going to have to listen):

But that performance still wasn't everything that Lorelai had done that weekend. The night before all this other stuff went down, Lorelai attended another concert...this time as a spectator only. She was my "date" to see techno-violin performer Lindsey Stirling perform in Tucson!

 

 It was a concert I was very excited about attending. Nathan, however, was pretty ho-hum about it, so I thought it would be fun for Lorelai to see a "real" pop music concert, with all the special effects and booming sound that implies. She even put a little streak in her hair for the occasion!

Going into the concert, Lorelai was fairly indifferent to Lindsey Stirling, but she came out of the experience more enthusiastic. She had a fun time and loved all the special effects on display. It was a fun mother-daughter "date!" I really hope I can take my two younger daughters to concerts in the future, too.

So, to recap: in one weekend, Lorelai attended a night-time concert in Tucson, ran a 5k early the next morning, performed with her jazz band at a large community event, then performed on the drums a few hours later in Tucson. Whew! To say she was busy would be an understatement. But she enjoys the rush of performing, and she is (so far) balancing her life out. We will see how everything goes this winter and spring!

Celeste

 Life was relatively quiet this last fall for my middle daughter. Not to say Celeste wasn't busy, but her schedule wasn't as jam-packed as some of her sisters'. In second grade, Celeste was a bit overloaded, so I thought it would be nice for her to have a more relaxing fall.

Of course, "relaxing" is a relative term; third grade is when the homework and classwork really start to accelerate, and as my flightiest kid, I worried somewhat that Celeste would fall behind. She also really hates homework, so I thought I would be fighting lots of battles with her over it. However, the reality has been a pleasant surprise; Celeste is (mostly) taking care of all her school responsibilities, with few reminders from me. Even if she doesn't love her classes, she is still plugging away, doing what she's supposed to be doing, and that in itself is a blessing.

Another plus in third grade has been the teacher situation. In both first and second grade, Celeste got a new teacher midway through the year. It made for an unstable class situation, and there were a lot of behavior issues in her classes because of it. This year, Celeste has been blessed to have one (really great!) teacher throughout the entire year, and the difference in both her attitude towards school, and in the overall behavior of her class, is very noticeable. I am so grateful Celeste has a teacher she respects, looks up to, and is inspired by.

Socially, Celeste has had some ups and downs. This age and grade can be kind of tough in that regard. We are unfortunately at the beginning of the "mean girl" years, and there have been times where Celeste comes home saying she has no friends, or that no one will ever play with her. It's so hard not to get depressed hearing those things, or to not go all "mama bear" on the school or her classmates! I often have to take a step back, watch and wait; quite often, Celeste's problems eventually reveal themselves as temporary, and her long-term friendships, while changed, are still intact.

Celeste is obsessed with popularity and image, more so than her sisters, so it makes sense that these situations will be particularly hard for her to deal with. I want to try very hard to teach her not to retaliate on any girls in her class with any sort of mean, excluding behavior. Celeste has such a good heart that I would be crushed if she makes that choice. I hope she will always remember how much capacity for good is within her, and to always be trying to build on it.

Just like Lorelai, Celeste is also taking piano lessons from me. They are about every other week; I wish they could be more often, but at least I make her practice regularly, and her progress is steady. She is also going to be in the school play for the second straight year (after rocking it as a Munchkin in The Wizard Of Oz last year). This year, in The Little Mermaid Jr., Celeste will be playing two parts: a Jellyfish and a Flamingo. That means she gets to perform in the two biggest musical numbers: Under The Sea and Kiss The Girl, which is fine by her! I can't wait to get pictures of her in costume! Also in the fall, Celeste chose to do the Reading Club after school. Such a simple premise; everybody gets together and reads lots of books. Sounds like my kind of club.

I was lucky enough to chaperone Celeste on a class field trip in November; they visited Tumacacaori National Historical Park, an old Spanish misson about half an hour south of us. The kids got to learn about local cultural and agricultural history, dress up like the colonists, and visit the inside of a very old church. It was pretty neat!

They also had to do a little "hard labor"; Celeste and the other kids tried to carry water pails via a shoulder yoke, and also had to pick "apples" from the local "orchard."

Last but not least, Celeste turned nine this year. It feels weird; for the last year, I've been thinking of her as "recently baptized," but now that just isn't true anymore. She is starting to mature spiritually and physically.

To celebrate, she finally got to move out to her very own bedroom! (we converted the old "TV room upstairs" into a bedroom; now the TV is in the loft).

She also got a mini camera, a Caboodle, and a few other delightful things. I can't wait to see what else awaits her this year (besides a double-digit birthday--YIKES--and pierced ears?!?)

Aurora

Our youngest daughter was also a busy little bee this last fall. What was most shocking to me was how much older she suddenly seemed. She was no longer a starry-eyed kindergartner; she was a seasoned, mature first grader who was eager for each new challenge. She was initially a little sad because her best friend wasn't in her class this year; however, she quickly got over it and reached outside her comfort zone a bit. Aurora is a people-pleaser, so she is slow to complain when people are rude to her. However, she is just bossy enough to stand up for herself when needed, so I suspect she will be fine in the long run.

She started losing a bunch of teeth this fall, too!

Aurora had an amazing kindergarten teacher, and she was blessed with another amazing teacher for first grade. I'm so grateful she got so lucky! Her new teacher is all smiles and enthusiasm, and Aurora is happy to reciprocate. She has started to complain a bit about some of her math homework (she was mostly unchallenged by any schoolwork in kindergarten), but otherwise she is getting wonderful grades and being a model student.

There was one big surprise that summer; after an eye exam, the ophthalmologist informed us that Aurora was extremely near-sighted in one eye; so much so that she needed vision correction "immediately!" Since Nathan has had glasses for years, we weren't too surprised at the news that some of our girls needed glasses; it seemed inevitable. What was surprising to us was that Aurora had never once complained about her vision; she claimed she'd never had a problem seeing anything. That's what we get for trusting our kids!

Aurora was absolutely devastated that she needed glasses; she cried about it for hours and hours! She was convinced that she would be considered unattractive and unpopular at school henceforth. We were shocked at this attitude, and pointed out that lots of cool people (including Daddy!) looked great in glasses.

 

I have to say that the frames she chose are absolutely adorable and fit her so well that she was soon won over. As for the "unattractive" part...well, just a few months after school started, a little boy in Aurora's class asked her to be his "girlfriend," so obviously she's attractive to some!

As a rule, we don't allow our girls to begin clubs after school until second grade; however, Aurora was plenty busy in the fall all the same. After a long summer waiting, she was playing soccer again...this time in a new league!

Aurora played soccer during the winter with some of her friends, and she had a great time getting to know the game and how to play it. However, the league she played in is somewhat unorganized, and we wanted to try her out in another league that also operated in the area, and about which we had heard good things. So we signed her up for fall season with AYSO Sahuarita, and it was a great fit for her driven, competitive personality!

AYSO wasn't a perfect league, but we were really impressed with the coaching and the game schedule; it was much easier to follow what was going on! Plus, Aurora learned a lot more rules and fundamentals of soccer in just a few weeks than she'd learned in a whole season in the other league. I am glad Aurora had the chance to try both leagues out, but we will definitely be putting her back in AYSO this coming fall.

Aurora really blossomed on this team (they christened themselves the "Black Widows"). Many of the players were older and more experienced than her, which helped her to pick things up more quickly.

She pushed herself really hard; most of the time, the coaches had to pull her out of the game for a quarter or so, in order for her to catch her breath.

 

She tended to run at full tilt everywhere on the field. She was aggressive and maneuverable; throughout the season, she got better and better at weaving her way around defenders and driving to the goal. In the last league, she didn't score much; during this season, she was one of the team's top scorers.

Things weren't always perfect, of course: sometimes, Aurora and her team lost focus or got lazy. They won a few games, lost a few, and tied once or twice. Sadly, on championship weekend, they were eliminated by their hated rivals. Aurora, being the fierce competitor that she is, cried bitterly afterwards. We had to remind her that she had not played her best that day, and would be better prepared the next time. Despite the unfortunate ending, she still loved the team and complained for weeks afterwards when there was no soccer practice in the evenings!

She did get to be reunited with her coaches and teammates one more time after the season was over; they had a pizza party and received their trophies. It was a very happy day for her!

We are currently in a long "break" from soccer...it will be interesting to see if Aurora will still feel as excited about it when next fall rolls around. We suspect she will.

Those are the highlights of the fall for each daughter...but that's far from everything we did this last year! Hopefully another few blog posts will fill in some more gaps. See you soon!