Updates on My Newest 14 Year Old

The end of May and start of June brought some fun for our gal Emma. 

For starters, a friend from school invited her to a birthday party to be held at some magical land I've never been to called Evermore. I have heard of it - it's sort of like a cos-players Disneyland, I guess. And the deal was that everyone invited was going to dress up in fantasy character clothes and they were going to spend the whole evening there - all the way until it closed at like 11pm or something. I hadn't really caught on to the big picture yet when Emma started working on a project. She wanted to make a staff, and kept asking me for things like a wooden dowel, air-dry clay, paint, and a trip to Michael's for crystals and fake moss and stuff. I didn't even put it together, when she was asking me for this stuff, that this was for the night at Evermore. But as I watched her work I realized that she was creating something pretty dang amazing. It took her absolute hours. 

She turned to her sister for help in putting together a costume, and it took many combinations of many articles of clothing before they figured it out. When I saw her I pretty much freaked out. She looked so amazing.

 

 

I'm so glad we took a lot of photos because the staff didn't do too well that night. I guess the Crayola air-dry clay was not meant for rough handling, staff-fighting, or casting spells, because the lovely additions of the mushroom and other things were mostly torn off by the time she got home. That was a bummer. But she's working on a new iteration of her magical staff over the summer.

Not long after her excursion to fantasy land, Emma let me know that she was ready for a haircut. I was a little sad to see her long coils go away, but she was really ready for the change. And whatever her hairdresser did made her curls go totally crazy.

 

 

. 

Then suddenly it was June 3, and our wee little Emma turned 14 and was just about done with Junior High. We had a really fun day - happily, this year Emma's birthday was on a Saturday and we just partied all the day long.

We started with a breakfast of her favorite - scones. The birthday fairy visited in the night and brought balloons and a couple of gifts. New white converse high tops, so she'd stop stealing her sister's, some new D and D dice with little dragons inside of the resin, and a couple of other fun things like that. 

Romney had the best bedhead ever that morning

Emma still had her violin lesson that day, so we went off to see Becky, and then swung back by home to pick up dad and Romney and go to lunch at a silly and swanky velvet-clad pink and green bistro called Plated Dreams. In Bountiful. We feel like when you say Plated Dreams you have to say it in a very dreamy and breathy voice with your eyes half closed. Try it. ....Plated....Dreams.....

It's so silly. And also so fun. And tasty. 

 

 

After we got home, Romney took Emma shopping at City Creek to get some new sandals. This was a fun little outing for them but also served the purposed of getting Emma out of the house. See...here's the thing. Emma had all sorts of plans for a party she wanted with her friends. She was really excited but as it turned out, none of her closest friends were available that day to get together and it was looking to be a total bummer. I had an idea. I told Emma to postpone her get-together with her friends, and that I was planning a surprise for her.

This isn't going to sound like a great idea, but around here, it was a fantastic idea. Romney and I invited five of her very best friends to come over and celebrate Emma. Emma adores Romney's friends and they adore her. They were so DANG CUTE. They came over early, and a couple of them even brought gifts for her. They hid in the house, and when Romney got back with Emma, they jumped out and truly surprised her. She was screaming and laughing so hard. And those sweet friends just made Emma feel so special. We did dinner and board games and birthday cake and presents and chicken-holding (not a usual party activity, I know), and it was just such a special was to celebrate Emma. I was close to tears with gratitude and happiness.

Seems like it was a pretty great birthday for our 14-year-old. Love my Emma. 

Can I tell a funny story? She'll probably kill me if she ever realizes that I shared this, but it will be decades before she ever reads this blog. It's just such a great example of why I love her so much. She is wonderfully hilariously dramatic. A few weeks ago at her violin lesson she was working on something, and Becky encouraged her to try a new section of a piece. Emma looked at the music, paused and then closed her eyes and said, "Oh happy dagger! Bring me sweet DEATH."

Stunned silence. 

Then Becky and I started laughing so hard. Becky could not stop laughing and made sure to let Emma know that of all the exclamations she has ever heard in her teaching room, that one was a first. It was so funny.  Emma, we love you so much.