Feb
2022

Happy, Real-Birthday-Party, Birthday, Emelia!

Birthday celebration weekend #2 was a blast! I got to spend the night with my best friends in the world and we had a great time!

He said

Thankfully, with the restrictions lifting a bit this week, Emelia was able to get in the official version of her birthday in with friends Friday night. All she wanted to do this year was spend an evening with a few of her closest friends doing more grown-up type things. She wanted to go out and have dinner with her friends, on her own without parents or chaperones. She opted for The Rec Room which would allow them to play games, take pics in the photo booths after having a meal together, and then they could walk around the mall afterwords and shop like they were footloose and fancy free.

And, at the end of it all, being that I was on a close shift, I could be part of the taxi sqaud to get them back to the house where they could take over the main level and have a dance party. Danielle & I retired to the bedroom to watch some TV and have our first grown-up drinks since finishing our ‘dry January.’ By all counts and the decibel level, the girls had a fantastic evening. Most importantly, our newly-anointed fifteen-year-old lil’ lady did! There were tons of photos to show for the night, and the girls burned through the credits we loaded for them to use on the games area at Rec Room. We’re so delighted to see the giant smile on Emelia’s face to end her special evening.

Emelia wrapped up her last week of her first semester at high school this week. The last three days of the week, she didn’t have classes as those days were earmarked for two credit recovery days which she didn’t need to use. And Friday, was a PD day. Tomorrow, she starts her second semester—one that she is somewhat excited about as the workload is a little bit easier. We’re so proud and happy with how well high school as gone for her. She really seems to have found her rhythm and her voice in this! She advocated for herself when it came to grade discrepancies, and she did far better with her grades than she ever did at the grade school level. This year – pandemic be damned – has been everything we wanted for her scholastically and more!

Lastly the fiasco with the stationary bike continues… The replacement crankshaft that was sent is actually a different kind what has a spring clamp that holds it in place vs the threaded nut on the version that we had that broke. I was able to get it on, and it works-ish. But, the spring clamp groove on the crankshaft is in the wrong spot for this bike. It kinda works but we keep have to knock the crankshaft over mid-ride more than a couple times during the workout which is irritating to say the least. Add to that, the bike seat spring breaking on the seat this week and we’re not super happy with this ongoing warranty sucker. I ended up just buying a better seat for it from Canadian Tire, but barring the response on the latest warranty round, I am getting close to opening a refund dispute with Amazon since we’re beyond the return period.

She said

Another weekend, another birthday celebration for Emelia. This weekend was her best friend party. We had to put this on hold because of covid restrictions meaning this weekend was the first chance we could really have Emelia’s birthday party. All she wanted this year was to go out with her best friends for dinner and fun. We decided the best place to go was the RecRoom at Masonville. There is tons for the girls to do for fun and they had a great menu. The restaurant was amazing, they set the girls up in a private room and from everything they all said it was a ton of fun. Emelia of course wanted to invite her lifelong best friends Anna and Grace, she also had one of her grade school friend who she has stayed close into high school Neeka. The last two were two new friends Ivy and Lucy that Emelia has made as friends on her own away from the comfort of her grade school friends. Emelia met the girls through common classes and they have quickly become two very close friends. Sadly one of her friends Lauren wasn’t able to come but we promised would have a special day for the girls another time.

With the group of friends chosen, a date chosen we set out to decorate the house exactly how Emelia wanted. She wanted the house all set for the photo session the girls had planned out. From the hours of constant laughter we heard the entire night was a success. Emelia had an incredible time, she loved the day with her closest friends and it will certainly be a birthday to remember. Now let’s hope this is the last covid birthday she has so we can have a true sweet 16 celebration for her next year!

Life has slowly started going back to whatever normal looks like these days. Emelia happily returned back to in-person training at Cheer and they are working hard on their changed routine to be ready for the next few competitions—One at the end of the month. She cannot wait until the end of the month to see if they can have a repeat of the 1st place result of the last competition. There are still 4 more competitions left in their season, after losing the 1 last month. We’re hopeful they will get these all in!

The last of the news for Emelia this week is the switch over to second term at school. She is going to miss some of her classes from last term but this is the one that she has really been looking forward to. Her first term in high school was a very heavy one so this more balanced on she will really love. She cannot wait to take on the new classes, meet some new friends and finally have a normalish semester with the return of regular class scheduling.

So once again for now the third blog in a row – Happy Birthday our sweet girl. We love you to the moon and back.

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