Bri's 16th Birthday Recap

Tomorrow is October 1st, so I really need to post about Briana's 16th birthday - which happened close to two months ago. Sigh - life gets busy.

Briana's 16th birthday landed on the first week of school, but that Friday was a digital day for Bri's county and she didn't have to go physically into school. She was very happy about that!

I had the house all decorated for her and of course, she awoke to birthday balloons on her bedroom ceiling...

Bri's request for the day was to eat Chinese food for lunch at her favorite Chinese restaurant and she wanted my parents to come over and celebrate with her.

She dressed for the occasion. And she obliged to wearing the 16 tiara I bought for her...

We ate a delicious Chinese food lunch. The manager, Billy, who works at B's favorite restaurant has watched Briana grow up since she was a baby. We have eaten at this restaurant for years and have celebrated so many occasions there. Luckily, Billy was working that afternoon and I asked if he would take a picture with Briana and he gladly accepted...

We came back home and it was time to open presents...

First, we had to sing "Happy Birthday" and she requested birthday brownies for dessert...

 

I had a special blanket made for her that showed all the places she has visited since she was a baby (I couldn't even fit all of the places on one blanket!). She really loved it...

She received so many amazing presents! She is one very loved teenager.

She had a really great day.

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Her second request was to have a "hangout day" with some of her close friends. She did not want a party. So two days after her birthday, she met some friends at Chili's for lunch and then they went to play pinball/video games at a nearby pinball place...

 

(Briana not super happy that everyone told the waitress it was her birthday - heh.)

They all had a really fun time and Bri loved how chill and laid back it all was.

 

(Doug and I needed some lunch and wanted to play some games too. So, we were at the restaurant and at the pinball place, but we did not hang out with the kids. We let them eat and hang out on their own.)

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Briana did not attempt to get her driver's license right away. With school in session and her wanting to practice her parking a little bit more before taking the test, she waited to take the test until fall break.

She made the right decision. She got in the extra practice she wanted/needed and was able to schedule her driving test with her driving instructor (they have such a mutual respect for each other). And guess who got a 100% on her driving test? Miss Briana - that's who!

Her driving instructor David was so incredibly proud of her when they got done. He said what a great kid she is and how she did everything he asked of her. He was like a proud dad! LOL! It was so cute to see! Once she passed her test, we went to DDS to turn her paperwork in and get her picture taken...

Now it is very appropriate to wear the t-shirt my sister bought her for her birthday...

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So Briana's last request for her 16th birthday was visiting NYC again. This time, she wanted to see "Beetlejuice" on Broadway and wanted to shop on 5th Avenue. So the week of fall break in September, we went to NYC...

Her request/wish came true! But of course, I will blog about our trip separately.

 She is such a good kid and she makes us proud each and every day. We were glad/honored to be able to give her the 16th birthday of her dreams. 

  I'll be blogging about NYC soon. :)

School Update (Including The 1st Day Of Junior Year)

Briana started her junior year of high school on August 1st. I am still in a bit of shock that I have a junior in high school and I'm trying to let it soak in. Honestly, I'm struggling with the thought of her going off to college. Not even close to ready for it. But, I will when the time comes - maybe, heh.

She was sweet and let me take pictures of her on the first day of school...

As I mentioned in a previous post, B wasn't able to obtain a parking space at school because of when her birthday lands. But, I'd say only about 20 percent of the juniors were able to get a space this school year because of the horrible overcrowding at B's school. So, odds are she may have not gotten one anyway. She should be able to get one next year with no issue (fingers crossed).

The buses are super overcrowded too. The first couple of weeks were brutal from what I heard (kids not being able to board buses because they were too full). And though it isn't super convenient for me to have to bring her to school and pick her up, I feel safer doing that than sticking her on a high school bus (kids sometimes sit on the floor of the buses - not even kidding).

This is the cow pasture that Bri's school campus sits behind...

She ran into her friend Imerie in the parking lot on the first day...

Her first day went pretty well. She was definitely missing her teachers from last year (they were all so good), but she is finally adjusting to her new ones. She has her theater teacher again this year and she loves her. Her theater class this year is all about building sets and costume creation - right up her alley. Her most difficult class right now is honors pre-calculus. She is doing fine in it, but it is definitely not her favorite class.

 Briana was invited into the National Art Honor Society this year - very proud of her...

She is still a member of Beta Club and she joined DECA Club this year too.

 Yesterday, she went on a field trip for DECA to Six Flags with her two best buds...

Bri said they had a blast. But she was pretty tired when she got home!

For Beta Club, Bri and her friend Meredith worked together on decorating a classroom door with school spirit (they happened to get assigned the door of Briana's Spanish 2 classroom)...

I took the girls to lunch after decorating...

Briana just got her school picture taken - this was her on picture day...

I freaked a little when I realized it was her last "regular" school picture day. Next year, she will be taking senior pictures.

I took her to the mall one day to go homecoming dance dress shopping...

The homecoming dance is on October 1st. She picked a really pretty dress and it will be revealed the day of the dance! She is going with her friends and she is excited about going to the dance (which is a still a shock to me!).

So, I mentioned a number of posts back that Briana had gotten into the top 40 for the first semester of her sophomore year. We actually did find out her ranking for second semester of sophomore year when the report cards came out (I forgot to post about it). She ended up being number 47. So, not in the top 40 but super close! Not too shabby for having over 700 kids in her grade. (The separation of GPAs in these class rankings are literally just tenths and hundredths of a point apart.)

So that is the update for now. B has good grades and she's liking school, so there isn't much more I could ask for (except maybe a parking space - heh).

Briana is signed up to take an online SAT course to prepare for her upcoming SAT in December. Fingers crossed she does really well!

There is so much that goes on junior year and it is pretty stressful - for me at least (Bri seems to be taking it in stride). Just lots of different deadlines, things to accomplish, looking into colleges. It's pretty overwhelming! I don't want to even begin thinking about the stress of senior year!

Mean Girls At The Fox Theater

In July, Doug, Bri and I attended the musical "Mean Girls" at the Fox Theater. Briana had not yet seen the movie when Doug booked the tickets, but we really thought she would enjoy it.

So, we made sure she saw the movie beforehand and she really enjoyed it.

We decided to make an overnight trip of it. We stayed across the street at the Courtyard Marriott...

We had a really large room with a wonderful view. We were able to walk to the Fox from our hotel.

 The hotel room was quite comfortable - yet we did have a few hiccups while we stayed at the hotel (no phone service in the room - the line was dead, no ice machine on our floor, the power surged while we were in the elevator - we thought we would get stuck, and a few other things).

So, I am not sure if we would stay there again...we would have to think about it. The convenience of the location was great though.

We decided to eat a nice dinner before going to the show. We chose "South City Kitchen." It was SO good...

The food was amazing...

Bri started with she-crab soup and Doug and I split the fried green tomatoes. The corn bread muffins - so good. Doug had a pork chop, I had a butcher steak with a red chimichurri sauce and Bri got the fried chicken. All the dishes were great - but Bri's chicken won the night for sure!

Dessert...

We stopped back at the hotel to freshen up. We had a little fun with snapchat...

Then it was time to walk to the theater...

Mean girls...

It was really funny and quite entertaining. We really enjoyed it. I will say though - there was some talking and chit chat happening throughout parts of the theater during the performance. That is something I haven't really encountered when attending shows on Broadway in NY. Not to be a Broadway snob, but the people in Atlanta need to keep it quiet when a performance is going on. Quite rude.

After the show, I wanted to try to get a few pictures of Bri...

View from our room in the evening...

We woke in the morning to a very pretty day...

We were told by the front desk girl when we checked in that there would be a breakfast buffet the next day. I think she got her days mixed up, because we went downstairs on a Saturday morning - no breakfast. Just a Starbucks with some packaged baked goods. We decided to leave the hotel and get food on the way home. 

That is when the power surged in the building causing the elevator to reboot (luckily the door was open when it happened and we were able to step out of it) and the surge also caused the gate that allowed people in and out of the parking garage to stop working. I was starting to get a bit hangry at that point. Someone at the hotel had to be called to open the gate to let everyone out.

We decided to eat at the OK Cafe for brunch/lunch.

There was a bit of wait to get in, but I ended up ordering lunch and it was worth the wait. Very good...

Overall, it was a very nice overnight trip, despite some bumps in the road. We did really enjoy our evening.

The t-shirts at the Fox for the musical were a bit pricey and Bri wasn't thrilled with their particular color of pink, so I looked online and bought a shirt for her...

So, I'm officially done now blogging about our summer break! 

Next up, the first day of school and beyond...