Our Life Without Soccer

So how's our life going without soccer?

This is going to sound weird, but...I don't really miss soccer all that much. I know - it's crazy. I thought I would be more sad. And I don't think Bri really misses it all that much either. She hadn't been feeling it for while. I mean, I do miss watching her play (when she was into it), I do miss the friends we made, and I'm grateful for the experience she had, but overall, I don't really miss it as much as I thought I would. Actually, I kind of feel like we have our lives back.

The work load in 7th has been harder for sure. Bri has had homework to do on the weekends and she has homework every day after school...

We have been filling our weekends with movies...

Yummy meals out...

(If this statement were only true - LOL!)...

We've perused bookstores...

Had a haircut...

Attended a concert (more on that in another post)...

Visited a scary Halloween store...

Ate Thai ice cream...

And went to a fair (more on that soon)...

And you all know Bri loves her down time. She's had plenty of that on the weekends too.

Bri plans to join running club again and wants to run a 5K or two during the school year. And she will have to do a certain number of hours of volunteer work for Beta Club - which she will have time for now on the weekends.

If Bri had loved every minute of playing soccer, then I would have continued to do my soccer mom duties and would have been at each and every game with bells on. It's just not her thing anymore and that is ok. I've made peace with it. I'll say I miss it a little, but I'm surprisingly not grieving over it.

I'll let you know how running club and Beta club are going in a few weeks.

 Do you know what we have planned for this weekend? I'm not sure yet! The sky is the limit!

All About School (Including The First Day)

Ahhh, 7th grade. My gal that really doesn't love school (though she does well in school) started 7th grade a month ago.

Now before I continue, I wanted to first share that I did have a important conversation with Bri about this blog. I thought with her turning 12 that it was a really good time to do it. She has her own mind, thoughts and opinions. She isn't a little kid anymore. She has always known that I have a blog about her, but I really explained to her I how post things about her on both FB and this blog, and how this blog is public and FB is more private. I told her that now being 12, she may not want me to share her life, or our life, with the world anymore (on FB or on this blog). I love sharing my beautiful Briana with the world, but I know that isn't really my call anymore. I asked her if she even wanted me to continue to blog about her and that it was totally her decision. I would not be upset or mad if she told me to stop. She thought about it and gave me permission to continue writing. I told her that I don't share everything about her with the world (totally true) and if there is anything she feels is completely off limits that she is to let me know immediately. You all know I like "keeping it real." I don't want to just act like our life is simply rainbows and unicorns, but sometimes "keeping it real" can dive into invasive territory. I really don't share everything now, but I do plan to cut back even more now that she is almost a teenager. Disagreements she and I have, certain grades she gets, not so flattering behavior we both exhibit from time to time, my concerns about her - will have to be off limits from this point on.

I am going to be more diligent in asking B what is ok and not ok to blog about (she has already started becoming more vocal about what pictures she doesn't want posted of her and I have been respecting her wishes). I already have a few blog posts that I am planning to write after this one, but Bri is totally cool with what I have coming down the pike.

So I hope you will still continue to read even if I can't get "as deep" anymore. Twelve year old issues are a bit different from six, seven and eight year old issues. It's still "Life With Briana" - just the "lighter" version! LOL!

Ok - enough of that!

Now, let's talk about the first day of school...

She wanted to go really comfy (but cute at the same time) the first day...

I couldn't believe it was raining that morning. I don't remember it ever raining on the first day of school. Doug and I wanted to both go on the first day, and we left about an hour and a half before school started so we wouldn't get stuck in the 1st day of school traffic. The road B's school is off of is a total nightmare. There are three schools on the same campus - elementary, middle and high school - and traffic is horrible.

She is trying to smile for me the first day...

 

Telling B to be happy and it was going to be ok!!!

We sat in the parking lot for quite a while and then it was time to drop her off. There she goes...

Doug and I started heading home and this is the traffic we were passing...

I waited all day to pick her up and I prayed she had a good day. And she did! She said everything went very smoothly. She still wasn't a fan of school, but the first day went pretty well. I'll take it.

Doug and I treated her to her favorite sandwich that evening from Firehouse Subs...

And some Fro Yo for dessert...

She actually had a little homework to do that evening...

Here are several of Bri's cute outfits heading to school in the mornings...

You may notice her wearing Bermuda shorts in most of her pics. There is a strict dress code policy at B's school. No short shorts in middle school - or high school for that matter. Shorts have to be about an index card length above the knee. Now that Bri has been wearing longer shorts, she's actually kind of digging them now. I think they are cute!

I saw this sign at our local BBQ joint and with it being the first month of middle school, it seemed appropriate (LOL!)...

The one class she has been really liking is art (she got it as an elective this semester and she's super happy). This was one of her assignments...

She also likes to doodle a bit in class...

Last week, Bri enjoyed creating her "food snack" assignment for English class. They had been reading "Beowulf" and the kids were required to make a food snack that related to the book. Bri and her partner picked Beowulf's sword. So, Bri and I looked online for swords made of food and we saw some pretzel recipes. We kind of did our own take on it and they turned out great!

Bri working on her sword...

Chocolate-covered pretzel swords with sprinkles, marshmallows and life saver gummies...

This is what Bri transported them to school in...

Bri said they were a big hit!

Bri also rocked two tests (English and Math) and a quiz she had last week. And she got an invite to join the Junior Beta Club at school. I'm so proud of her...

Bri seems to be feeling more comfortable in her surroundings at school now. It always takes a few weeks for her to adjust. We celebrated a great week at Steak N Shake Friday evening. She is still "queen of the claw machine" and won this purple dragon at the restaurant...

I love seeing my gal smile.

Briana's Escape Room 12th Birthday Party

The Saturday following Briana's actual birthday was the day of Briana's birthday party. Her request was to have her party at an escape room and to eat Japanese food afterward.

She looked so pretty in the outfit Aunt Ann and Uncle Wes got her...

Doug and I drove the girls that live closest to us to the escape room (Bri, Imerie, Mary and Meredith)...

This is the escape room we went to...

This is the theme we chose ~ "Spellbound"...

 And this was their mission...

Bri's friend Maisie was a bit under the weather, so she decided to just meet us at the restaurant after the escape room.

Chani met us there first...

And then Katie arrived...

It was required that an adult be in the room with the girls, so I volunteered.

These girls are so unbelievably smart. I helped redirect them a couple of times, but honestly, they didn't really need me all that much. They were figuring things out that I couldn't figure out.

Here they are figuring out clues...

Toward the very end, things got a little tense. The girls were getting so close and the time was dwindling down (they had an hour to complete it)!! They were starting to stress a little. When the final clue was figured out, a key dropped down behind us which caused us all to shriek! The girls ran to unlock the padlock. I was so afraid to look at the countdown clock because I wasn't sure they were going to make it in time. 

But the girls did with just 49 seconds left!!!! Evil Tim was defeated! It was a nail biter for sure!!!

They were so dang excited! They worked so hard and deserved the win!

They were so happy to be winners...

After their victory, it was time to head to the restaurant...

It was so nice when Maisie joined us (we were sad she couldn't make it to the game)...

I made "Spellbound" themed cupcakes...

When we made the reservation, we told the restaurant there was a birthday party coming in. The girls also told the waitress when they sat down that it was Bri's birthday. The girls wanted Bri to be sung to! So, the waitress asked if me and Doug if we wanted to sing to Bri or if the wait staff should sing to her. We said the staff could sing to her (and us join in of course).

The waitress delivered the cupcakes...

What we didn't realize is that the lights would dim, the music would start playing over the loudspeaker and a disco ball with lights would spin around. The girls couldn't stop cracking up...

Bri was laughing and slightly embarrassed with all the attention. The girls loved every minute of it...

You can see what they did to my poor girl here (I couldn't stop laughing - LOL!)...

Then the birthday girl blew out the candles...

What a fun afternoon with an amazing group of girls! Happy Birthday my sweet girl!!!