Anna officially left the tween status behind. She is now 13 and can call herself a teen. To celebrate, she invited 10 of her best friends to a Japanese Steak House for a fabulous lunch.
We watched as the chef gave a fantastic show with fire and knife-work. Chicken, shrimp, and steak all smelled great!
Anna made the cake for her party – and decorated it, too. Seems kind of weird, but that was what she wanted. She did a great job on it, too. Simply stated, “Happy 13th”.
All of her friends brought presents wrapped in pink. They sure know her well.
However, the biggest present of all was the gift she received the day before (as mentioned in yesterdays post):
Over 1000 texts in one weekend – how can someone do that?
Once each semester, the parents are allowed to enter the dance studio to watch what the girls have been learning. That day had arrived – and we were treated to a delight as the girls showed off their latest choreography. They’ve been taking from Miss Nina for 7 years and it is really beginning to show.
Madeline is a true childhood friend – one of the earliest friends the girls had. I’ve known her Dad since 5th grade back in Manhattan; her Mom I’ve known since high school when they were dating. They were the first people we contacted when we moved to Kansas City – because they were about the only people we knew.
Madeline is just a few months younger than Anna – and they’ve played together for the past 12 years or so. At least a couple times per year, Madeline spends the night at our house or the girls go to her house (she now lives about 20 miles away).
After spending the night and the whole next day together, we finished it off with a trip to Cheeseburgers in Paradise – where the girls got to enjoy virgin strawberry daiquiris.
Last night was the first Strings Concert of the year for the Middle School. Anna was 1st chair violin, thus the Concert Mistress. Not only is this a position of honor, but she also was responsible for establishing the correct tuning for the whole ensemble.
I will soon try to post video clips of portions of the concert.
Congratulations, Anna. All those hours of lessons and practice are paying off!
Okay – so it’s been a busy 2 weeks since the last post – not a lot of work, but just busy. I’ll be sure to post about all the happenings during those two weeks, but I want to let everyone know that SCHOOL HAS STARTED.
Today is the first day of school for Anna & Emily. Anna is headed off to Middle School and Emily is top dog on campus as a 6th grader.
We’re looking forward to hearing how the first day went for both. We’ll be sure to let you know, too.
Anna is almost 13 years old and getting ready to start Middle School. She is certainly not the little girl that we were taking to preschool just a few years ago.
This past week was Girl Scout camp out in the rural, humid heat of Tonganoxie, KS. Anna was one of the older girls that helped “run” the camp. Linda was out there with her Girl Scout troop and had several people comment to her that Anna was a really big help. Yes, Anna is starting to grow up.
She and Emily did a joint babysitting job the other night. They really enjoy that a lot. It’s amazing how Anna can transition from little kid to small adult when she is taking care of another kid – absolutely awesome.
Spending time with friends in Omaha also showed how Anna can morph into babysitter, even when she’s not getting paid. She naturally begins to shepherd and entertain the younger kids. It’s nice to see the look of relief on the faces of the other parents – they’ve got a moment of reprieve.
A friend of mine was joking tonight that Anna will not want to be around me in about 2 months as she will be hitting that stage…I’m really hoping it doesn’t happen, because I’m really enjoying this stage right now.
I love you, Anna. You’re staring to turn into a really nice young woman.
We have been planning to go to the Omaha Zoo for several years. Each summer has come and gone and we kick ourselves in August for not having made the real effort to get to Omaha. It’s only 3 hours away – but yet just far enough.
Friends from medical school, Neil and Elissa Hamill, have just moved to Omaha after just completing his final month of fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Finally – a perfect reason to make a real effort to get to Omaha.
We drove into Omaha about 3:00 pm on yesterday (Sunday) and spent the evening with the Hamills. We had dinner at a restaurant that brewed their own beer, went swimming at their gym, and then homemade brownies (from scratch), ice cream, and coffee at their new house. What a lovely evening.
After a night sleeping in luxury at the Doubletree, we got up this morning and headed to the zoo. Elissa and the two boys joined us and we spent the whole day walking around the wonderful exhibits.
This has been an eventful week in the Featherston household. Anna took sleepwalking to the next level – on nights that I was working night shift, of course.
I got a frantic phone call while at work from Linda. In fact, the nurse had to come get me from a patient room to take the phone call (the first time this has happened since beginning work as a physician). Linda had panic in her voice as she explained to me that Anna was up and running through the house and pulling blankets out of the storage, pulling videos out of the entertainment center, throwing the dog’s ball, and talking crazy. Obviously, there wasn’t much I could do from work, but it finally ended after about 45 minutes. Linda said it was like the sleepwalking scene from the movie “Step Brothers”.
It occurred again two nights later – again while I was at work. Linda was ready to call a priest for an exorcism. She did however contact the pediatrician the next day, confirming what I already suspected – there wasn’t much we could do. It was hypothesized that she was probably overly tired and needed a little more sleep. We had her take a good nap during the next day and things seemed better. She even spent the night at the grandparents without any problem.
Until last night…
I about tripped going up the stairs as she was asleep on the stairs – like a cat curled up. I picked her up and carried her back to bed (no easy feat considering she’s about as big as us now). I then went to bed. As I fell asleep my cell phone rang – it was Linda calling me from the basement because Anna was up sleepwalking again. I hoisted her up over my shoulder and carried her back to bed. Linda spent the next 45 minutes at her side carrying on full conversations with Anna asleep the whole time. How extremely weird.
What’s more amazing is how many friends we’ve talked to that tell us that either they sleepwalked or their kids do. It’s nice to know we’re not alone.
Finally, I confess that I did sleepwalk as a kid, but never to the extreme that Anna is. Here’s hoping things calm down soon.
Ahhh…running the bases on a hot Sunday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium. July 6, 2002 found us, once again, at a Royals game celebrating Rod’s birthday. After the game, the kids get to run the bases (more importantly, so does Linda).
Many, many happy memories with running the bases with the girls. They’ve been doing it since they were born – really.
Occasionally, they get to take in some batting practice with Sluggerrrr at the Little K.
In a blatant attempt to make you smile, I’ll be posting some “Blast from the past” pictures.
Way back in July 2002, Linda took the girls to stand in 98-degree weather outside a Leawood restaurant to get the autograph of Mike Sweeny – their most beloved player. As you can see on Anna’s face, this was just right!
This picture is proudly displayed in our cabinet of Royals memorabilia. How we miss thee, Mike Sweeny.
