12? seriously?!?

how are we already at this stage? 

how is Ellie old enough to ask for makeup for her birthday or to be going to young womens? 

How is she old enough to ask to make and decorate her own cake to practice her piping skills? 

its so hard to believe that our baby isn't a little girl anymore.

yesterday she turned 12!

she planned her birthday a while ago. she wanted everything to be blue. all colors of blue. she wanted cinnamon rolls from a local bakery for breakfast and she wanted to make her own cake. so chris swung by first thing before work and brought her a warm cinnamon roll. she had to go to school, but her friends went above and beyond to make her feel special. they got to school early and decorated her locker! when she got off the bus her arms were filled with gift bags and treats. she is a good friend  to others and we're so glad she's found a great group of friends here that have high standards and are good friends too.

when she got home, she opened gifts and then we ate dinner before chris and I had to take off for meetings. she couldn't decide what she wanted to eat while we were planning, so over the past few days we've made cuban sandwiches, chicken tikka masala, and then Alfredo on her actual birthday- all of her favorites (except buffalo wings... we'll have to add that in soon!).

she made a white cake with Nutella frosting. 

check out those roses she piped!

she asked for a desk, 

mascara, 

and a crud load of Takis chips.

and that's why we love her!

a few weeks ago, chris and I noticed that Ellie's grades had dramatically dropped. she's always had mostly A's with some B's and all of the sudden she had all D's and F's (except one A+ in science haha). we decided we would talk to her together to see what was going on and we'd wait until after dinner. well, right before dinner that evening she pulled me into her room and broke down. she was feeling so overwhelmed by her advanced math class. she felt like everyone else understood it so easily and she could hardly keep up. chris and I both understood that feeling cause we both felt that way about math around her age too. we've tried to encourage her in the past to have a tutor or to have jack help her but she's always brushed it off and acted like that was for dummies. as we talked, we discovered that this sense of feeling behind just trickled over into her other classes and she just stopped. she stopped doing homework and she stopped handing in assignments. 

we had a long talk about how its ok to feel that way and that even adults feel that way at times. we made a plan to get her assignments finished and handed in over the next week or two, even though she wouldn't receive full credit. she felt better after we made a plan and figured out a system to help her be more organized. she's brought her grades back up to all B's and an A. 

we are grateful that she went through this at this stage and not later on. hopefully she will be able to remember how she felt so she can keep herself organized and feel in control. she worked hard and was able to feel a sense of accomplishment with each made up assignment that she was able to cross off her list. 

she's our feisty girl, full of life and excitement! she is becoming an amazing young woman and we are so proud of her!