Lizzie is 17!

Lizzie's birthday was a quieter one this year since she unfortunately finally got Covid right before her birthday. The free at-home tests from the government came in handy. Nate, Eve and I also had colds but we were negative. So, she got some days off of school and thankfully by the time it was her birthday it was just a cold. We celebrated with a big birthday breakfast of eggs, Nate's famous crispy hashbrowns, bacon and fresh orange juice. She and I and Eve stayed home from church and watched on Zoom together on the couch. She requested bread bowl soup for dinner. She made her own yellow cake with chocolate frosting that was delicious and beautiful. 

She only got two presents--a new phone and a Barnes and Noble gift card from all of her siblings. Just what she wanted, at least. We finished the night watching the Brandy version of Cinderella from the 90's. The Orpheum was having auditions for it later that week (that the girls wanted to participate in) so we wanted to see what the musical was like. It was a quiet, fun day. 

Lizzie had a good but stretching year. We took her out for dinner, just Joe and I, for her 16th birthday in Clovis and broached the topic of possibly moving. While she wasn't thrilled about the idea, she understood our reasons and things were hard there in Clovis for her in different ways. We didn't want to go ahead with the move without her input since she has been affected the most by all our moves as the oldest. That decision dominated a lot of her year--finishing school in Clovis, knowing she was moving again; packing up, and then getting to know people in Jerome and jumping into activities there. I've been so impressed with how she's handled it all. It's hard to move that far into high school. She's handled all the good parts and the hard parts like a champ. 

Some of the highlights of her year were: continuing to work really hard academically. She was thrilled to find out she got a 5 on her AP European History test. She worked really hard during distance learning and she's continued to work hard in Jerome (although some classes are a bit easier and she's bemoaned that she worries she's losing her academic drive). Part of that is because she has been so much busier with extra curricular activities. She joined the swim team and worked really hard at that. She got to be in her first real play--Guys and Dolls. She's had fun being more social too, although as a a pretty introverted person that sometimes takes a toll. Here she is after she fell asleep reading on the floor after one of those long days:

She's began taking voice lessons with Becca and is improving all the time in her singing. She was sad to not be in piano lessons anymore but she still does like playing and composing new songs when she does. She got a scratch off classic books poster for Christmas and has set out to read all the books on the list. She has already read a lot of them!  She takes such good care of Eve and is so good to her other siblings too. She is growing into a mature, responsible, caring, capable person and we love watching it. We love our Lizzie!