Erin at 13

It's been so long since I have blogged in any amount of detail about my kids that I figure the easiest way to catch up is to do a spotlight on each one of them.  Erin is the oldest, so she gets to be first.

Erin turned 13 in May and seems to be having much more fun at this age than either her dad or I did.  She has lots of friends, but mostly she hangs around with Charity, Anna and Ellie.  They like to do all sorts of things like shop at Target, bake at each others houses, watch movies, take pictures, or recently, watch U of U football together.  I am thrilled with these girls and the fun they have together.  They are all so nice to each other, and more important than that, are nice to others.  All of these girls are super sweet with my boys and are really good to let Allie tag along when she wants to.

Erin is an 8th grade class officer this year.  She is really having a lot of fun with student government and the 8th grade board was in charge of the Hello dance this year.  Our Erin picked the theme, the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance, thanks to her dad's affinity for Back to the Future.  However, something got lost in translation and it ended up looking a lot like "The Little Mermaid."  Oh well, they got a bubble machine for the dance so Erin was happy.

She's been doing super good in school so far; nearly straight A's and she is taking several Honors courses.  She's very excited to be taking Honors American History and that thrills me!  She has just started taking voice lessons and is loving that.

Erin spent a lot of time and effort this summer helping me to reorganize our upstairs bedroom so that she could have her own room.  It has been awesome, and I know she loves it almost as much as I do.  That kid is a natural night-owl, so sharing a room with her sister has always been a problem.  I can't tell you how much easier bedtime has been since we made this change in June.  She's done pretty well at keeping her room clean, but still needs some work on getting her laundry done.  You know it's time to wash clothes when you're pulling out last years gym shirt to wear to school.

Erin did a lot of fun stuff this summer.  She went to Gettysburg, England, Girls Camp and a science camp at the Natural History Museum.  She spent a lot of time at Lagoon with friends even more time chatting online with these same friends.

She was very excited for school to start this year, which was a first and her good attitude at our house is contagious (her bad attitudes are also contagious, in case you're wondering.)

Overall, Erin is a very good girl.  She's a great big sister and a good friend.  There are several things about growing up that we continue to work on, but that's what life is all about; being a work in progress.  Erin is great with her cousins and loves to babysit.  Erin has a great sense of humor and I am often tickled that she is finally able to "be in on the joke."

I love this kid and I'm glad she's mine!