A Dozen Cheers for Robyn

My daughter Robyn is amazing. She has such a strong spirit. She is super talented and so much like me in many ways. I've heard that people who are similar often don't get along, but the two of us seem to do just fine. (Which doesn't surprise me. I think I would like me if I weren't me. Humility may not be one of my strong suits.)

Robyn turned 12 a while back. (I won't say how far back, but we'll pretend it wasn't too far back there.) Twelve is a serious age around here. You go into the Young Women's program in our church and you can get your ears pierced if you feel so inclined. (I have always assumed everyone would, but Ivory tells me she will wait until she is 13. Bet she doesn't.)

There was a slight conflict of interest on her birthday. It also happened to be Alpine Days and June was running the mile. Grandma Cazier came down to visit for both events. It is really fun to have her come down for any event, but with two important ones, it was auspicious. She brought the dogs too. (Robyn loves that.)

Any good birthday includes a lunch out with Dad. (I happen to love this picture.)

I picked up Robyn a little early from school because of track conflicts. Luckily, she didn't miss the 6th grade picture they were taking while I arrived. And because of the bouquet of balloons, I'm pretty sure everyone knew it was her birthday. (Hot pink and black are the current favorite colors.)

Robyn came and watched some track events, but I would be lying to say that it didn't take a LONG time to get to June's event. (I'll have a little more to say about all that at another time.) Robyn eventually went home and was very patient waiting for her mother's arrival to escort her to her stabbing.

And by stabbing, I mean just the ears of course. I was going to try something new this time around. I feel like Claire's is a bit overpriced so I was going to try Wal-mart. Big mistake. We got there and the lady at the jewelry counter was not trained to do piercings. She was clueless who was qualified or even where a manager was. We waited for twenty minutes. The lady finally decided to look for the number of another nearby Wal-Mart, but before she even found the number, I had called them and verified that no one was available to pierce there either.

Guess what? We went to Claire's. As usual, I was very happy with our experience and Robyn found a very cute pair that were basically the same price as Wal-Mart. Lesson learned: Stick with what you know.

Robyn was all smiles before there was any pain involved. Here are the dots indicating where earrings will be in a moment.

Less of a smile now.

When it was all over, it was time to smile again. She said it hurt more than she expected. But she was a trooper for sure. (Her ears have adapted so well. She has never had any problems with them since they were pierced and she is ready to start trying other earrings a week from now.)

We came home to crunch time. The track meet had gone a while, the two trips to get ears pierced had delayed us a bit, and Robyn was in high demand. We rushed home, scarfed some dinner and started to open presents. Luckily there wasn't much to open. (Meaning we got Robyn one very nice gift instead of several smaller gifts.) First, let's measure her. Did she grow at all this last year?

She grew a bit of course. She is staying about an inch behind June, but I think that means she at least has potential to pass me. (That is all that really matters.)

Robyn got an awesome coloring book from Grandma Dargan. Coloring books are all the rage right now. I see them all over the place. Not just for kids, but complex designs for any age. The kids adore these gifts. (Thanks Mom.)

Vicki gave Robyn a funny card that sang opera. I admit that I have sung that song many times to the kids. It may become a classic for birthdays. (You were born...long ago. Long ago, long ago, long ago. Happy BirthDAY!!!!! You have to imagine it in opera though.)

I think we are all ready for the one big present.

I couldn't wrap it and Robyn had already guessed what it might be. She was right....a keyboard.

She seems to love it. I think her favorite part is that you can record your own sound to play on the keyboard. I would like to say that she and her father do NOT make tooting noises and play them over and over and laugh hysterically. I would like to say that. But she sure knows how to play to the crowd.

After gifts, we pushed Robyn out the door. She was headed to her last Activity Days with the younger girls. It was a goodbye party for her. While she was gone, the young women came and heart attacked our door. These older girls were ready to welcome Robyn to the next level.

Robyn was very surprised when she came home.

All the hearts were so cool. Usually people just cut out hearts and stick them up, but clearly these girls had spent some quality time putting this attack together. Check out some of the cuteness.

Robyn was able to go to mutual that night since she was officially old enough. By the time she got home from her second event, she was too full for cake. Luckily, I had made her indoor S'mores bars and they were easy to save for another time.

So the next night we got Robyn back into the place of honor to blow out her candles. This 'cake' looks delicious.

Too bad Robyn had a little trouble this time around. I guess getting older doesn't mean you get better at blowing out candles. (It is even harder when you are trying not to smile.)

We sure love Robyn. She is blossoming into an amazing young lady. Happy Belated Birthday!