On March 2nd we celebrated Sophie’s 12th birthday! It was a Wednesday, so the Saturday before she had a slumber party with a few friends from school. We went out to Teppenyaki in our neighborhood, which was an idea that a lot of people had, because it was crazy crowded. We all smooshed around a table and were entertained and fed.

Then we headed back to our house where we set up an ice cream sundae bar and the kids watched movies in the livingroom – while Dave, Lauren, and I all watched Encanto in the basement.

I’m not sure what time they were all asleep, but I did need to come down at 2AM to tell them to be quite. There were some very tired kids in the morning.

On her actual birthday the Sharps came over for dinner and cake. She opened presents – a skateboard and fleece from the Sharps, crop hoodie and fluffy pillow cases from my parents, Lauren made her a wall clock, and we got her a VR set that she’s been asking for for ages.

There were a lot of things that happened in Sophie’s 11th year – she started middle school, she got braces, she joined the school theater group, she joined the Gender and Sexuality Alliance at school, she sang the national anthem at an Eagles game, she (just) started going to school without a mast required. We’re looking forward to all that will come in year 12!