14

I'm a little late in posting this, but Anya turned 14 the other week. She had a great, stretched-out birthday. In mid-October, she had her official celebration with friends. It was tough thinking of a covid-safe event, but we came up with an outdoor haunted house. We had the "study buddies" (Katie, Jack. Elliott, and Alyssa) plus Clara over for pizza and then rented a minivan and took them to Stalker Farms for the evening. It was the perfect outing for this age group (and fun for Chris and me to have our own date night there). Afterward, the girls had a sleepover. The next weekend was birthday dinner at Lynn and Steve's (snuggie-type thing and a drone toy FTW), and then Eva stayed over for her actual birthday. 

13 was an...OK year, dampened by the pandemic. She slogged through remote learning and 7th grade. Summer was much better due to covid vaccines for all of us. This meant being able to go inside friends' houses again and sleepovers for Anya. She attended Hidden Valley Camp again (this time there was some friction with another girl, but she had fun overall. It was a welcome break from the pandemic). Our international travel was put off yet again, but we salvaged the summer with a fun meetup with Dondon/Grangie in the Northwoods of Wisconsin via Minnesota. And lots of time over the summer with our puppy, Juni. 

School: Anya is in her final(!) year at St. Catherine. The school day is mostly back to normal, minus some covid-precautions: everyone wears masks, lunch is outside, desks are a bit farther apart. She's pretty thrilled to be back in person. Last year's remote learning and covid-restricted school really wore on her. We just had her parent-teacher conference and it was stellar, as are her grades. Per usual feedback, she is a hard worker, but has perfectionist tendencies and shouldn't stress so much. We're always working on that one, but it seems pretty hardwired. 

She's friendly with pretty much everyone in the class but finds herself spending more time with the study buddies and adjacent friends. I'm not sure if it's just the makeup of this class or the last 1.5 years of covid keeping them from dances and larger social activities (or both), but no one in the class has paired up yet and there are few crushes. Classes ahead of them usually started pairing up around 7th grade. Just an observation and, frankly, it's nice that they are still very much kids.

This fall, Anya's biggest stressor is figuring out high school for next year. There have been open houses and days where she's shadowed students at schools. Early summer, she took a medical dissection class at Seattle Prep and fell in love with it. That was her first choice for a while. Then Holy Names for a bit, and now I think Blanchet is in the lead. She's taking the entrance exam this Saturday and will start work on applications soon after. Roosevelt is our public school and she has friends there (Eva and Eloise), plus a few kids from her class will be there next year. It's sounding like Anya is opting for one of the catholic high schools, though. Roosevelt is a great school, and she might choose it in the end. All of the options on the plate are good ones. It'll be interesting to see where she lands. Chris and I have a hunch it'll be Blanchet. 

Activities: Anya just completed her final season of CYO soccer, and Chris his final year of coaching the girls. Anya was sidelined for half the season with a sprained back, but she came back strong. Chris is going to miss coaching and we're all going to miss those Saturday morning games in the rain. End of an era.  

She is signed up for rec-league indoor soccer now and it starts this weekend. In January, she's taking figure skating lessons, probably lots of skiing (ski bus might be happening - fingers crossed), and then likely CYO volleyball in the spring if the pandemic allows. 

Anya stopped dog walking around the time she got vaccinated and could hang out more with friends. At that same time, she took the Red Cross babysitting course and has had a handful of babysitting gigs. She really seems to enjoy that and the extra $.

Other than planned activities, she often meets up with friends and gets boba (bubble tea) or treats, walks around, or plays some online games with friends. The light rail station by us just opened up last month and that has/will expand her stomping grounds.

Anya has also been doing digital drawing and animating, still hosting and taking part in MAPS (multi-animator/artist projects). That was a big thing during Covid but is taking up less of her time now. 

Music/media: mostly one-offs. I heat her play Crystal Castles, Billie Eilish, some pop, a lot of indie, and a lot of things she hears me playing. Over Halloween, she's gotten into scary movies again. This time she was introduced to some of the "classics" from Chris/my childhood (Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, etc). 

future job: Her summer medical dissection course further strengthened her interest in anatomy/physiology. She says she now wants to be a veterinary surgeon. 

first soccer game of the season in September (yes, they had to wear masks during games)