Sera's 15th Birthday Update!
I love my Serenity, Sera, Serafina, Serenity D, Lumi, Lumine, or whatever name she choses on any given day. She is so creative and imaginative, and I just love hearing how her “little brain” works. She says that whenever she’s being “quirky” and I love that she honors the way her mind works. She is obsessed with sakuras and sunsets in art. She loves pale golds and pinks, reading, especially fanfiction, and her family! Here’s a year in pictures for Sera!
July 2022: New earrings, bangs, such a pretty esthetic.
July 2022, Sera’s Axolotl 14th Birthday. She took this weighted axolotl, Axl everywhere, even when he caused some issues for airport security.
August 2022: 8th Grade Schedule Pickup! My nature girl found a tree.
8th Grade Back to School
August 2022: She loves our puppy Finn! She calls him a sweet puppy baby. Also, Doll Finn, (dolphin)
September 2022: Chicky-fil-a is her favorite food!
New earring day! Axolotls.
Sera participated in a week of dress up days for Homecoming! This was dress like the job you want, and she chose to dress as an author! She was imagining a book signing so she went for vaguely professional =)
Pajama day, but her curled up around a cozy cup of tea is so her vibe.
Tie dye day! She knows how to stick to a theme ;)
October 2022: Spirit Island dress up day! The kids surprised me by celebrating the completion of our epic Spirit Island chart. They each made costumes for one of the spirits. Sera chose Thunderspeaker. The costume is spot on and she finger knitted the hair herself!
November 2022: Sera’s recital! She sang Set it All Free! She rocked! Her bows are always epic as well. So dramatic
Hogwarts 2022: On our way to Hogwarts! =)
Hogsmeade 2022: Sera and her pet phoenix, Joy, who donated a feather for her wand. She also has a sugar quill from Honeydukes. =) This was an amazing trip and we loved every minute of it! Sera especially appreciated all the magic. She rode the Forbidden Journey ride in Hogwarts five times! She even went by herself a few times, and finally convinced DZ to join her!
December 2022: Mickey’s Christmas Party! Sera chose the ears as her souvenir from the Animal Kingdom, and I can’t think of anything more perfect than leopard print ears. She’s even wearing her leopard hoodie!
December 2022: Sera’s performance! She did the most hilarious monologue as an elf complaining about Santa not sharing the credit. We had these clothes from Raegan, so I just had to make the hat and shoes. It was soooo good! She sang Hallelujah too.
December 2022: Vanilla rose rock and Alfredo pasta. Or sustenance, as Sera refers to food these days.
Christmas 2022: Sera’s cape and necklace. Sera LOVED her Christmas presents. She’s gone through three of these little kitsune stone necklaces, and she wore her blanket cape EVERYWHERE this year. So happy!
January 2023: Jane Eyre! Serenity starred as Young Jane in her drama classes production. She was fabulous! Maia cried =)
Sera got a bitmoji this year! She has a phone, since she rides the bus home from school and needs a distraction from sensory overload, and to call me when the bus is really late. I LOVE getting texts from her. Soooooo sweet and often hilarious.
January 2023: This year wouldn’t be complete without a record of her box bed. She slept in this for literal months. She just loved the coziness. We even bought her a daybed so she could recreate the feeling.
February 2023: Urban Air. Sera still loves it here! She asked for it for her 14th birthday and still is thrilled to go.
March 2023: Odyssey Regionals. Sera was on an Odyssey of the Mind team this year! I helped coach, but mostly the kids are supposed to do everything themselves. She was Athena, and they tackled the Classics Problem of the Trojan Horse. She made her costume, using the sewing machine and materials she found, many in my stash but some just scavenging for items like a magpie. She loves to do that.
March 2023: Odyssey State. They improved their solution so much they got to go to Odyssey Worlds! It was such wonderful work! They improved their time, they added to each aspect of their skit, costumes and props to increase their score, and it paid off! They totally rocked spontaneous at both competitions, her team is great at off the wall thinking! Their problem was an art thief stealing a statue, which was actually Athena’s Aegis or shield that could petrify people. They mailed themselves in a Trojazon box to get into the rich art thief’s house, and then took the statue back! It was hilarious and so exciting to see their teamwork.
March 2023: Sera made almost all of the Medusa head and shield structure. It was her baby, she definitely worked hard! Adding the glitter to the eyes was very effective! It took some repairs after travel but she got the rotating head down, and then when the judges said her head wasn’t animated enough, she altered the structure to make a moving mouth!
Spring Break 2023: Serenity came up with a great science project, having to do with fire, of course. It’s fun =) She didn’t turn it in, which was another thing she struggled with this year, but it was a really cool experiment!
Easter 2022: The Floor is Lava! She had such great teamwork with her sibbies! It’s so cute that she calls them that too. =)
April 2022: Sera’s spring show! She sang a song she WROTE HERSELF!!!!
April 2022: Still rocking the bangs =) She loves her sakura purse.
May 2023: Odyssey Worlds was an amazing experience! She and I road tripped across several states, she met her buddy team from South Korea, and they performed so well! It was wonderful! She discovered the joy of pin trading, and loved wearing her tie dyed pin towel around the University of Michigan.
May 2023: 8th Grade Graduation! We gave Sera this book with signatures from all her teachers! The wonderful Mr. Ruffner, her favorite drama teacher, got all her teachers from this year to sign.
June 2023: Denver Natural History Museum. Sera LOVED the gems and rocks and read every exhibit. Even though she started to not feel well she was mesmerized.
June 2023: Denver Zoo. Sera and Maia had a blast mimicking all the statues =)
June 2023 Road Trip: Four Corners!
June 2023: For her birthday present we are redecorating Sera’s room! She was very appreciative of the new paint! She asked for an ombre sunset effect and she loves it! It wasn’t quite done by her actual birthday, but I wanted the paint to have plenty of time to dry before her new bed arrived!
July 2023: Sera is 15! She turned 15 on our road trip to Sweden, but of course we didn’t let that get in the way of birthday donuts!
