Bashful Bryn

Bryn has made huge strides in being more confident lately.  This school year is going really well for her!  She has reconnected with some old friends and made new friends.  I volunteered to chaperon at one of the Middle School's Friday Fun Nights, so I told her she could ask some girls to go to dinner at Pizza Ranch before going to the school.  After she overcame her fear of rejection, I ended up taking 6 girls to dinner, some of which she had never hung out with before.  Little successes like that one have helped her immensely this year, plus she likes all of her teachers and is getting near-perfect grades.  She has a couple boys who have their minds set on getting her to "go out" with them, but she is wise and has no desire.  It is funny to hear the stories of these boys carrying her books, pointing her out to their friends and staring at her in classes.  She is generally annoyed by most of their "moves" so they are starting to back off.  She does have her heart set on a certain boy who is a member of our ward.  In complete girl fashion, she has planned out when they will go on their first date when they are both 16.  The other day we saw his family while buying ice cream in town.  After we said goodbye, she turned to me and said, "Every time he sees me in the halls at school, he says "s'up."  So ya.  We're pretty much getting married."  When Ryan asked her recently what qualities she likes in boys, she said, "1. smart  2. spiritual and 3. freckles."  This funny, shy, beautiful almost-12-year-old makes us smile.

Over the summer Bryn participated in a Musical Theater camp through the Coterie Theater.  I took this picture when her class performed the numbers they had learned.  Brynlie is so talented and beautiful.  I'm so proud of her accomplishments.  I find it funny that such a shy girl can come alive when she is placed on a stage.

Can I envy my own daughter?  She has such thick, gorgeous hair.

Bryn spent time researching different dance studio options this summer.  We attended the recitals of many other studios, but I never felt really good about any of them.  Bryn has been wanting to be pushed harder in dance and would really love to join a competitive team.  I don't like the time, money or attitude of the competition teams I've seen around here.  One place, called The Studio, seemed to have a good semi-competitive option.  She would have to tryout for the team, but there are only 4 competitions this year and they are all in the Kansas City area. After attending the tryout, I was informed that she she had made the cut to compete in Musical Theater.  I didn't have a great feeling about the dance studio, and really didn't like how the owner acted when I told her Bryn wouldn't be doing any dance-related activities on Sundays.  However, I felt like Bryn needed to make her own decision.  I told her to weigh the pros and cons, plus pray about her decision.  After much contemplation (Bryn is a very thorough thinker when it comes to decisions), she decided to try the new dance studio.  She is loving the added push to improve her dance skills and hasn't been presented with any problems so far (such as bad lyrics, inappropriate dance moves, etc).  The competition dance she will perform is darling.  I'm proud of her for being prayerful about her hard decision.  When she bore her testimony in front of the entire congregation last month, she spoke about feeling the Holy Ghost guide her as she made the decision to join the competitive team.  Below are the whiteboards she set up as she was making the hard decision.  Her thought process is very impressive!

Apparently tween girls these days think it's very fun to take ugly pictures of themselves and send them to their friends.  Challenge accepted.  My chin picture is the ugliest thing I've ever seen.

We got out and enjoyed boating a couple more times before the weather cooled off.  On this day, Bryn invited Jillian to come, and Lindsey invited Cate.  Fun was had by all.