Courtney’s 15th

Wow, it feels weird to type out that title. Shouldn’t Courtney be about 4 or 5? 

Courtney’s 14th year was dominated by one theme: ballet. Early in the year and through spring, Courtney and our other ballerinas were busy preparing for the Lebanon Ballet’s production of “Sleeping Beauty.” It was a great learning experience and a very exciting time. It was also her first opportunity to wear a heavy amount of makeup with my permission. :-)

Ballet continued on through the summer, since Courtney and Erica would be joining the Ballet V class in the fall. Because they had only been taking ballet for a year, they felt like they had some extra work to be ready to join the older girls.

   

Last fall, we saw the movie “First Position,” which is a documentary about an international ballet competition, the Youth America Grand Prix. Rather than being intimidated by the realities of high cost, injuries and long practice hours, Courtney was inspired by it! She can hardly complete a simple household task without throwing in an arabesque or sashay or lots of other ballet moves, which I can’t even begin to spell. We added another night of ballet lessons last fall, so she and Erica are there 3 nights a week. I’ve wondered if they would start to get bored or burned out, but I haven’t seen any signs of that. Often, Mick and I can hear the thumping of her and Erica’s stretching and dancing coming from their bedroom late into the night. :-)

Aside from her sisters and cousins, Courtney’s good friends are mostly from church. She has also developed a good friendship with a sweet girl from her on-line class. They were able to meet in person back in May, when her family came to Indianapolis so her dad could run in the Mini Marathon.

Courtney has always been a very creative girl and one of her creative outlets is photography. She took some very good pictures last year, with Trent, the pets and nature being her favorite subjects. Along with the picture-taking, she has had fun doing some photo editing on the computer.

 

She has also honed her drawing skills and drew some very nice pictures in the past few months. She tried her hand at moviemaking last year and created some great little movies with her sisters, cousins and friends. This is one of my favorite parts of “The Secret of the Violin:”

Her birthday this year was a little more low-key because Grandma is still recovering from their accident, so she and Grandpa weren’t able to come. After lunch, I took her out for dessert. She requested The Fig Tree Cafe, a cute little place right in town that has some great gelato! After that, we did a little Goodwill shopping, which she could happily spend many, many hours doing. For dinner, the birthday girl requested Pasta Sausage Soup and Italian bread, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. This year, we focused on clothes for birthday gifts, partly because she has really shot up in the past year. She and Rachel are the same size now, which is great for sharing clothes, but makes it more difficult to tell the two apart. I’ve gotten them mixed up a lot lately! We also got her several books: a couple of Hardy Boys titles, and How They Kept the Faith- A Tale of the Huguenots of Languedocs, My Antonia, I Capture the Castle, and The Tale of Beatrix Potter- A Biography.

Happy 15th Birthday, Courtney! We love you!