Happy birthday to my youngest! She's a teenager now!

It doesn't seem that long since my youngest, Ellie turned 12. I say it every year but what a year she has had. This year has been the making of her and she is a totally different person than she was this time last year.

Ellie seems to have been waiting so long to be a teenager and the day is finally here. Today is her 13th birthday.

This time last year Ellie was waiting to start her new school after we had moved house and she settled in quickly and hasn't looked back. She finally got to leave the bullying issues she had behind and they are all a distant memory now.

Ellie has made a ton of new friends and thankfully the majority of them are just lovely. There is one who is practically one of the family now. She is always popping over and is always welcome. She is one of those people who I can imagine Ellie still being friends with in 10 years.

I think making friends has helped Ellie grow in confidence. She is not that girl anymore who worries about what other people think about her which I think is fantastic. She wears what she wants instead of what other people wear and if someone doesn't like her for no real reason she says stuff them!

School went amazingly well for Ellie, well until it closed because of Coronavirus. We had our battles with home schooling, mostly her not wanting to do it and me nagging her. We probably didn't do as much work as some but I do think she learned things at home. By then end of the school year we got into a good routine July came around and it was the end of year 8.

Ellie handled the lockdown well. She had one little blip early on where she was a little afraid of going out because all she seemed to hear was "Stay at home, only go out if necessary" so we started going for daily walks and we enjoyed them.

At the moment Ellie is all for anything Japanese. She loves anime stuff and she has even started to learn Japanese. So of course a lot of her presents are Japanese related things. The other love of her life is anything coloured "Rose Gold". Thankfully like that are more common and cheaper than some of the Japanese things she wanted. lol I think she will be happy with all of her presents.

We don't have many plans for today apart from Ellie opening her presents, my dad and his partner are popping around this morning and Ellie's best friend this afternoon. She's chosen a Chinese takeaway for her tea and there of course will be cake!