Our LIttle One celebrated her 15th birthday on the 15th. She reminded us of this special occsion quite a few years ago, and her whole day was planned out. She wore her favorite and super soft "beans make people happy" shirt to school while listening to Taylor Swift's "Fifteen" song.
At school, she had MAP testing and her EOC (end of course exam). Once those were done, I got her out with early dismissal to drive her to the SC Dept. of Motor Vehicles for her permit. This is where the more difficult tests happened. The documents were all in order, including her school transcript showing her rank to be 1 out of 270! (Since that can easliy change over the next 3 years, I wanted to throw that in. 😊) But the vision test was the real difficulty. They had her look into the lens and read line 4. She squinted, hesitated, and slowly read out G, S, P, A. The lady then said, look again, they are supposed to be numbers. Luke and I are cracking up behind her trying to contain ourselves.
Our daughter made a 2nd attempt at guessing and this time read alound numbers. The lady behind the counter started making faces of uncertainty, raising her eyebrows and squinting her nose. Then the numbers kept coming beyond 4. After our little one said the 12th number, the lady cut her off and said to go back to read just line #4. This time, the lady smiled as the correct numbers were called out. Success!
Now time for the written exam. Students can miss up to 6 questions and still pass. Upon their 7th missed question, the program stops and the student has to come back another day. So the longer she spent in the computer room, the better sign she was doing well. Eventually she came out all smiles and announced she only missed 3! Whew, she did it! Now back in line for another hour to finish the paperwork.
When they called her for her photo, she was so excited! This was the moment of truth. Was her first driver's license going to look good? She had to show it off to all her friends at school and it needed to be great.
The picture turned out cute, but she forgot to practice her signature. That part didn't look as good. Oh well, the picture was the most important thing. Now for her first time on the road as she drives us home. It was at this point that Luke revealed it was the real reason he tagged along. It wasn't for moral support. It was to see how bad she drove her first time.
The drive was quite slow to where at one point I put on our hazzards. That made her mad. And even though we were on back roads, there were obstacles requiring her to change lanes. It was a little nerve racking, but we all got through it. Next, we had her pull into a restaurant lot to practice parking. This was her first attempt.
We then had her turn around in the lot and back reverse into the parking space. Not too terrible, and she will improve over time.
Once home, we were celebrating more than just her birthday...we had survived her first drive. It was great to have all the kids home together, too!
For her "home cooked meal", she wanted all appetizers. But for her birthday cake, she wanted to make it herself. Let's just say that without a recipe, it was actually edible. She did forget things like baking powder, oil, sugar, etc., but no worries. The dense cake was complimented with delicious frosting.
Thanks to everyone for the birthday cards and gifts!
