Monday, January 23, 2012

Little Adventures!

So as I mentioned I am a big sister to a wonderful little eleven year old. Big Brothers Big Sisters did an amazing job matching us. She is so sweet and I am loving getting to know her. I wanted to start sharing our adventures together with you so maybe you will be inspired to reach out and mentor too. I have loved it so far!! :)

Our very first outing was a BBBS ice skating event. Little had never been before but she was so brave and I was so proud of her. It was a really nice first outing for us because we could begin our bond trying something new.

(Sorry no pictures from this event. I don't want to post pictures of her/us together because of her privacy and I didn't take any appropriate ones that night....)

During our first outing we talked about going to Starbucks and then some museums for our next visit. She wanted to take advantage of the holiday flavors and I was definitely interested in that! Something that I was worried about was hyping my 11 year old buddy up on a bunch of caffeine! So when we got there she told me what she wanted and I ordered it without caffeine. I felt a little overbearing but I'm still learning our friendship/mentor balance!

Then we walked to the San Diego Art Museum and she was adorable! She can't decide between being a veterinarian or an artist so she loved the museum. There was a corner of the main exhibit where they encouraged you to sketch and I didn't even have to ask if she was interested she just went right in and started working. It was really neat to see her in her element.

A couple Saturdays ago I picked her up and brought her over to my place to do some arts and crafts! A few weeks earlier in anticipation of my little I picked up some basic super cheap ($1) wood frames from Michaels and some acrylic paint in the primary colors. As we were painting we were just chatting about school, college, books, friends, everything. It was honestly like we were just friends hanging out. Our conversations together are never forced. It's amazing.

Just last Tuesday I picked her up and took her to the library since she likes to read. It was neat browsing the books together and learning that she likes dark stories! Who knew that such a sweet girl, practically always dressed in pink, would like ghost and other dark stories! We also talked about reading the One Book, One San Diego book next month together and then attending one of the special author events. I'm really looking forward to doing that with her.

We then went back to my place to make dinner together. We decided to make spaghetti as she determined that we should add onions, bell pepper, and carrots to our sauce- so we did. She also wanted to do more of the cutting so after I quizzed her on proper knife etiquette I let her do it. But I think I drove her a bit nuts by telling her to be careful about 50 times. I just really wanted her to have all her fingers at the end of our visit!

She kept all her fingers!

Little and her dinner

My dinner

Yummy homemade bread.

Looking at these pictures is making me hungry! It was so fun cooking together and then talking during dinner. Sorry this post was so long. Was it boring? Are you over hearing about my visits with my Little? Should I keep posting about them? Let me know!

XOXO,

Elise

2 comments:

  1. omg this is so awesome!
    I've never even thought about becoming a part of this program...but it looks like such a blast!

    How long have you been a part of it?

    xo!

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    1. It is awesome! I have only been matched since December but there was a month or two of application/waiting time before we were matched where I was interviewed and my references (all five of them!)were contacted etc. I would highly recommend looking into it!!

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