Stella's Excellent Adventure

Stella's whereabouts during her excellent adventure.

Everyone tells you that your kids will grow up in the blink of an eye. I thought I understood that, until it happened to Stella.

Stellie has been spreading her wings a little at a time with the new freedom she's experiencing in middle school (more about that in another post). Her school has what I like to call "free-range lunches", where they let all the student go out into the neighborhood and eat wherever they please (if they want to).

This certainly makes the neighborhood a living hell at lunch time with several hundred tweens rampaging up and down the streets. But Stella has been eager to take advantage of this and actually was discussing free-range lunches with her friends all summer. She's done it a few times over the past couple of weeks and all has been good.

But last Sunday Stella took it to the next level when she set up a lunch date with her friend Audrey at a local restaurant in the hood.

At noon Stella headed out with iPhone, keys and money. Lisa accompanied her to the corner where she met Audrey. And then they were on their own!

From what I gathered in talking with Stella later, they had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, hung out in the nearby park/playground for a while, and then treated themselves to frozen yogurt before saying goodbye and heading home.

So, history has been made. Stella is now out and about in the neighborhood on her own.

And by "on her own" I mean with a couple of friendly tracking devices on her phone making sure we can keep a virtual eye on her.

For now.