Thank you to everyone who wished Will a happy birthday last Friday! We had a great weekend celebrating the beginning of his teenage years.
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| The tradition of filling the birthday boy's room with balloons while he sleeps continues. (Thanks to the many dance moms who helped me blow up balloons while waiting for our girls' dance classes to finish.) |
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| I don't know how much of the decor Will saw when he stumbled out of his room for practice at 6:20am. |
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| He certainly wasn't expecting everyone to be in the kitchen waiting to sing. (Tom and Hallie haven't been awake when I've taken Will to practice even a single time all season.) |
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| Will and friends at the park, where they met on his birthday for a few hours of playing all the sports and eating all the food. |
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| Hallie and Will under their new weighted blankets. (Since the kids are 2.5 years apart, each gets a half-birthday present on the other's birthday. It's usually something smaller than a weighted blanket, but I wanted Hallie to have one and I scored a good deal on these at Target.) |
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| Three layers of chocolate cake and cherry cream cheese filling, wrapped in loads of chocolate frosting goodness, per his request. |
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| Happy birthday, Will! |
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| The following afternoon we headed to The Woodlands Resort. (I COULD NOT keep my eyes open for this pic. This is the best of the many attempts.) |
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| The kids loved the water slides and the lazy river. |
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| Headed out for a second birthday dinner - you get two when you turn 13 - at one of the resort's restaurants. |
Two
In between Will's birthday celebrations, we crammed a dance class, a dance rehearsal, a cross country meet, a soccer game, shopping for cleats, and a friend's birthday party into the weekend. Those two and a half days were a little busier than I would have liked - none of us slept enough, and I had a lot of catching up to do when it came to the house, the laundry, and work - but I can't complain about the endless love and crazy laughter.
Three
As a member of the Ballet Brazos publicity committee, I have spent the last two months working hard toward an important upcoming event. (Yes, we're working hard toward Nutcracker, but this high five is about something else. More information about Nutcracker to come, I promise!) Brazos Valley Gives is a community-wide day of giving built around strengthening nonprofits, empowering donors, and building community. We're proud to be a part of this inaugural and eventually annual fundraiser, and we would like to invite you to visit www.brazosvalleygives.org to learn more about both the event and the efforts of Ballet Brazos to instruct, educate, and enrich the lives of young people through the art of dance to share quality classical ballet performances with audiences of all ages.
Four
This is Lucy. Her mama and I are friends, so I have adored little Lu for nearly 18 months - nine months of waiting for her to be born, and nine months of watching her grow into an precious little person.
Lucy loves her mama more than anyone else in the world, and since she was about two months old, Lucy has cried - immediately, loudly, and hysterically - if anyone else (with the exception of her daddy and siblings) tried to hold her or even came to close to her in her mama's arms. So despite the fact that I see her between three and five times a week, until very recently she would not let me near her. But I've been working REALLY hard trying to convince Lu that I am a super fun grown-up (I regularly tell her that I'll bring her cupcakes as soon as she's old enough to eat them), and for the first time last week she crawled across the couch and sat next to me on her own. It was a truly joyful moment.
Five
Happiness Highlights
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| There was a time when I thought she'd never learn to read (she followed a brother who taught himself at 4yo, so while she learned on a perfectly normal timeline, for a while I thought I'd done something wrong with her), so watching her lose herself in books still brings me tremendous happiness. |
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| She's also pretty good at reading - and following - recipes. |
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| Halloween decor has arrived! |
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| This might be my new favorite pic of these besties. |
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| Well, this one's up there too. 😂 |
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| If you look closely, you can see Hallie talking to the student volunteer working at the pumpkin patch. When we drove by, we noticed he had no shade to protect him from the sun on that 100-degree day. We circled back around, and she gave him one of our umbrellas (which we keep in the car not to protect us from rain, but to protect us from sun) so he could survive his shift. I hope it helped! |
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| Matching in blue for Stomp Out Bullying Day. |
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| Not matching with anyone, but committed to the cause and the associated attire - that's a lot of blue! |
Happy Friday, friends!
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