Celebrating our 11 Year Old!

Last week was filled with a lot of fun and excitement for Evie!  We started with her 11th Birthday on Tuesday.  It was a perfectly beautiful day, just like the year she was born, and her celebration lasted all week long.  On her birthday, we picked her up from school at lunch time, went to Party City for balloons, and then got Chinese take-out for lunch (her request!).  We came home and had a relaxing afternoon while getting ready for the family party that evening.  We had a low-key family celebration with pizza and cake, and ended the evening with a trial-run on the new slip and slide (thank you Aunt Pea!).

Sour Patch Kids - she is very excited about these!

The slip and slide.  Can you feel the excitement?!

It was FREEZING, but they insisted on giving it a try!

Modeling her new Deathly Hallows earrings

The beautiful week of weather continued, as did the celebrating!  Evie completed her practice 5K for Girls on the Run, followed by her first in-person chorus concert that evening.  Friday, we celebrated Evie's birthday with a few of her friends, which was so much fun.  We took the girls to dinner at Grazer's, and then did an escape room.  There were a lot of laughs at dinner, and then we succeeded together in getting out of the escape room in under an hour!  You wouldn't believe the sound of the collective shrieks as exciting/unexpected things happened in the escape room - phew!  It was an awesome group of girls, and it made our hearts so happy to see Evie beaming for the whole evening of celebrating.

Good job, Evie!

Evie and her friend Lottie were perfect running buddies

After a quick shower and dinner, we changed gears from 5K to concert!

Evie's fan squad

Evie and Lila

Chorus friends

Evie and Carlee

Celebrating with Evie's friends at Grazer's

The stretchiest cheese ever

Daddy was a good sport

The fun crew of girls

We made it!

So much fun for the kids (and for us!)

All this excitement and focus on Evie left Noah feeling a little bit jealous (and, maybe a little grouchy!).  He had two great nights of baseball, and he is lucky enough to have Matt as his head coach, and BOTH grandpas as the assistant coaches.  Noah seems to love every sport that he tries, and he has done well with hitting and fielding in his first few baseball games!

It's hard to imagine this guy gets grumpy, but it happens!

Noah playing in the field (behind the pitcher)

Up to bat

Getting some congrats from 1st base coach Grandpa Zeke

Noah up to bat with Dad as the pitcher

A little bonus fun after a trip to the grocery store. No luck this time!

Can you find Noah in Grandma and Grandpa's beautiful flowering tree?

It became VERY HOT over the weekend, and it felt like we were on the go for much of it.  The kids still managed to find some time for the slip and slide (perfect for the hot weather!), some nature crafts, and we did some grilling and enjoyed our first G&T's of the season!

Before the weather got too hot, it was perfect for some driveway basking

Evie's summer feet - YUCK!

I had to cool my feet in Frankie's pool after going for a walk

The kids came up with this whole project themselves

Hot weather calls for Gin & Tonic's!  Cheers!