Paige's 14th Birthday Party at Top Golf

Paige went with a small group of her friends to Top Golf this year to celebrate her 14th birthday. Paige's birthday actually isn't for another couple of days, but we thought we'd celebrate ahead of time this year. 

Saylor, Sadie, Dylan, and Kayla all came out to celebrate with her, and they all had a good time smacking some golf balls and goofing off together. We got everyone some food and drinks and the girls loved the injectable donut holes.

Connor's Junior Prom 2024

 

Prom was tonight, and Connor picked out a maroon tux for the occasion. Andrea took him a couple weeks ago to a locally owned place and we were surprised that he gravitated towards the maroon. His favorite color is purple, but something about the tux caught his eye. He looked sharp for the day and the fitted cut of the tux suited him well and we thought he looked extra handsome. 

We snapped some pics with Connor before he left for the evening and since Graydon's over for the night we snapped a pic of the boys together too.

As is the tradition, pretty much every high school in the area shows up before prom at the fountain in front of our beach club, and Connor's school is no exception. Some of Connor's friends organized a party bus to take them to prom and everyone met at the club for pics together before heading out. Connor drove himself and his buddy Ben to the club and they took pics with lots of other kids and eventually with their party bus crew. 

After pics, Connor piled a bunch of the boys in his car and apparently they decided to run by Tropical Smoothie for some smoothies before heading over to meet up with the girls. They hung out at his friend Amy's house for a little while and then the bus took everyone to the dance. Connor had a good time and afterwards he ended up coming home. He said there were a few after-parties, but he was ready to chill, get out of his tux, and play some NBA 2K on his Playstation. 

Griffin's Field of Dreams Baseball Game - With Paige

 

Saturday morning we went to see Griffin play baseball again. We'd planned for our whole family to go, but Connor had practice with his tennis team for their run at the State title. This week the Creekside Football team volunteered to help out and Griffin was thrilled to have three big boys running around with him on the field. He definitely enjoys his time playing baseball and we had another beautiful day for it.

I tried on Graydon's cool guy sunglasses and had to get a selfie with them. Paige was not impressed.

Paige's 8th Grade Dance

 

Friday night, Paige went to her 8th grade dance at her middle school. Barely. It was actually a close thing whether or not she'd get to go or not. Andrea had logged in to purchase Paige's ticket several weeks ago and it looks like she may have either forgotten to check out, or the order didn't go through. Paige showed up to pick her ticket up at school and there wasn't one with her name on it. We didn't think it would end up being a big deal, but when Andrea went to buy the ticket, they were no longer available. Paige was added to a "wait list", which seemed a little crazy to us because the dance was only for 8th graders and it was at their school gym. 

Andrea scrambled for a couple days to figure it out and eventually got it worked out. Andrea also went on Friday to help decorate/set up. Paige got her ticket on time and we were thrilled that she didn't miss out on it. Sadie came over on Friday after school and the girls spent some time getting all made up and making some Tik Tok videos. Before I took them to the dance, we went out by the pool and golf course to snap some pics. Paige was cute about wanting to hold Millie Mae in the pics at the house, but eventually we realized that we never got any of her by herself without the dog. I snapped a couple pics of Paige with my phone before I dropped her off, and those are the only dogless pics of Paige by herself with her dress.

The girls had the option to go wherever they wanted for dinner. We thought it would be fun to go somewhere fancy and we suggested the nice French restaurant near us, or something like that. The girls wanted to go to McDonald's for dinner and I guess that's a trend right now, going to McDonald's all dressed up. I dropped them off so the two of them could enjoy a dinner together and then I drove them to the dance when they were done.

The dance sounds like it was a blast. Paige had the time of her life and after Andrea picked her up, she told Mom that she is going to be a clubber for life now. She danced the whole time. The DJ was great, the kids had fun, and the gym was decorated amazingly. They took some cute videos, and tried to take a few pictures, but the lights were off so it was hard to capture the moment on camera. 

Connor's High School Tennis - Regional Final in Gainesville

 

Connor traveled to Gainesville with his team on Thursday for their Regional Final match. Connor played line 4 singles and had a tough match against a tall and lanky opponent. Connor started off with a solid first set win, but he ended up behind in the second set and he had to work hard to catch up. We were worried it would end up going to a tiebreak, but Connor finished the second set after a couple of stressful match points. He won his match 6-4, 7-5 and we were thankful it didn't have to go to a tiebreak. 

Connor's backhand is still a little inconsistent and he tends to run around it, but he overcomes his difficulties and worked hard to find a way to win. It was the hardest we've seen him play in a long time and I'll never forget one point where he had to change direction quickly to catch up to a wide angle and ended up scrambling so hard to get it that he fell after making the play. Connor's typical style is to casually get to the ball at the last second, so it was surprising and exciting to see him going all out and trying his hardest.

Usually the matches have the doubles go first, but this match they did 4 lines of singles and then started the line 5 singles as the doubles matches got going. Connor's teammate lost a close match on line 3, so for the first four matches they went 3-1. Going in to the last three matches, they only needed to win one, but they fell behind in the line 2 doubles and the line 5 singles. Thankfully Grant and Jacob won their line 1 doubles match. Once they clinched the 4th win, all other matches stopped. We'll never know if Connor and Ethan would have caught back up on line 2 doubles, but it wasn't looking good.

We are proud of the boys for winning regional. They'll be traveling to Orlando next week to play in the 3A FHSAA State Boys' Tennis Tournament. There's always tough competition and we hope they play well and enjoy this opportunity to represent their high school. This is PVHS's 4th year in the row to make it to state.

Connor's High School Tennis - Regional Semi-Final

Connor's team won the Divisional Playoffs and moved on to the Regional Matches this last week on Tuesday. He played line four singles and line two doubles for his team and won both matches. His opponent was fairly consistent and they had some long battles throughout their match. His team won the match and moved on to the Regional Finals Match in Gainesville on Thursday.