Shawn's tennis match

I played in a singles tennis match on Saturday and Andrea stopped by to watch towards the end. She took a couple of videos of me playing, which was fun for me to watch since I don't get to see myself on video playing very often. I ended up winning the match 6-1, 6-1.

PVPV Carnival

Paige's school had their carnival on Saturday and we braved the cold and windy weather to support the school and to have some fun. Paige found her friend Yasmine and Emma and they climbed the rock wall, played on the blow up things, and did the cake walk and got some cupcakes. Afterwards, Paige went with Emma and Yasmine to Ulta and Chik-Fil-A.

Connor found some of his middle school friends and they played some basketball together.

Field Day! 4th Grade - Paige with Ms Link's class

Today was 4th grade field day at Paige's school and she wore her coral colored shirt and participated with her class. The day started off with the 1 mile relay race and Paige ran her leg super fast and helped the team narrowly squeak out a win. Paige's friend Rebecca caught up to the blue team on the last lap and barely got ahead at the finish line, so close!

Next up was the 50 yard dash, which Paige didn't do, and then Paige's best event the 100 yard dash. Paige came in the top 3 in her qualifying heat and in the final heat she came in 3rd place. She did awesome, there are some super fast kids in her grade.

We loved to see Paige goofing off with her friends and class and watching everyone compete. It was a beautiful day for it, not too cold or hot and the rain that had been in the forecast all week held off until the evening. Paige competed in the potato sack race and her class won the tug of war event, which is always a favorite.

Connor's 13th birthday

Connor turned 13 today! It's hard to believe that we are the parents of a teenager, but here we are. Today was a Monday, which kind of stinks for a birthday day, but we tried to make it as enjoyable as possible for Connor. Last night after we played pickleball, we stopped by Krispy Kreme to pick up some donuts so he'd have a yummy breakfast and a sweet treat for after dinner.

After Connor got home from school he relaxed and played some video games with friends and then he picked McDonald's cheeseburgers for dinner followed by the last of the Krispy Kreme donuts. We sang him "Happy Birthday" and then Connor opened his gifts he'd gotten in the mail and the gifts from our family (Airpods!).

Happy Birthday Connor! We're so proud of the smart, kind, thoughtful and funny young man he's grown up to be. We hope his teenage years are wonderful!

i9 Flag Football - Connor's last game

Connor had his last game of the season yesterday. His team ended up with an ok record for the year and didn't get far in the playoffs, but they did win their final game. Towards the end of the season, the coach took a more active role in play calling and organization and it made a big difference in their overall performance. 

Paige brought along her friend Yasmine yesterday for the day.

After the game, the coach talked with the boys, handed out their medals and some shirts with their team name.

Connor's Escape Room 13th Birthday Party

This past Friday on February 28th, we celebrated Connor's 13th birthday with some of his friends by going to an Escape Room Birthday party. In the afternoon after school, his friends got dropped off at the house. Before we left, the boys played basketball and knockout in the driveway and then they played football out front.

Football was supposed to be two hand touch, but inevitably Connor and some of his friends ended up in the damp grass and with muddy clothes. Before we set out, we snapped a picture together and then we all jumped on board the big white 12 passenger van we'd rented for the day.

I drove the boys to the escape room and we all signed in and snapped a pic before we started.

The escape room was divided up in to multiple sections and there were 10 tasks we had to complete to escape the room. Connor insisted that I didn't help, but after a few minutes we all realized that it was going to be pretty challenging and we were in for a struggle. It didn't help that when we started everything was wildly unorganized and the boys all were opening things up randomly and items were being tossed everywhere. We finally had to use a clue (only three clues are provided) and got the first step done which opened up the next room and we made really good progress for a little while and random groups of boys found different clues and solved different things. It was hard at that point for me to wrap my mind around everything that had been done and needed to be done. We ended up getting pretty close, but couldn't solve the final puzzle and ran out of time.

After our escape room challenge, we drove over to Cantina Laredo and thankfully Andrea realized that the private room hadn't been reserved, so they let us use it without having to commit to spending the minimum charge for food and drink. Andrea had the room setup really nicely with balloons, decorations, and a big tray of donuts. As soon as the boys arrived they excitedly dug in to the donuts and they were all eaten before we even got our drink order placed. 

Dinner was good, and thankfully we had the private room, because the boys were pretty loud. We watched some Wheel of Fortune, Judge Judy, and Jeopardy together and then snapped a few pictures.

After dinner, the boys ran around the outside area near the restaurant. Pickup was at 8:30 at our house and we decided to just let them run off some energy outside the restaurant before I drove them home, which worked out marvelously. The night was crazy at times, it was hard to keep the pre-teen boys organized and together, and out of trouble, but we did it. I managed to get them all to the van and home again and we all survived! I asked Connor to rate the party on a 1-10 scale and he happily replied that it was a 10. I'm glad he enjoyed it, and it was fun to meet some of his friends we hadn't met before and see them all together.

 Happy birthday Connor!

Connor's Middle School tennis

Tennis is starting at Connor's middle school and he completed tryouts and this season he's on coach Lars's team. The teams were picked differently this year and all of the kids that tried out made a team, so it's being run quite a bit differently than last year. Connor's got a few of his friends on his team this year and we're hoping that he has a successful season, makes some friends, and has some fun.