Clare is 11!

Clare turned eleven last week! We celebrated her birthday in several different ways.  We started with a family party last weekend.

   

Look at the excitement on Clare's face about one of her gifts.  She got lots of great stuff...a new bike, an Echo Dot, some new shoes, and some fun art supplies.  She was a happy girl!

She picked a salted caramel chocolate cake, and I was happy to oblige! 

 On her actual birthday, we started the day with pancakes.  Of course, I had to snap a few pics on the actual day!

She picked the menu for dinner that night, and we had lasagna and opened presents.  Her "friend" party was the next day, and she wanted to make her own birthday cake.  She did a great job, even surprising herself.  She kept saying, "I didn't know I was good at this!"

Clare decided a while ago that she wanted to do a "Cupcake Wars" birthday party.  She even presented us with a power point presentation on how it would all work. 

We tweaked a few of the details, but went with her plan.  Her guests arrived, and we started making cupcake bath bombs!  The great thing about eleven year olds is that they are so independent.  They knocked out a bunch of bath bombs in no time!

Next up, the girls ate pizza and cake.  Clare was proud to show off the "zebra cake" that she made!

Then, it was finally time for cupcakes.  We needed decorators to get all of these cupcakes beautiful!

Round one's challenge was to make your best emoji cupcake!

Round two...make three identical cupcakes.

The third round required the girls to decorate something from nature.

And the fourth was to make their very best.

Jane, Sydney and Graham were the judges and awarded the winner of each round with a small prize.  We did presents after that, and then called it a night! 

Phew...that was a lot of pictures.  Can't believe she is eleven! 

Jane!

It's Jane's turn!  It is such a pleasure to be Jane's mom.  She is the sweetest child that ever existed.  That's not to say that she doesn't occasionally give off some attitude, but her true personality is just so kind.  She is a quiet, thoughtful, sensitive, fun-loving, rule-following girl.

Jane is the "girliest" of all my girls.  She loves fashion, accessories, getting dressed up and all of that.  She'll happily try on the clothes that I buy her, and she loves to new things to wear.  She wears scarves all of the time, and she always has the most jewelry on.

She's so well-rounded, though, because she's quite sporty as well!  She is a darn good soccer player, and she continues to love gymnastics.  She is often outside playing...she just might be donning a scarf!

 

This girl is one talented artist! I am amazed at her sketching abilities.  She is creative and loves a good art project.  She is patient enough to sit and work on something for a long period of time....unlike her twin sister!

Jane doesn't have a sweet tooth at all.  She prefers salty to sweet, kolaches to donuts, chips to candy, and always loves when sausage is on the menu!  She loves to play with her friends, watch YouTube videos, and her favorite thing to do is to shop Target! 😊

Jane is generous with her thoughtfulness.  You'll never leave an event with Jane without getting a hug first, and she frequently leaves Casey and I notes around the house.  She is a pleasure to be around....and I'm thankful I get to be around her a lot! 

Broken Bow, OK

We decided to take advantage of a three day weekend and take our crew to Broken Bow, OK.  When we told the kids, you'd have thought we were taking them to Paris...they were so excited!

We rented a little cabin near Beaver's Bend State Park, and we spent three days just hanging out!  The biggest perk of the cabin was a hot tub.  The kids spent a ton of time in that thing.

On Saturday afternoon, we went horseback riding.  Clare was old enough to ride by herself, but the other three had to ride with an adult.  (Sydney rode with the guide.)  It was a long ride, and the kids really enjoyed it.

 

On Sunday, we went on a hike and had a picnic.  We took our time, threw rocks in the creek, and just enjoyed the day.

  

If you ask the kids what their favorite part of the weekend was, they will probably tell you about Dukey!  The first day we got there a stray dog ambled up to our porch.  He was well-behaved and the kids took an instant liking to him and they named him Dukey.  They played with him for a long time, and then we left to go ride horses.  He was, of course, gone when we returned.  On our last day, guess who came back?   Dukey!  The kids were so thrilled....and they took a million pictures of him!

We thoroughly enjoyed the weekend away.  We played a ton of games, Truth be told, I think we could go anywhere and have a good time.  It's just nice to get out of town and away from the busy schedules. 

SYDNEY!

Sydney is up next!  

There are so many adjectives that describe Sydney...funny, ornery, smart, energetic, mischievous, strong-willed, witty, brave and confident! 

Sydney is on the move.  She is almost always doing cartwheels, dancing, or at the very  least, talking ninety miles a minute!  She is a social animal, and always up to hang with friends.  She is the life of the party, and loves to be in the spotlight.  This picture of her cracks me up.....dancing, wearing a leotard, while waiting to run during a game of kickball.

Right now, Sydney is playing soccer and doing gymnastics.  She is very athletic, and would love to play some other sports, but our limit is two activities at a time.  She has a knack for all things active and usually picks up new skills pretty quickly.

There are so many different things that make this girl tick!  She has strong opinions about most things, including food.  Sydney is my pickiest eater.  She doesn't try new foods easily, and would honestly prefer to eat flour tortillas at every meal.  Syd is a conscientious student.  I love that she wants to knock out her homework as soon as she gets home....a girl after my own heart.  One of my favorite things about Sydney is her confidence.  She will talk to anyone and is willing to try new things.  Admittedly, at times she is a bit over-confident and gets a little too big for her britches.  Nonetheless, I think this confidence will benefit her in the long run.

Sydney has a clipboard that says "She tried going with the flow.  It was the longest minute of her life."  That sums up Sydney Scott!  She is one-of-a-kind, and I am thankful that she's mine!

All About Graham

I know it's been almost a month, but the other day the girls were reading through my old blog posts, and it made me realize why I love to do this.....to have the memories written down!  So, I figured I give an update about each kid.

We'll start with Graham!  He is such a good natured kid, and he usually has a smile on his face...especially if he has a big ice cream cone in his hand!  He loves being outside, playing sports, and pizza.  He hates when things seem unfair, when his sisters pester him, and wearing pants!

Graham is over halfway through his kindergarten year.  In fact, he just had his 100th day of school!  He is having a great year at school, and I am forever grateful for his kindergarten teacher.  Graham loves her, and so do I!  At the beginning of the year, he cried every day.  Now, our biggest argument is whether or not he has to wear pants.  He hates pants and long sleeved shirts, and he is convinced he's being punished if I make him wear them.  However, sometimes the weather calls for it!

Graham's favorite person in the world is his daddy.  He adores him.  A couple weeks ago, Casey was under the weather, and Graham made him this card.  He drew his other favorite thing at the bottom of the card...playing basketball, preferably with his dad!  Ever since Santa brought a basketball hoop, you can most often find Graham outside shooting some hoops.  Next year, I think we'll get him on an organized team, but for now, he enjoys playing Horse, Pig, and any other animal you can think of!

Graham has lost his middle two bottom teeth.  (This picture was from last fall.) So far, none of the top ones are wiggly, but I'm sure it won't be long. He is tall for his age, and is one of the tallest in his kindergarten class.  He still has asthma, but it's well controlled with his daily inhaler.  He is finishing up an indoor soccer season, and he will start his second season of baseball in a couple of weeks! 

His sisters still love to "mother" him.  I think that may be Graham's lot in life.  Of course, the girls sometimes drive him crazy, but they are super helpful with him as well.  They are (usually) happy to read with him, help him out with something new at school, and do anything that involves bossing him around.

Graham is such a great kid.  He is all boy and loves to wrestle and play outside, but he has such a sweet and funny personality. He recently told me that after he goes to college, he is going to come home every weekend because he will miss us.  ☺

There's an update on my favorite little guy!

Christmas 2016

Christmas was so fun this year.  Casey was off for several days before Christmas and the entire week following.  It was such a great break and time to "reset" after a crazy November and December.  Let's talk about Christmas!

As tradition dictates, we went down to Deedee and Papaw's house on Christmas Eve.  We were joined by Bryan and Morgan, Morgan and Nick, Emmy and Grandad, and Chris.  The kids were super excited and ready to get started!

cc

The obligatory stocking picture!

Syd was pumped about some new soccer cleats!

After we were thoroughly spoiled, we headed home to get ready for Santa! 

Santa delivered!  The kids were up before 6:00 to see the goods.  He brought all of the kids a basketball goal that was set up on the driveway!

 Clare also got a fuzzy, zebra desk chair. 

Jane got a new backpack and lunchbox. 

Graham got a basketball and a new movie.

And Sydney got a new scooter!

We enjoyed our family Christmas that morning, opening gifts from each other.  Jane gave Casey this coffee mug that says "best dad ever!"

After we finished up, we headed over to LoLo and Pop's house.  Nathan, Megan and Brody, Jennifer and Mamma were all there waiting for us! 

After we took the family picture, we enjoyed the day.  We did stockings, had our traditional Christmas brunch, opened presents, and then had a delicious dinner.  We had a really nice day together, and we headed home exhausted!

The following week was spent being totally lazy!  It was such a gift to have Casey home for the entire time.  We played games, watched movies, played lots of basketball,

enjoyed our new "toys"

and just got to catch up om family time.  It was the perfect way to end the year!  Happy 2017!