Jane is 9

It's late and I'm tired -- and Jane's celebrations aren't even over -- therefore, this is mainly going to be a photo dump of a post.  Hahaha.  Scott was out of town almost all week, so we had already planned to do the "official" party on Saturday with cake and presents, but I didn't want to let her actual day go by without doing something special, too.

And nothing says fun like Chuck E. Cheese!!!!  Hahahaha.  Seriously, though -- this location continues to blow me away with how clean, orderly, and uncrowded it is every time we go.  And we all have so much fun! ;)

 (Her special request for the day was for me to do her hair like this with a braid in the back.)

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 Dab!

 (Don't let Ethan's face fool you!  I think he loves this place.  It didn't hurt that he hit the jackpot like 4 times on one of the games.)

Shoo Shoo with his honorary big bro, Danny.

This birthday outing we upped the ante and got TWO 60 minute cards to play with (since we had four extra honorary family members with us) and as an added bonus, we got another 30 minute card comped to us after they messed up one of our food orders.  All this extra time and people resulted in more than TWICE the number of tickets we racked up on Alex's birthday.  I think it's safe to say that we know how to party.  Hahahahaha.

 Alex was mesmerized watching Danny beat the high score on Street Hoops.

Meanwhile Jane spent most of her special day hanging with her favorite honorary big sister, Gianna.

 While we all had pizza, Sophie had buffalo wings.

Is any trip to Chuck E.'s ever complete without a trip to the photo booth? Featuring Grace, Gianna, Ethan, and David.

 G-dawg and G-dog (I forget which one is which.  Hahahaha.)

I still can't for the life of me figure out how a grand total of 2,167 tickets culminated in such an unimpressive show of prizes at the end of our time, but can you really put a price on joy?  I think not. Haha.  An added bonus was a group shot with Chuck himself at the end of our evening.  I'm not sure Jane's "party" tomorrow is going to be able to compete.  ;)

 She got that squishy ball and a LOT of cotton candy.

Happy Birthday to Jane!

Shout For Joy

I sat down this afternoon to crank out our poster for this school year's family theme while I still had access to my 7-day free trial of Photoshop and was excited to blog about it for tonight's post.  The fact that I'm trying to wax eloquent about Shouting for Joy while I'm sitting next to a certain 8th grader who is freaking out over trying to do her Algebra 1 homework and needing lots of help and TLC is most definitely ironic.

Nevertheless, Joy is what we're aiming for this year!  Hahaha.  Last year our theme was "We Can Do It" and when I blogged about it last fall, I noted that I felt really strongly that we needed a mantra to remind us that we can do hard things -- and that I was nervous to find out what hard things were going to come our way.  Well, we found out soon enough.  This past year has been really hard in a lot of ways for almost all of us. From losing a baby to wrenching the kids away from our home of the past 5 years to enduring lots and lots of life stress and work stress while trying to manage the transition from there to here -- it's been rough.  

But here's the thing that has come to my mind over and over again during the last couple of months --"Weeping may endure for a night, but JOY cometh in the morning." (Psalm 30:5)  We've done a lot of weeping over the last year.  I think it's time now to Shout for Joy.  Life is never perfect, or perfectly easy, but I think if we look for it, we can find the joy in our journey.  That's what we're aiming for, at least.  ;)  (And yes, we have a new cheer for after family prayers and it's possibly my favorite.  If only because I know the kids think it's so weird.  Hahaha.  After prayers are over, Scott or I will call out, "Are we ready to Shout for JOY???" And then everyone joins in with, "3-2-1 -- HUZZAH!!!" with hands raised in praise in the air.  You know you want to be there with us, too.  Hahahahahaha.)  

{Previous year's themes: We Can Do It; Forward Pressing Forward; Every Day, Every Day, Every Day; Hold to the Rod}

One Last Time

I couldn't let the summer go by without a blog post title alluding to my favorite Hamilton song!  Hahaha.  And summer has officially gone by.  The first week of school has drawn to a close, and thankfully, I can say that it did, indeed, get better.  We still haven't quite figured out the morning bus situation for everyone -- and Grace's junior high buses continue to stump us -- but we live close enough that it's not too big a deal to hop in the car and get to where we need to go.  At least for now.  Seminary for Ethan starts next week, and that will be a new wrench to throw in the plans and we'll have to adjust accordingly.

But enough about all that school stuff!!!  This post is dedicated to the best summer ever!  {Although, my kids like to inform me that it hasn't been as awesome as I think it has been.}  For the last week and a half before school started, I had the kids all choose something that they wanted to do "one last time" before the summer was over.  Here is what they settled on:

{And in case you can't tell by the pictures, everything is more fun with friends.  :) }

• Bowling

 G-Dog 1 & 2 with Isaac

(Pizza afterwards was a must.)

• Chuck E. Cheese

 (The girls hit the jackpot on this machine and they were STOKED.)

 Hahahahahaha.  I love all their facial expressions!

 Alex with his buddy Keleni and his little brother Thomas.

 {Thanks to that jackpot, the girls earned almost twice as many tickets as the boys.}

• Cliff Jumping

 Jane shocked us all by jumping off the high cliff!

 Isaac and his buddy Rudger are just too cute for words!

• Attending a Gala

 Scott and I got to attend another fundraiser gala for work.  This one was extra fancy schmancy.

 The theme was the color Raspberry -- so that's what all the decor was and that's what everyone was supposed to wear.  It was a bit much.

 Check out those courses!

(We felt TOTALLY out of place.  The highest bid for a live auction item was $37,000.  What the bunny sauce???)

• Creating our own Youth Gala

 For the last Friday of summer, we invited a bunch of friends over for a Game Night/Gala of our own.  

 (It was a lot of fun.)

 (Sophie and Jane were particularly pleased to be included with the "big kids.")

 After playing "the celebrity game," a few kids decided to break out our newest game -- Awkward Family Photos.  It was pretty hilarious!  

And there you have it -- the best summer ever is over.  :(  However, if the fact that I'm already listening to Christmas music is any indication, I'm ready to move on and I'm getting SUPER excited for the holidays!  Let the good times roll {again}!!!