#SorryNotSorry August Birthdays

There are so many pictures crowding out my Google photo albums, and so much time has gone by since I've meaningfully blogged about anything, that it's time to just pop out a (most likely super lame) birthday post to cover our 3 August birthdays!  So -- Scott, Alex, and Jane -- I'm just going to apologize in advance for the mid-at-best coverage coming your way.  Hahaha.  (And an extra apology goes to Scott, since his birthday coverage {and celebration} is almost always bare-bones-at-best.)

Up first on August 9th?  SCOTT turned 45!

Okay!  I have to admit -- as I'm looking back through the pictures right now, I'm pleasantly surprised to see that we did indeed take time out to celebrate our favorite sports enthusiast this year.  With actual wrapped birthday presents and posed pictures to boot!  Hahaha.  Sometimes being super chill and low key works as a disadvantage for having a big fuss made over you for your birthday.  Go figure.  Hahaha.  

The advantage of being so easy to please, however, is that even when 90% of your birthday gifts are not all that extra, meaning you get things like socks and chips and candy, it's still counted as a successful party with the fam.  LOL.  In addition to the above mentioned actual items, he also got a chip-in golf game that's like a cross between corn hole and putt putt, along with a board game and a mystery-break-out-room kind of thing as well.  Add in a key lime pie for his "birthday cake," and I'd have to say that this is the most we've ever nailed it for one of Scott's birthdays!  Hahaha.  (So sad, I know.)

Next up on August 13th?  ALEX turned 11!

Alex's birthday came to pass 2 days before school started for the year and I think I tried to compensate accordingly.  Hahaha.  For this year's family birthday party, the girls helped with the party decor/planning while I created the requested LEGO cake and found several LEGO-ish themed gifts to round out the rest of the stuff the kids picked out.  Personally, I was a super big fan of how easy the cake was to pull off, and I was also kind of excited about the LEGO puzzle and puzzle accessories I found while at Target.  The stow-and-go mat, in particular, came into good use since it took kind of forever for Alex to finish the LEGO puzzle since he didn't want anyone working on it when he wasn't there.  But finish he did, and for how difficult the pattern was, it was pretty impressive when all was said and done.

Alex's favorite color is currently pink, so the girls took that as their jumping off point for decoration ideas.  They also found some baby pictures of Alex to tack onto the birthday bunting and set everything up the night before with a sign telling Alex not to open anything until everyone was awake.  Hahaha.

The sign -- "DO NOT OPEN YET!"  Hahahahaha.  Let's just say that Alex's MO is to want to open presents immediately and whenever possible.  Gifts are most definitely his primary Love Language.  :)

LEGO!

Another LEGO puzzle! (We already have 3 others and I think they're a lot of fun even if they are really hard.)

Ta Da!!!  The finished piece.

And finally on August 28th?  JANE turned 13!

Our Swiftie, TikTok loving tween officially bridged the gap into legit teen-hood at the end of August.  LOL.  With a Taylor Swift themed birthday cake (DUH) and a sleepover with a bestie, I'm pretty sure Jane had a satisfactory celebration even if everything did feel a bit thrown together on my end.  The extravaganza (and I do use that term facetiously) was stretched out over her birthday weekend last month, with dinner at Shogun with a friend on Friday followed by the aforementioned sleepover at our place that night.  Saturday saw us busting out the cake and presents, and for her actual birthday on Sunday I'm sure we did something special as well, but it's been so long I can't even remember.  Sorry Jane!  Having 3 teenage girls in a row is certainly...something, but I honestly wouldn't have it any other way.  They remind me so much of me and my 2 sisters who are just younger than me, and I know that -- despite the occasional (and not so occasional) squabble here and there -- they will end up being friends for life as well as sisters, and I'm so happy for their sakes.  :)

A birthday dinner with Grace, Sophie, Jane, and her friend Annie.

Taylor Swift's album, Lover, was obviously the inspiration for this year's cake. (It is obvious, right?  Hahahahaha.)

I have to say -- even though Ethan is the only kid missing from this picture, it feels like so much more!

A record player was her big present this year.

Hence the record albums -- with Folklore by Taylor Swift as one of her main presents.

And that's a wrap!  If I can get my act together, I'll have a couple of upcoming posts to capture end-of-summer and fall-so-far in the near future.  (But I would probably wouldn't hold my breath for that...)

"I Hate School With All My Heart"

Wow.  So, here we are a month into school, I'm just now getting around to blogging about the first day, and the blog post title pretty much sums everything up.  Hahaha.  J/K.  But only kind of.  Hahaha.  I will say that this is the most lackluster enthusiasm-for-a-new-school-year that we've ever had around these parts, but other than that direct quote from Isaac -- "I hate school with all my heart," shouted angrily at me during drop-off one morning before hurriedly wiping away his tears, jumping out of the car and banging his fist once on the passenger side window (with fury in his eyes), and then stomping his way into the school building -- the kids have been dealing with school... okay.  {Ringing endorsement, I know.}  While Jane and Isaac have been the only ones (thus far) to vocally declare their hatred of school, I don't know if anyone is super stoked about having to get up every morning and get back to routine.  

Nevertheless, we managed to get pictures taken and everyone out the door on time for school the first day thanks to Scott's help while I was curling Jane's hair.  (Even with her waking up an hour earlier than she needed to, it still almost made us late with how long it took for me to help her with the curling wand.  Doh!)  Unfortunately, nothing noteworthy really stands out in my mind for our first-day-of-school-happenings other than the fact that I failed to have their promised chocolate chip cookies ready for an after school snack and was later berated by Isaac for not only NOT having the cookies made, but also for referring to them as a surprise when I said I'd make some for family home evening that night instead.  {To be fair, he's not wrong -- it's not really a surprise when I say things like, "I'm going to surprise you with some cookies for FHE."  Hahaha.}  While I might not have anything else scintillating to report specifically about anyone's first day of school, I can at least give you a (very) broad overview of how the year is going so far...

Grace -- 12th Grade

No longer a "rising Senior" but a Senior in earnest now, Grace is living the dream with a course load of all easy classes except for AP Lit.  Her only real stress for the year is getting all those college applications and essays and whatnot taken care of and turned in on time.  She continues to be a #carpoolmom for any friends needing rides to school from seminary and/or rides home at the end of the day, and I think it's safe to say that all the actual moms are thankful for her generous spirit.  ;) 

Sophie -- 10th Grade

Sophie's sophomore year is off to a great start, even if we have already missed a few days of school thanks to being sick.  She's taking some challenging classes this year, but I'm sure she'll do great and in the end, she'll have a couple of AP classes under her belt.  Helping matters significantly (at least so far as sleep goes), is the fact that this year there are only two days a week of early morning seminary.  Woo hoo!  Hahaha.  (They have online study for Monday and Friday, and then meet before youth activities on Wednesday evenings.)  

Jane -- 8th Grade

My precious little moonbeam is in her last year of junior high and I'm hoping we can get through the year without Jane hating school with all her heart.  Hahaha.  She's doing band again this year -- and unfortunately is not loving it -- but other than that, I haven't heard any major complaints about any other specific classes at school.  

Alex -- 6th Grade

Alex seems to be rocking the 6th grade so far, and by rocking it I mean he hasn't had any major anxiety attacks in the morning about having to go to school.  That's a massive win in my book, so I'm not sneezing at it.  His interests still run more towards screen time than academics, but I'm hoping to slowly but surely wean BOTH of the boys off of their electronics addiction now that school is back in session.  Wish me luck on that one.

Isaac -- 1st Grade

And now we get to our comic relief of the group.  In addition to school, he also hates music with all his heart as well as doing chores.  Hahaha.  Additionally, he's kind of this interesting paradox of seeming older than he is, like with his vocabulary and the way he phrases things at times, while also seeming much younger than he is with regards to being self-sufficient and helpful around the house.  His catchphrase is, "mom -- let me tell you something..." and it's become a running joke with all the others because he says it so often.  His teacher seems great and I'm hoping that no news is good news when it comes to problems he may be having at school.

This is quite a pitiful post (especially since so much time has gone by since the last time I blogged), but this is all I've got.  Emotions were running HIGH the first couple of weeks of school -- getting back on a sleep schedule was (and still is) RUFF, not to mention how mentally draining it is to be at school all day long -- so it wasn't too surprising that by the end of each day Scott was walking into absolute mayhem after work with meltdowns happening in surround sound.  Thankfully, things have gotten a little bit better and I'm crossing my fingers that they'll continue to trend in that direction.  (A mother can always dream.)  I still have other end-of-summer stuff to catch up on, plus all of our August birthdays, so in theory, I'll be blogging again soon to recap everything and keep our family record going strong.  Until then, I'm signing out!

Welcome to King's Island

When last we left off, Michigan was in the rearview mirror and our sights were set on Cincinnati.  Day 11 of our journey was another Sabbath day of rest, where we enjoyed attending our old ward for church and then visiting with a few friends afterwards.  We stayed at a rental house rather than a hotel for this leg of the journey, and I have to say -- it's so nice not to have to worry about bothering people in the rooms next door or below you.  Especially when we've got a whole bunch of kids who are not historically known for being quiet or docile.  Hahahahaha.  We ended the day with a lovely and relaxing evening playing a new game ("Mind the Gap" -- essentially a trivial pursuit type game, but with 4 sets of questions geared towards boomers, gen x, millenials, and gen z) and after convincing the younger ones that the sooner they went to sleep the sooner morning would arrive, we called it a night.  

As our official Last Day of the road trip dawned bright and early, you would have thought it was Christmas morning with how excited everyone was to head over to King's Island for one last hurrah before heading home.  In all honesty, I was taken aback by how much everyone was looking forward to the trip.  It was kind of an afterthought when I included it on the itinerary and yet -- somehow -- it stole the show and became the highlight of our Midwestern Meander.  And I'm still not sure how to feel about that after putting so much thought and planning into our route and other activities.  Hahahaha.  I kid you not -- almost every conversation I overheard amongst the children for the bulk of the road trip centered around the rides at King's Island.  Between YouTubing POV roller coaster videos of Diamondback and Delirium, reminiscing over previous visits to the park for Dividend Day back when we lived in Cincinnati, and  planning how to maximize their fun and enjoyment for this visit -- the anticipation in the air was palpable by the time we made it to the entrance.

The one and only "ride" I got on all day -- Sally's Sea Plane (thrill level: 0) with Isaac.  Hahahaha.

Boo Blasters on Boo Hill was hands down the most visited attraction by Isaac.  I'm not so sure what the appeal was for HIM, but the a/c inside sure appealed to ME.  Hahaha.

After much back and forth discussion, we decided it would be worth it (although, that is obviously a VERY relative term) to purchase Fast Lane passes in addition to the regular admission fees, and once we had slathered ourselves in sunscreen and the kids had posed for some obligatory pictures, they were off and running while I trailed behind.  Hahaha.  Since I don't DO amusement parks, I was on little kid duty in Snoopy land with Alex and Isaac while the girls went back and forth between joining the boys on some of the kiddie rides and hitting up the big ones with Scott. 

Final verdict?  Fast Lane passes were totally worth it, according to the kids. ;)

We were treated to a random song-and-dance performance while waiting in line at the bumper cars.  There's nothing like jamming to some old Brady Bunch songs while sweltering in the heat, am I right?

It was a long and HOT day, but thanks to vigilant sunscreen re-application and drinking lots of water, we made it through to the other side alive and well and truly tuckered out.  Hahaha.  Overall, it was a really fun day even if I didn't personally enjoy any of the amusement park offerings.  There's just something about seeing everyone so happy and excited TOGETHER that makes it all worth it.  I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again a million times more, but I'm all about making memories.  And this summer's memories have been epic.  Hahahaha. 

I'm realizing now that I have hardly any pictures of the girls.  Probably for the best -- I've heard that cell phones and roller coasters don't mesh.  😬

The day after King's Island saw us making the LONG drive back home without any more stops or fun things.  By the end of each road trip, I think we're all just ready to be done.  Ya know?  So that's what we did.  We drove straight home and once there, we scavenged up some food before crashing long and hard for the night.  And that, my friends, is a wrap!  Now I'll be able to catch up on everything else that has happened since we've been back...