James turns 9

 My oldest and youngest having birthdays two weeks apart makes for an emotional two weeks. James turned 9! We started the morning with crepes for breakfast and opening presents.

He got a flag football set, legos, a maze cube

And lots and lots of snacks.

Erica got him a giraffe palm pal, Henry gave him his shoshibo cube and Sarah gave him cosmic brownies.

He couldn't decide what he wanted to do for his birthday until a couple of days before. "I just want to play outside with my friends." It wasn't his year for a friend party but if all I had to do was buy gatorade and order pizza, we'll invite friends over. I picked them all up from school (the loudest car rider ever) and they promptly went to the backyard and played.

Here was James's plan.

Then they came in so James could open presents. Such nice moms to get a gift on short notice.

My chocolate-loving kid wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. You got it.

We sure love this boy!

9 Things about 9-year-old James

1. He loves Legos. He got two sets for his birthday and that's all he wants for Christmas.

2. He is pretty witty. He can throw out a mild burn with the wit and confidence of someone twice his age.

3. He will just about any book I bring home from the library for him. He's a fast reader too! Pretty sure he stays up later than me reading.

4. He is pleasant and easy-going 80% of the time. 5% grumpy and whiny, 5% spazzy and obnoxious.

5. He's good with numbers. I live in a house of human calculators and it is so convenient when cooking dinner and scaling the recipe and I can call out "What's 2/3 of 150 grams?" and get a chorus of correct answers.

6. He goes from playing with all his friends all day and that's all he cares about to the next day hibernating in his room with Legos.

7. The only places he wants to go are the doughnut store, Chick-fil-a.....that's it.

8. He wakes up at 7 every morning and watches TV until it's time to get ready for school. He gets dressed, makes his lunch, practices the piano and then rides to school with his friend Calvin. He rarely eats breakfast.

9. He doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up but he really likes building things and he's not afraid of heights.

Halloween 2025

 Erica had her very first orchestra concert on Monday! It has been a couple of years since we've gone to a middle school orchestra concert with Mrs. Harman. Her concerts are so crazy. There was a potato sack race in the middle. Erica had so much fun but came home stressed and sick and threw up. She says she was hot and dehydrated. Let's hope next concert is a bit more relaxed for her.

Wednesday was our ward trunk or treat. Justin was in Colorado for work and Henry had a football party but the rest of us went. James took his costume off after 5 minutes so he could play football with the young men.

After a chili dinner, it was time for the trunk or treat. I've never decorated a trunk before but decided to go all in for some reason. I don't know why. I bought some stuff on Amazon and borrowed candles from my sister and platter from Nadine. I think it turned out awesome. 

I'm not one for Halloween decorations but I like this. I had the Coco soundtrack playing too. Fernando, who is installing our windows, is from Mexico so I asked him all about Dia de los Muertos. It sounds like a more cultural rich Memorial Day. Kids in Mexico go trick -or-treating nowadays but not in scary or gory costumes. Instead they wear aspirational costumes like firefighter, superheroes, princesses and the like, more in keeping with the thoughtful and respectful holiday the next day.

Erica and her friends Avery and Ellie. These girls get to go to young women's together in January and they couldn't be more excited.

Friday morning was Halloween! Henry wore his banana costume again. He loves this thing.

I moved my Dia de los Muertos things to the dining room and then after dinner I moved my candle and skull to the window sill by the front door.

James was sick throwing up early Thursday morning and slept all day Thursday. Friday morning he was feeling better but was still so tired and weak. I had signed up to help in his class party so he came with me for that hour.

This is his classmate dressed as Chucky. He was the funniest and weirdest kid. I need to go back and meet him without this costume on because in my head this is not a costume, but who he really is. He photobombed my picture of James and then I said, "okay, one without Chucky."

 

And then he said, "And now one without James!"

After a dinner of French dip sandwiches, it was time for trick-or-treating

Mason came over to go with Henry and my parents came over to see their costumes.

James was so excited to get his face painted something spooky. I think I did a pretty good job for my first time. Sadly he could not stand how itchy it felt and we spent 10 minutes scrubbing it off but didn't get it all.

Henry went off with Mason, Sarah left later to go to her friend's house, Erica went with a bunch of her friends (we crossed paths a few times as seen below), so that just left James and I.

There they are again!

House rule is you trick or treat with the family until middle school. I didn't think what this would mean when just one kid with me. Or what happens in 3 years when I have no kids to take. And to be honest, if James wasn't sick, I'm pretty sure he would have tried harder to find his friends and ditch me this year.
 
But for 50 minutes, it was all about him.

All he cared about was making it to the house that fries doughnuts out of their garage. He doubted I knew where it was but I knew.

For several houses we were the only ones in sight but then we found lots of people, most of which we didn't know. This street had the house that gave out onions and potatoes. The next street the house with cotton candy.

And finally to the house that gives out freshly made glazed doughnuts. This is almost a mile from our house, in another ward, and they don't know us but are so nice. We actually went back for seconds because they said we could. But James was worn out after that and wanted to head home. He didn't even want to hit up houses on the way back, just go straight home. But we did stop at the house where the lady was sitting on her front porch with a big basket of candy because it would have been rude and awkward not to.

And look who we saw on the way home. They pointed out the house was hat handing out hot chocolate. We heard about another house handing out doughnuts and another one, pizza. 

At home we watched "Wait Until Dark." James liked it until the final scene that was a bit too scary for him. Henry and Mason came home from trick-or-treating then much later Erica came home from Delaney's house and then Sarah came home too.

Sarah Turns 17

What the heck. I remember 17 so well. It's crazy to think Sarah is that old. 

The night before I let the other kids stay up late to decorate. They did a great job!

 

She wasn't sure she wanted to have a birthday breakfast and open presents since she has to leave pretty early but we just did it anyway. The other kids are more than happy to get up early, especially if there are waffles.

First up, presents!

She got a smartwatch, a digital picture frame, new earbuds (she lost hers somewhere in Florida), some snacks and a silk pillowcase.

She also got a new water bottle and a sweatshirt.

Then waffles and chocolate milk for breakfast.

She skipped out on swim practice that afternoon so she could get home before 5pm. I wish I could say she had a fun afternoon at home but we are having new windows installed so the house was freezing, the work was noisy and dusty. We basically stared at Justin until he was done with work and declared we could go out to dinner. She had wanted to eat at home but since it was cold and the installers would be watching us, we went out.



They even sang to her and brought out ice cream.

She's all grown up! 

She chose creme brulee for dessert which I made while wearing a coat in my freezing house while everyone was at school. Since candles can't very well be put in creme brulee, I also made a pan of brownies just to hold the candles and so that those that don't love creme brulee won't eat it (James).

Her grandparents came over. She got money from my parents and candy and giftcards from Justin's parents and a promised shopping trip from Nadine.

I love this girl. She is gracious and kind and helpful and genuine. There's not an insincere bone in her body. She and her friends are so nerdy but in the most endearing and fun way. High school can be a brutal place but she has this little bubble of sweet friends. Here are some things about Sarah at this age I don't want to forget.

She is having fun on swim team. The first practice in the pool was very hard for her and broke her down but she had such a great attitude about being patient with herself and went back the next day.

She is such a hard worker. I think she misses Reams for the social aspect and earning money but all her hard work is transferred to swim right now. She has her first meet this Saturday and she is nervous for it but knows it's just a starting point, a baseline, no expectations other than to see what it's like.

She's willing to tackle piano challenges. She was asked to accompany a mother/daughter duo for a violin musical number for sacrament meeting. The music was pretty challenging for her but she practiced and practiced and got it down and she sounded flawless at church.

"What can I help with?" she always asks when she sees me doing something. Most of the time I just want her to sit down and tell me about stuff so I don't give her anything to do since I know she's been busy all day.

She may not want anyone to know because she's still processing but she got her first A- in her English 1010 class. She did not like that! Her teacher is a tough grader but an A- is still a great grade! Especially in a college course when you're only a junior in high school. And in English which is not her favorite subject. This was bound to happen at some point so I'm glad in happened in high school when I'm here to help her and not college far away. She learned some valuable lessons about perfection and doing your best and being proud of your work and also how college professors don't say everything in class you're expected to know; some things are posted and never mentioned but you're expected to know that, too.

And someday when she's got her master's in accounting and making tons of money and has 7 beautiful kids and touring Europe with her husband, she and no one else will care about her grades in high school. Then, and basically once she starts college and her GPA is reset.

The future is bright for this girl!