Hogwarts Sleepover

I may have mentioned it before, but long ago in a moment of pure genius, we decided that our kids would get birthday parties for the "major" ages. This is mostly because I'm an introvert, but also, as you'll see, because I go a teensy bit overboard with a theme. 

Since Averson turned 10 this year, she was due a party. She originally wanted to take friends to Great Wolf Lodge, but at 4 million dollars that was a little out of our budget. So then she asked for a sleepover. Specifically, a Harry Potter sleepover. 

It was THE CUTEST. And even though there were 7 9/10 year olds running amok, it wasn't too too terrible. Next time I maybe wouldn't plan it to coincide with Daylight Savings Time since I'm pretty sure no one has slept since, but other than that it was a huge success! 

We hand delivered personalized invitations. I fully acknowledge my ridiculousness

The Sweets Trolley. I stocked it with random candies from the bulk section and a plate of chocolate frogs I made. The kids loved it!

C painted a brick wall for the 9 3/4 platform and it came out so well! It was super rainy (thank you atmospheric river that keeps on rivering...) so we hung it inside, which ended up being way more fun to run through. 

She kills me. Seriously, she's just the cutest

You can't tell, but these are official Hogwarts PJs courtesy of Poshmark. I'm pretty proud of that little detail...

We forgot to eat the cake and no one slept, but no one cried, went home early, or wet the bed so I'm calling it a huge success :) 

And now a quick breather before our soon-to-be 13 year old's party!  

Nine!

 

Guys? I have loved having big kids. I rarely feel nostalgic for diapers and tantrums and toddlers and I haven't had a lot of "no more babies!' moments, but I definitely had a hard time saying goodnight to an eight-year-old for the very last time. 

I just marvel at this girl. She is wise and silly and wry and thoughtful. She has big plans to eventually turn our house into a zoo once everyone moves out, and is spending a lot of time studying how to be an animal trainer. Her hamster (who is terrible and was a regrettable purchase) bit me and she so empathetically explained that he is small and probably was very scared of a big creature reaching towards him, but is also so pragmatic and matter of fact that when I delicately mentioned that I hadn't noticed him moving for a couple days she just went right up to see if he was dead (he wasn't.) If he had been, I'm not 100% convinced she wouldn't have tried to dissect him. She worries a lot about the passage of time and yet is the most in the moment kid I've ever met. She is currently obsessed with dragons and Greek mythology and Roblox and plays a mix of Disney soundtracks and wholly inappropriate music in the drop-off line for school (this morning was D12 and even I couldn't make eye contact with the crossing guard). 

This and that

The kids went back to school. Averson and Eli are thrilled. Syd is... less so. We had her anxiety pretty dialed in but the last half of the quarantine has been tougher. She's doing okay and for her at least, I'm grateful that school is only 2 hours/ 2 days a week. Eli is back to wrestling practice and next week they're back on the mat. I have mixed feelings, but they're all getting tested weekly so I think it's as safe as it can be. And with half of the house vaccinated I feel a bit more risk tolerant. 

Literally the only picture I took of Easter and you'd never know what it was. Our baskets were ON POINT this year. New swimsuits, a new pool toy (from the "pool toys for teens" list on Amazon), a paper airplane kit, a new book, and a bunch of candy. I snuck an anime action figure into Eli's basket and he played with it all afternoon :) 

I had Cesar Chavez day off and the weather was gorgeous, so we ventured to find this bridge and tree that everyone's been posting pictures of. I did not take a picture (SMH). Then we realized that one of my favorite little pubs was across said bridge and decided to stop for lunch. Which Eli had to pay for because C and I had forgotten our wallets in the car. 

Ahh! Here's the tree! But you can't tell that it's cool from this angle. Trust me. It's cool. 

We celebrated my mom's birthday by going out to an actual restaurant! It was so fun and exactly what we all needed. We even got dressed up(ish)

Birthday donuts. She'll be so mad that I posted this picture, but I love it

There are about 700 pictures of braids on my phone because I bribe the girls with tv if they'll play with my hair. Most are kind of a mess but Syd gave me a bubble braid the other night and I really like it! Also, my hair has gotten ridiculous. 

In other, quiet announcement news, I sort of got a new job and will be leaving prison work at the end of the month. It feels SUPER weird and I'll dedicate a better post to it later. In true Corey fashion I 100% tripped into it. It's totally different from what I'm doing now (back to direct patient care!) I'm excited and nervous and also having a very hard time continuing to make my heinous commute. So more on that soon! 

 

Eight!

Averson turned eight! My mom and I were talking and she was saying that it feels like more of a turning point than most other birthdays and she’s so right. Eight is solidly “kid.” Averson is my baby, but she’s not A baby anymore. 

She requested pulled pork sandwiches and McDonalds fries for dinner and an ice cream cake. 

No party, but she was pretty excited that Animal Crossing remembered

Syd worked for a week to make her an ombré painting

                          Breakfast donuts, of course

She’s such an odd duck and she brings so much fun to our family. I lover her confidence and her enthusiasm for all sorts of things and even though I’m sad that she’s not little anymore, I’m so excited to see what she does as a big kid

 

This girl #humblebrag

I just want to brag on this girl a little bit. She has been working SO HARD on her distance learning and time management, and within the last few months she's gone from still working on her school work when I'm making dinner at 6:00 to now she's regularly done by 12:00 or 1:00, right on par with her brother and sister. Her grades are great and the biggest concern these days is that her chromebook has glitchy A/V. On top of all of that, she took her reading assessment last week and jumped four levels up to a late 5th grade level. Her teacher said she probably would have kept going and she probably would have gone up to mid-6th grade but they ran out of materials.  I took her to our local bookstore to pick out new books and she was just so sweet and excited and grateful. She spent a long time deciding between four different animal books before landing on these two, but she asked me to take a picture of the others so she could ask for them for her birthday. 

It's hard to be the youngest and even harder when you've all been stuck together for a year, but she remains such a fun, funny, joy to be around and it's so fun to see her little, kind of odd, brain at work. 
 

Girls Trip

The girls and I took a day trip to the coast hoping to see the whales and the elephant seals. While it was too foggy to see any whales, we did see the seals! We also found a trail that runs along the San Andreas fault line and had signs for the kids explaining the 1906 San Francisco earthquake 

We’re at a lighthouse with the ocean behind us. Or so we were told by the ranger :)

Elephant seal! They’re enormous and don’t move at all. 

This fence was in all one piece before the earthquake! 

Not at all reassured by the “steep cliff” signage along this trail

The girls were completely enamored with this tree

And the pooping deer

 

We all got a little hangry out in the middle of nowhere. Luckily we found a little deli that was open and had this stump table on the beach. The girls loved it

I was a little nervous about spending hours in the car with the Bicker Twins, but it was great. On the way home, as Syd nestled in for a car nap, she quietly said “Today was a fun day.” And if that’s not the highest praise from an angsty ten-year-old, I don’t know what is.

Quarantine chic

She's been asking for this haircut FOREVER, but I was nervous that she'd have cutter's remorse. But if you're eventually going to have to rock a weird grow-out, quarantine seems like a good time to do it. 

She loves it SO MUCH and it really suits her personality

Obviously...

We've reached the point in time where I don't even notice that my 7 year old's mascara is running

SEVEN!!

After several weeks of countdown, Averson turned seven yesterday! Her big ask was to get her ears pierced, so after we went for our traditional breakfast donuts we took her to Claire’s, where she picked studs in her birthstone and was stoically brave in the piercing chair.

Since we didn’t have a party, her birthday was really drawn out, starting with Syd’s gift first thing and ending with cake after dinner. She sweetly wrote thank you cards immediately after opening each gift

Thanking her grandparents for the slime :)

I have a killer bug, so we elected for a store bought cake instead of a plague cake. Then Averson asked if she could write on it. So. Much. Blue. Frosting.

This girl. She is really the most fun little creature. She’s nutty and spunky and excited and so, so easily distracted. She’s sweet and independent and confident and I’m so grateful that she’s ours. 

Selfie Study

I think there will be a time when I miss finding these on my phone