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!  

Overshadowed: The curse of the middle child

In true middle child fashion, Sydney turned twelve right after I got back from Colorado and then immediately after we all got hit with "Not Coronovirus but still really sucks" So my poor middle child's birthday post is only a teensy bit behind. 

This girl. I like this girl a lot. 

She is an old soul with a sarcastic, dry sense of humor that always makes adults feel just a little bit bad about laughing. In short, the best kind of humor. She's brave and thoughtful and adventurous and of all of my kids, I think she's probably the most likely to backpack across Europe or try fried grasshoppers or hop onto a questionably legitimate bus headed...somewhere. 

She wanted to go as a family to the trampoline park so we all bounced and flipped and climbed ALL DAY, and then promptly we all fell ill with whatever feels like hell and is not COVID. Then just as she was feeling better she decided to try to learn how to flip on solid ground (as opposed to on trampolines) and broke her hand. So we're kicking off the new year pretty spectacularly!

 

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). 

Halloween/Birthday Photo Dump (also, turns out I wore three different costumes?)

I work in an office now where people dress up for Halloween AND I can wear denim. So of course I had to channel Rosie. Averson declared this the perfect office costume since it's not offensive, not distracting, AND I can sit in it. Agreed on all fronts. 

Because I'm a grown-up, I don't get a lot of birthday presents anymore which made it that much more exciting when a package from a friend showed up with these delightful shower steamer things (even better since I'm not a bath person) and a Crossfit keychain

And speaking of CrossFit. I got up at 7:00 on a Saturday to work out as Snow White and it was SO FUN. Even if the workout had wall walks which are... not great in a running skirt. But how cute is this outfit?!  

Birthday donuts are the best donuts 

Weeks ago I told C that I wanted to go out to breakfast and then to a local plant shop/vintage mall for my birthday. Then on Saturday night the shop announced on their IG that they were going to be closed for the holiday. I maybe pouted a little (or a lot) but C rallied and found another shop to go to. Eli joined us and it was the BEST morning. 

They 100% bought these hats

My pretties! 

I don't know who I've become, but I like her and she keeps things alive with more frequency than not. 

After plant shopping shenanigans, I cleaned my house and got everyone ready for Halloween. Usually I don't like school night Halloween, but this one was totally lovely and everyone was done by 9:00. 

The first year that my three aren't in the same picture. I only cried a tiny bit :( 

Sydney and her friend were matching Peppa Pigs, Averson was Mulan, and Eli was some rando thing that his friends put together and is likely just an excuse to flex. 

My mom handout out candy and was super spooky, and also kind of looked like an animatronic decoration. Also also, I bought this shawl at the nursery and it's my new favorite thing. 

Once the crowd was done trick-or-treating, Sydney asked if she and I could hit another couple of streets. Then we came home and sorted her haul while we watched Gilmore Girls. She giggled and was delightful and used hashmarks to count everything because she's a giant neurotic nerd and I love her. 

I also love this red sweat suit more than is reasonable and put it back on last night. So that's another thing I do now is wear matching sweats in ridiculous colors unironically. 

 

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

 

#Halloween2020

I turned 40 yesterday and it was as perfect as 2020 would allow. C surprised me with a new coffee pot to replace our 15 year old Mr. Coffee. My mom had flowers delivered to the house (growing up in the country, I will ALWAYS be excited to have things delivered to my house.) The kids made and picked out sweet and thoughtful gifts. My birthday donut was pumpkin spice flavored.

We really struggled with what to do for Halloween. After a lot of thought and efforts to come up with ideas, we settled on “measured and thoughtful decision making.” We didn’t have people over, but we let Eli hang out with a friend and I took the girls trick-or-treating. And we decorated the hell out of the house.

Averson REALLY loves our skeleton collection and plays with them constantly

Case in point: the Morning After still life

Syd had a VERY last minute costume change that found me at Party City on Halloween morning and Thank God because otherwise I never would have impulsively bought a Bob Ross costume to make C laugh only to find out that it’s been his dream costume

Dr. Dolittle, Hermione Granger, and an inmate (OMG I had some feelings about this one until I remembered that I was a Playboy Bunny in 4th grade. At Catholic school.)

Trick or treating 2020 style. Our neighborhood did so many cool candy delivery systems. The girls were great about masks and overall it felt really okay