Warning: Teenager Ahead

We have a teenager in the house! Does that mean we're going to have snarkiness and eye rolls galore? So far, no. Granted, it's only been a very short time, but we're off to a good start. :) Scott and I are so proud of who she is, and how she is carrying herself in this world. We cannot wait to see what she accomplishes in this new year. Happy 13th Birthday, sweet Ava!

Early morning snuggles with my new teen! I love that Butterfly is in this pic...her faithful sidekick for at least a decade!

I took Friday off to spend the day with the kiddos, and had Ava make a lot of the decisions about what we were going to do to celebrate her birthday. We made a trip to Caribou for a late breakfast, hit up Cub to pick up her cake, and then G and I went to the pool while Ava took it easy at the house.

Now that she's 13, she's venturing into social media. Gotta take pics of food!

Drying off after the pool

We're going to head down for the weekend to our dear friends' house in the middle of Minnesota. This will be the first time we've seen them in almost a year, so we are SO looking forward to hanging out with them and catching up on everything! Their oldest daughter, Isabel, and Ava have known each other since birth, so spending time with Isabel is how Ava wanted to celebrate her special weekend. I love it!

(Disclaimer: I'm writing this post on Friday, before we head down there, so more to come next week on all of our adventures while there!)

In other news, on Thursday, both Ava and G earned their 2nd stripe in Taekwondo. Great job, kiddos!

This doesn't happen often, but when they snuggle together during a movie, I have to capture it!

I'm sure there will be much more to write about next weekend, so until then, enjoy the official start of summer. And Father's Day! Happy Father's Day to all of the wonderful dads...I'm so lucky to be blessed with the best of the best in that department! I love you, Dad!

Comments

Grandparents, Birthdays, and Sprinklers, Oh MY!

What a whirlwind week we've had...I was trying to get everything wrapped up at work so I could take my 5-day "furlough" from last Wednesday, through tomorrow. Wednesday was my first day at home, so Ava and I had a ton of "fun" getting everything ready for the upcoming activities. I did have a wonderful massage, so that started my vacation off very well... Gramma Karen and Grampa Doug drove in from KC on Wednesday afternoon. We had a great evening catching up, and enjoying the nice weather (until the downpour that happened right as they were leaving our house!) On Thursday, Scott, Dad, Mom, and I drove down to Cannon Falls and Rochester to check out the areas for potential future homes/land for us. At some point, we'd like to move south of the Cities. Ava was a very good little girl, especially considering that she was stuck in a car for most of her FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! We went to Applebee's for lunch, and the wait staff came out singing to someone else...I...

Goodbye Sweet Spanky

This is a post that I'm not very excited to write. As you probably know, our oldest dog, Spanky, had struggled with health issues (ear infections, seizures) his whole life, and recently, his health had severely deteriorated. He hadn't been eating, his ear infection was so severe his face was swollen, he had a hard time getting up the stairs, and he very rarely wanted to play. Last week we got a few tail wags from him, and he ate a few bowls of food, but it was a 50-50 chance that he would actually keep the food down. On Thursday, we made the decision that if he wasn't any better by this weekend, we were going to put him down. I know Scott didn't want to make that decision as Spanky was a very special dog to him - he truly was his little buddy, following him around everywhere, wanting to be wherever Scott was, and howling his sadness whenever Scott would leave him. Throughout Friday night, it became clear that Spanky wasn't going to have a miraculous recovery...

The Early Bird

I realized that I skipped a chunk of pictures that I wanted to share...things were super busy last weekend, so we'll blame my lapse of memory on that! The focus was so much on Ava's party, that I neglected to share the family birthday photos, too. Two weeks ago, we invited all of the grandparents over for a wonderful dinner of smoked prime rib (and other yummy sides), and then topped it off with a raspberry mojito birthday cake for the newly minted eight-year-old. We like to experiment with different birthday cake flavors for her birthday, and this one was MUCH better than the watermelon cake from last year (gross-gross-gross!) Saying cheese with Grandpa Doug! G and I took a break from the present pics to take some selfies ;) Even his cars made an appearance! Super excited to be receiving an aquascope! And no birthday is complete without something from American Girl - this time is was a pizza party set - awesome! We have also...

Go, Go, Goers!

Search This Blog