August

School is happening. Silas made Leadership Orchestra so he gets to do all the district gigs they play. He is outraged that his English teacher makes kids use only pen. His 6th grade orientation I left and literally cried because it seemed like it was a crazy load on all his teachers. In 7th grade I could have cried because it seemed like all his teachers were a bit lame and doing the bare minimum. Now in 8th grade I left happy because they all seemed perfectly balanced and amazing. A real Goldilocks situation. I have pretty much yet to hear a single story from Rory's experiences. We like his teachers, Ms. Ritter and Ms. Wood, and his school continues to be dreamy. The only news was a hostile takeover by ants that literally booted them from their classroom.

It's hot. Just waiting for the last days of summer to kill the rest of my flowers and get us into fall!

 

13!

We have a teenager!

The gaga ball/bucket hat party was a bit of a bust, but I didn't even care because I knew his big present would make everything else peanuts. We didn't play gaga ball or any of our lawn games due to downpour. We still had "Search for Silas" going on inside where guests had to find 13 of his hidden baby pictures to enter the drawing to win a bucket hat and twin with the birthday boy. Other than that, I really had no back up plan so in a pinch we decided to have a Spoons ("Balloons" to be on theme) tournament. The various table heats are below. The finals ended up being Logan, Conor, Meemaw and Daron. Daron won as he does. Levi had his named pulled from the hat and was the perfect pick because he seemed thrilled about the accessory, where I am not sure it was coveted by many others. 

Having completed his initiating 13 Ticket to Teen challenges, on his actual birthday he opened all the letters the family sent to encourage him. I included several shots of what the face of a teenager having his dream realized looks like. These were captures I pulled from the video of him receiving his first cell phone. I did not include the video because it is mostly us preemptively lecturing and yet still the face of bliss. He is now walking around quite a bit taller and we haven't regretted it so far.

The final shots are from a redo party where I made a few people come back to use the pit so I could say I did not spend that money for nothing.

July

We went to the beach! We saw my cousin Nevin! Silas got 4 teeth pulled. Elizabeth and I visited Laura (beach again!). Daron and Silas saw The Odyssey. I saw Hadestown and continue to be obsessed. Rory and I also saw the Spongebob Musical (not obsessed). Both boys got to see a few friends. We made some toilet paper dough sculptures with the Olivers and hosted their pups for a weekend. I finished the boys' room updates- mildly satisfied, until, much to Daron's dismay, I come up with a new idea. School supplies are purchased, Rory's teachers have been met, I am back at work, and we are bracing for the thirteenth birthday gaga ball/bucket hat bash.