September

Silas story report.

1. Apparently the district was making a video about Silas's orchestra and his teacher forgot to tell his period to wear a certain shirt so she was letting them borrow extras for the filming. There was only an XL left for Silas so he had to be filmed on the end of the row right in front of the camera swimming in his dress/shirt. He told it funny and had me laughing.

2. He had a mandatory talent show for LAW and he and a few friends decided to play a song from Zelda. Another friend who is not in orchestra wanted to join them on his ocarina. (There was a lightsaber sword fight act, so they did not win for nerdiest.) I was proud of Silas for taking the lead, finding the music, practicing, and pretty much carrying the act that he was terrified to do... BUT, at one point he came to me to text his ocarina friend's mom about setting up a time for them to talk and discuss logistics. I do so and haven't heard back when about an hour later he comes to me reporting that the same child's grandmother (mother's mom) had just passed away that morning IN THEIR HOUSE. Dear heavens.

Rory story report.

1. Rory is having a resurgence of Spiderman fandom, seemly out of the blue because he didn't even want to go see the latest movie. He has been really into trying to develop a web shooter and is trying to make me put things like butane on my shopping list. With the help of YouTube he did make one that I thought was amazing that used a spring to shoot out stretchy string he got by unraveling the elastic from an old face mask. The kid is inventive... and messy. Our house still has a 3 foot robot on display made out of the recycle bin. Daron and I take turns hinting it might be time to return him there. Just yesterday he made a whole scavenger hunt by hiding toilet paper notes leading us to where someone had hidden all our shower supplies. Apparently this plan was hatched mid shower because the supplies were still wet, but worry not, they were wrapped in toilet paper to keep them from sopping up the hiding spot.

2. He is my only child that enjoys being outside and even rakes his own leaves to jump in. 

We took a Labor Day trip to Chimney Rock with the Hofts. I did some crafting and decorating. The horrors of having to get out of bed and leave the house, persist, but we are coping.

 

 

 

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 12 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. 

Lake Week

The most idyllic week of the year! We turtle hunted, we swam, we tubed (every day), we ate, we fished. Silas caught a baby trout and Skylar caught a big catfish. In all my life I have only ever seen blue gill caught off that dock, so it was a big year! Jane hosted 20 of us for the 4th. Nate rented a jet ski. Rory and Gigi made fudge. We did some rock painting and also painted some pavers to look like quilt squares (adorable). There was the usual Andy's and Pizza Cellar. We all kept to (mostly) our beef jerky quota. Daron betrayed me in Secret Hitler again. Silas both won and lost a game of hearts. Malachi wore black dress pants all week.

   

Rock Bocce

We took a day trip and visited my old childhood camp. It just got bought and the new owners are trying to fix it up after 20 years of neglect. The property was still beautiful and had ample ticks! My mom worked for Camp Fire (owner of said camp) and has the giant reading rock there dedicated to her. It was pretty special to have several of her grandkids there to see it. Conn read everyone the story of Little Ole and Princess Fairy and then we tried to find their rock where we could grind some sandstone pixie dust. We found a rock that was mostly covered in moss and only had about a 10% likelihood of being the actual one, but we ground some dust anyways. As a camper, we used to leave notes for little Ole and he would write back, but they messages were backwards so you had to run to the bathhouse and read them in the mirror. Then the last night at the big council fire, Princess Fairy would illuminate from the woods and thank everyone for taking care of the forest. Kind of magic for a kid. I regaled my children with songs and stories of poison ivy, King Arthur the cook (terrifying), and other favorite memories. They were thrilled.

Actual Little Ole's Rock that we probably didn't see.

Conn's crew left on Wednesday and we went and jumped off a cliff. Silas has a challenge to finish 12 tasks as a 12-year-old for a kind of initiation to teendom. One task was to bluff dive at the lake and we checked it right off. Rory even did the small one! We also swam in a cove, went to the creek, and continued tubing our hearts out. The week always feels a bit bittersweet because it is such joy that it fells too beautiful to hold, like you are already living in nostalgia. I love that my kids have these people and this place to grow up with. Literally priceless.