Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Oh how we love the holidays!!  This year the kids were in school until just a couple of days before Christmas so we drove down to NC just in time for presents and Santa and all the excitement.  We have all been loved and spoiled way too much while celebrating with Nana and Boppa.  Their house is magical for the for all of us!  It’s so nice to have time to relax and enjoy each other.  We have been spending our time playing games, riding wiggle cars (you should see all three zip around the garage on these little cars), watching movies, and trying out all the new toys.  We have gone out for a few small adventures, we’re lucky enough to see some of our family (thank you vaccines!) and Rich and I even managed to go out for a date night thanks to Nana and Boppa!  

This may be one of my new favorites.

Winter break has given us time away from school, work and real life.  It’s been wonderful!  It has been in the 70s most of the week here so even outdoor play has been easy.  Plus, Scout loves running with the neighbor dog.  

We still have another 10 days of break from school to enjoy although we will spend most of that in colder weather in Chicago.  Tonight we watch the ball drop and welcome a new year.  Here’s hoping 2022 is better than the last two years!!  

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Gunnar is 8!

Bad mom moment here.  Gunnar is now actually a little more than 8 and 1/2.    I was looking back on this year’s blog posts and realized I never posted the one I wrote for Gunnar’s birthday.  Bah!  Nor the one I put together later as a look back on spring break.  As the year is coming to a close I’m now finding myself trying to catch up.  So….here is a quick post I wrote back in May.  Gunnar, if you read this when you are older….I’m sorry, I love you and clearly we were having enough fun celebrating that this blog post slipped my mind.  Now, transport yourself back to earlier this year, May to be exact.

Hey! Gunnar is 8 today!  He is what I often refer to as my Middlebug and he is the best one there ever was.  Gunnar is kind, compassionate and still very naturally sweet (unless his siblings are involved and even they get to see his sweetness sometimes).  He likes to be a helper when it’s comes to house projects and cooking/baking.  Pretty soon he will be able to make a meal for us all on his own!  He loves Legos and playing baseball with his buddies on his team.   Recently he talks about learning to play golf so we will have to look into that sport for the summer.

We sure hope being 8 is just as great as the boy himself is!

We celebrated with breakfast for dinner!

And Gloria’s infamous Tres Leches cake by request. It was delicious!!


One of the best parts was the fact that this year Gunnar was able to celebrate with friends again.  We are still in a pandemic but we masked up and went to the movies!  We rented the theatre out and I think everyone had a blast.


Lastly, our family has friends that give gift certificates for a small local frozen yogurt shop.  We love the place so Gunnar was happy to go out for a cool treat.  Thanks Rupperts!!!


We love you Gunnar!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Zach is 11!

Can you believe it?!  Zach is 11!  Eleven years ago we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner and then headed to the hospital on Black Friday morning to become parents.  Now on this Black Friday we have been enjoying watching Zach’s excitement as he read clues to find presents hidden throughout the house.  I love that he still finds joy in fun celebrations even though most days he’s on the verge of being a teen and is too cool for us.  

Zach is turning into his own person and growing up too fast. He is an intensely fast reader that loves a good book series.  Swimming has become his sport and he heads to the pool 5 days a week to work on getting faster.  Zach tolerates his siblings but sometimes he even genuinely has fun with them!  He is working to earn badges for Cub Scouts and is already eager to head to middle school next year with a handful of his close buddies (you can see them all in the photo below).

We are so thankful for Zach and who he is becoming.  Boy has our world changed since 11 years ago!

Here’s a couple of photos of how we celebrated….

Escape room with his buds.

And dinner at Herm’s!


Birthday dinner with family.  Tacos are his favorite!

11 candles takes a big breath…..





HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACH!

Happy Halloween!!

The weekend has been full of parties and sleepovers but now we get down to business ….. TRICK OR TREAT!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

First Day of School!!

Today was a big day!  The kids went back to full day school (fully masked) after being in either a virtual learning at home or a hybrid set up with a few hours in school since March of 2020.  Needless to say we were all very excited to have them heading back to the classroom!

Zach is now in fifth grade, Gunnar is in third and Hazel has finally made her way to Dawes as a kindergartner. This will be the one and only year that all three will go to the same school so we are hoping to soak it all in.

Summer Adventure and First Flights

Well, summer has been fun in general.  We have made the most of seeing local friends, hanging with neighbors, each boy going to a camp (golf for Gunnar and sailing for Zach) and trying to take in all our area has to offer but August brought us our greatest adventures of summer break.  While we typically get a trip to NC to see Nana and Boppa, this year we stepped it up a little.  Zach took his first solo flight and went to NC a week before the rest of us.  Yep…that’s right….my boys are growing up.  At the end of our trip Gunnar stayed back with Nana and Boppa and flew his first solo flight home several days later.  Eek!  Both boys were excited and confident with their travel arrangements and were over the moon they were able to get the full attention of Nana and Boppa without anyone else interfering with the fun.  That being said….here are some photos of each of their adventures along with some pics of all we crammed in while there as a family.  

Zach did great on the flight!  I was worried he may get sick since he can get motion sick but don’t worry….he saved that pleasure for the drive home.

Checking out a new ice cream shop….


Boating and swimming with Boppa….


He worked on his pitching form when they went to pick up baseball tickets for all of us to take in a game.


Caught a movie in the theater (we haven’t had but 1 or 2 of those since the pandemic started)


Ate some of his favorites (and my favorite)


Finally Nana and Boppa put him to work!




Zach wasn’t ready for us to show up but he seemed to be ok with us joining the fun.

We visited some friends in SC for a night (don’t worry….they are vaccinated and so are we!)

So Hazel got an overnight with Nana and Boppa all by herself!









Back in NC the guys got in 9 holes of golf (this is Gunnar’s new sport)


We of course made a ruckus in the neighborhood by shooting off some fireworks!




And we are making a tradition out of hiking nearby Baker Mountain.








Next up we had another “first” with a family day on the tops course.  I think everyone had fun.  I was so proud of how brave the kids were.  Hazel did a lot of climbing but decided the zip line was just too long for her.  That’s ok!  Gunnar was a bit nervous but overcame it after we talked him through his first obstacle.  Zach had no fear and wants to make sure he goes first next time so none of us slow him down.  They all did great!












We got out on Boppa’s boat a couple of times.  I’m still trying to figure out how to own a house on a lake.  The water is my happy place and I think the rest of my family have the same sentiments.

We caught a Hickory Crawdads game and the kids ran the bases.  You know, they used to let kids run the bases between innings near the mid point of the game.  No…not now.  You have to wait until the end of the game even if there are extra innings!  It was a late night!








All three went with Boppa to feed the nearby horses.


We got a night with just the boys for bowling, arcade games and laser tag.


Ooh….Hazel made her first trip to the gun range!  She got to help with pushing the button while mom, dad and Boppa played skeet.




Yep…I shoot.  And this game is the closest I’ve been to catching Rich in a game of skeet.  He was having a bad shooting day.


One last afternoon on the water….

I really don’t know how we fit so many adventures in.  It was definitely a bit of a whirlwind.

We said our goodbyes to Gunnar and started our journey home.  We made a last minute decision to stop by and see some of our favorite people.  It had been far too long!  Our visit was completely unplanned but my family is awesome and embraced the random drop in.  Our visit wasn’t long enough but it was so good.  




Our trip tuckered these two out.  How do kids sleep like this?!




Now while we were back in Evanston, Gunnar had some adventures of his own!  

Gunnar loves to drive a boat…..and sit on the bow!




Gunnar accidentally broke the window of Boppa’s shed so he got to have a little fun working.




He went to Top Golf (I can’t seem to add the video), saw a movie in the theater, got both Nana and Boppa to go bowling and found a new favorite movie to watch at home.  Have you seen Second Hand Lions?  Gunnar can tell you everything that happens.  He’s watched it three times now!

Gunnar made it home safe and sound!


We missed each boy while they were gone but it was nice to focus a little more on the other two.  I think both boys want to make this an annual event!