Fourteen….You Have Arrived!!

Hey hey….Zach is 14 today!! Can you believe it?!  We can’t but then again we can.  Zach is a full on teenager and loves a late night of video games and movies with friends which is exactly how he rang in his birthday.  We are in Chicago visiting friends and family so naturally we are hitting our favorite spots and hanging with some of his best buds.  

How would we describe Zach at 14?  He is a young man of few words until he’s really excited or it’s late and well past time to go to sleep.  At that point, he has a LOT to say!  He does well in school, swims 4-5 days a week, plays some ultimate frisbee, gets sucked into videos on his phone, dabbles with recipes/cooking from time to time, and loves video games as well as a good game of frisbee golf or mountain biking with friends.  And for now, he’s still ok with hanging out with his parents a bit.  

When we get back home Zach will be taking a few friends to celebrate with a game of paintball.  Nothing like boys running around and shooting each other with paint!

Cheers to 14 Zach!  We love being your mom and dad and are excited to see how you grow, learn and have fun over this next year.  Happy Birthday!!!

Oh…even Herm’s gave him a gift this year….

Hazel’s Birthday!

Yes, you read the title right.  This blog post is long overdue and I only realized I hadn’t posted about Hazel’s birthday when I was prepping for the kids going back to school.  Better late than never?!

Hazel turned 8 back in June 15th and I think she has been finding ways to celebrate ever since.  While she requested a favorite dinner and gifts galore, the most exciting part was her party.  She wanted a party with animals so we found a place that would bring the petting zoo to her!  Yes, I lost my mom mind and let them bring 15 small animals including a few snakes into my living room.  Bah!!  All the kids loved it although Nana hid when the snakes were out.  

Zach stepped up and got excited about making his little sister a cake in the shape of a caterpillar.  When he gets excited about cooking/baking it is really fun to watch.  And Hazel loved it!

Hazel is her very own person!  She’s only 8 but she makes it very clear what she likes and doesn’t like.  She is strong, funny, and makes sure her voice is heard in our family.  Hazel loves animals, playing with her neighbor friends, getting sucked into games on the iPad, swimming, arts and crafts, decorating, and she could eat spaghetti everyday.  We love her so much!  The boys show their love in interesting ways but I’m pretty sure they adore their little sister (at least we hope they do or will at some point).

Now that we are in NC, the annual painting of the spirit rock is a birthday tradition at the elementary school.  This year I enlisted the whole Team La Vigne (minus Hazel) to help out.  It turned out great and is still up as of a couple days ago!

We love you Hazel and hope that eight is great!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAZEL MAC!!

ELEVEN!!

While I still call him Middle-bug I guess he is quickly becoming more of a Middle-man.  Gunnar turned 11 today!  Yesterday (also Mother’s Day) he played in a baseball tournament and batted 1.000% with 5 times at bat (4 hits, 1 walk). It was pretty fun to watch especially since the moms got to choose the walk up songs and Gunnar’s was Baby Got Back (aka “I like big butts”).  They won one game and lost another but everyone played so well.  The afternoon ended with his teammates singing Happy Birthday to him.  

Today his day was full of gifts and love sent from friends and family along with lunch at school with me and Rich, a scavenger hunt for presents, the first practice for summer swim, his requested dinner of steak and mashed potatoes and his favorite mint chip cream cake (barely got that one done in time).   Oh…and he lost a tooth!  It’s been a full day!  Does the tooth fairy leave more money when it’s a birthday tooth?  

Gunnar is still kind and caring and has become quite funny and clever.  He is good at math, likes helping with projects especially if they involve demo or machinery or trucks, enjoys building legos, loves playing baseball and loves being with friends.  He has a neighborhood full of buddies, several friends in class and still keeps in touch with a handful of his best Evanston pals.  He says he will be a truck driver when he grows up and honestly I think that profession will be in serious consideration for a long time.  Gunnar just really loves trucks and the idea of driving them across the country.    

To me, eleven feels like a big year for him.  He has grown in so many ways over the last year and in just a few months he will be off to middle school.  Maybe by the time that happens I will have posted a few more updates.  Maybe. 

This is 11…..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUNNAR!!! We love you to the moon and back.  

Merry Christmas!

We have officially spent our first Christmas in Charlotte.  It has been warmer than we are used to which has been so nice.  And we were lucky enough to have our parents/grandparents spend the holiday with us.  Jim and Rose made the trek down from Chicago and Mom/Nana was here with us as well.  This is our first Christmas without Boppa Bill.  The “first” is never easy but I think being together, sharing some funny memories and enjoying time together really helped.  Christmas won’t ever be the same again but we have to find our new routine and traditions while finding our own ways to honor my dad.  I mean…..I even left jumps in our mashed potatoes for him tonight.  Ha!

Here’s a few photos of our fun over the past two days.  We hope you each had a wonderful holiday and had a chance to relax, eat and laugh with friends and family. 

Holiday lights nearby….

A quick snapshot of Scout on his best behavior.


Baking cookies….


Our own little angel at church with our neighbor Angel in the background.


We clean up and try to look nice here and there.


But typically we just goof off and have some festive fun












Santa stopped by and left quite the haul of gifts. 






Even Zach and Nana got in on the Barbie Dreamhouse fun.





Oh and now we have a ninja course and zip line in our back yard.  Hazel seems to be a huge fan of the zip line but I can’t get the video to load.

Look at these cute bozos with their grandparents!

Lastly our best present by far this Christmas are the quilts that Nana gifted us that are made out of Boppa Bill’s t-shirts.  They are amazing!  We all love them and have already enjoyed talking about time we remember when he was wearing certain shirts or where he got certain shirts from.  These will be on our beds, curled up with us for movies and will travel through life’s journeys with us for years to come.  It’s so nice to have a piece of Boppa with us.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Teenager in the House!

 

I started this blog almost thirteen years ago and if you go back through posts you can see that clearly I’m not as good at posting as frequently as I used to.  I think the world of blogs and social media has changed drastically so often times I throw a quick photo on Instagram and call it good.  In reality, I still love this blog even though I don’t turn to it as often as I should.   That being said, I began this whole journey because of one little boy that made us parents.  Today that little boy is a teenager!  

Zach turned 13 today and while he is still the same little boy he is also navigating a new world in Charlotte and becoming his own person.  We spent the last week in Evanston visiting friends and family for Thanksgiving which also meant we have celebrated Zach numerous times.  His heart is still with a core group of friends in Evanston so we had them come over to our rental for a sleepover.  Somehow we didn’t take a single photo but maybe that was because they were zoned into video games and movies all night long.  I think a photo would have been great to show them all how they looked like zombies the next day.  Ha!  

Having celebrated with friends and family earlier in the week, Zach was excited to spend his birthday at Nana’s helping decorate for the holiday and of course eating his favorite meal that Nana cooks (beef stroganoff).

A cross-country move, middle school in general and now being 13 all has its own challenges.  Zach is still working to find his comfort zone and new friends but he has proven that he is resilient and can do hard things.  He is excelling in his classes although he isn’t a fan of his new school yet.  He played ultimate frisbee on a rec league this fall and is still swimming which we hope will bring him some fun friends as well as all the lessons that come with athletics.  Zach loves a good book series, a good movie, video games, any sort of new outdoor adventure and staying up a bit later than his siblings which allows him to watch a show with mom and dad.  We don’t mind the extra time with him either!

We have promised to take each of our kids on a trip within the year they turn 13 so Zach is up first.  He’s still debating his destination but we will keep you posted and hopefully I’ll even write a blog post about it. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACH!!  We love you!  

Zach the morning after his sleepover…

And today before his ice cream sundae!

Lucky Number 7

Our smallest “little” is getting so BIG!  Hazel turned 7 on Thursday and has had multiple days of celebrating.  I mean, I think the girl is on to something.  Why celebrate for one day when you can party several days in a row?!  We might be in trouble when she gets older.

Hazel has taken our move to NC in stride for the most part.  It took her a bit to warm up to new friends but now she has a gang of neighborhood girls that she loves to play with as well as a friend or two from school.  She still asks about friends in Evanston and can’t wait to see them when we visit soon….especially her Gloria!  Hazel has become a really good reader, loves movies with a fun soundtrack, aims to perfect her cartwheel skills, enjoys creating any sort of crafty/artistic project and dipped her toes into the sport of swimming this summer by being on a swim team for the first time.  She’s sassy, funny and fairly strong willed.  We love seeing her grow and love that she still wants us to be part of all her fun.  

Now, who wouldn’t want to spend a birthday doing all of this?!

Movie night with friends!

Birthday with scavenger hunt for presents, a swim meet and cake to follow.






Mid morning “rainbow loom” session.


A trip to the school to see her birthday rock.




And a girls night with mom and Nana at a fancy hotel!

Yep…that’s a otter face mask.






Happy birthday Hazel!!

Three days of birthday fun and now we are on to Father’s Day.  Think Rich wants to celebrate the same way?  I’ll be sure to offer him one of those animals face masks!