Birthday and Party

Owen's birthday was on a Friday this year but even though Owen had to go to school he missed most of the day for an orchestra field trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! Not too bad! He came home and relaxed for awhile before some friends came over around 6:30 to celebrate. They spent most of the time in the basement playing video games, mini sticks and fusball before half of the kids had to go home because of early morning activities and the other half slept over. They were all so well behaved and Owen had a great time! 

We didn't have time to give Owen our presents until the next day but it's always nice to have a birthday extension:)

Birthday boy before heading off to school!

Tolerating my request for a picture:)

They all posed without complaint!

Basement shenanigans

Presents!

We love you, Owen!!

13!!

I'm going to have to stop putting a picture per year for these birthday posts because there are getting to be so many! 13!! It's so hard to imagine Owen being 13 when I'm looking at the pictures of Owen just sitting up and Owen playing with trains! I'm so thankful every day for what an amazing kid he's turning out to be!

Miscellaneous

New couch!

Paige's entertainment amongst the craziness of Saturday night indoor soccer

These two are 5!!

Paige went to a friend's swimming party

Owen helped out a high school team with an indoor game and he looked so little!

Paige, the present!

National Dress Up Your Pet Day!

Sleepy Griff

Trio costume sneak peek

Shoulder stand at soccer practice

Macarons

Jamie and I attended a macaron-making class! We had lots of fun learning some tips on how to make them and tried a couple new flavors as well. We made Matcha green-tea macarons and vanilla bean with white chocolate ganache and passion fruit curd. Both were very good! Jamie did a better job of taking pictures than I did (of course!) so I borrowed some of her pictures. Afterwards, we went for coffee to go with our macarons!

Mystery Party

This is the first year we've been able to attend our friend's annual murder mystery party and I was a little apprehensive about how it would go but it ended up being a ton of fun! The theme was witches/wizards and other magical beings. People got into their roles but we also had time to chat about other things and eat some yummy food. Pat collected more information than I did and correctly predicted who the murderer was! 

New Year's Day Hike

We drove to the eastside for our annual New Year's Day hike! My dad joined us and then we were able to see my mom for a bit because she was working. It didn't start out super cold but once the sun started going down we were ready to get inside! This hike is one of my favorite things to do to start the year because it reminds me that here's so much beauty to be found out there, even when things seem cold and dreary!

NYE

After we went to PlayCLE and had lunch with friends, the rest of the evening was pretty lowkey. We ordered Chinese food, and then Owen ended up at a friend's house for the night. Pat, Paige and I were nearing the end of the Percy Jackson movie when we had to pause it to cheer in the new year!

PlayCLE

We've been trying to get to this place since it opened, so about two years maybe?? We finally made plans to meet up with friends the morning of New Year's Eve and as a bonus, Paige was tall enough to participate in every activity they offered! Owen wasn't a big fan of the ropes courses but he did try the zipline and spent some time climbing the rock walls. Pat, Paige and I probably spent the most time up in the ropes course and we each did the zipline at least once.