Labor Day Weekend 2023

 We ended summer the same way we brought it in: a day in Clear Lake. We did all our usuals: swimming, floating, walking the lake path, stopping in little shops, Cabin Coffee, PM Park, and ice cream. It was glorious and perfect. The weekend was a little bit different this year because I worked on Memorial Day, so I enjoyed my first Friday with a long lunch (of Chipotle) and a hike around a pond. The minis dove right into the new school year and had friends over nearly all weekend long and even managed to talk us into a quick shopping trip.

To My Oldest On Your Sixteenth Birthday

 

S I X T E E N

And the award for most changed in a year goes to....YOU! What a year of accomplishments you had. You made a point of going outside of your comfort zone and tried (and did) so many new things. While you still love to draw and paint and have an interest in art in general, you had a big presence in your high school theatre department. You had a small role in The Crucible, accidentally said "carrot" instead of curtain in the stage reading of The Man Who Came To Dinner, and had the crowds cheering as your role of Jesus in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. You impressed me beyond words with your performances and dedication to rehearsals. They required many long hours and a commitment that would make a lot of people sweat. Yet, you did it with ease.

Your grades were outstanding, you took your first pSAT, and you absolutely rocked your AP course. I can say over and over again how proud we are of your school work, but it comes easily and naturally to you. I loved seeing you try new classes. 

You also branched out and made a lot of new friends, thanks to theatre, and our days of adventuring are few and far between. Instead, you've had parties, hang outs, game nights, gaming nights and days, and many new experiences (ahem, Greenwood Park night). You're very teenager-y, but I love seeing you expand your horizons and grow. You're also the reason Life 360 was invented (joking, only slightly)! 

Some of your favorite things these days: gaming with friends, musicals, movies, hanging out with friends, Door Dashing lunch to our house, working every Saturday, food and late night snacks, walking on the trails, hiking (when we get a chance), Amazon, clothes on Amazon, long shorts, and hanging out with friends (it's on there twice because that is for sure your favorite thing in life). 

Watching you come into your own through your hair and style choices, through your friendships, and through what you choose to do in your free time, has been a remarkable part of motherhood for me. You pave the way for your siblings, help me parent without even realizing it, and step up whenever you can. I can't thank you enough for being exactly you!

I hope this next trip around the sun treats you just as well as the last. With more adventures, more things to try, more plays, more friends, more laughter, more love, and more living life to the fullest. To the kid who made me a mom and makes motherhood (mostly) easy, Happy Birthday kid!

Love always and forever,

Mom

To My Middle Son On Your Fourteenth Birthday

 FOURTEEN

That doesn't seem quite right to me, but I guess it must be true (I did the math and it was correct, this time). Fourteen years of laughs. A lot of laughs lately. You are my buddy, the child who is wholly inappropriate and makes me roll my eyes, laugh, and giggle like no one else. The last year was a big one for you:

• You got back into the dance studio and hit all of your steps in the recital (and slipped away RBF during the performances-yay!)
• You advocated for yourself a lot this year and had a stellar year in school. I am so proud of you for it!
• You graduated eighth grade and are onto HIGH SCHOOL!
• Daycare closed and you had A LOT of big feelings about it, but you've done an amazing job maintaining those friendships and making sure you and your friends are in constant contact.
• Your final year of band and flute playing
• Designing a logo and business plan for your bakery

As always, you handled whatever life threw at you like the ultimate champ. My go with the flow kid, my happy and (mostly) positive kid who never misses a beat. You are my go-to person for a good laugh. You are also the person who I shouldn't sit by when we need to be quiet because we're the most likely to chat away (and be slightly inappropriate together). I love nothing more than our late night chats, giving each other a hard time, and being buddies. I never quite understood the "my kid is my best friend" quote up until the last couple of years. My once most difficult child to parent (I love you, but gosh, those early years gave me all of my gray hairs!), you are now my easiest. Even when it's hard, I know we can have honest conversations about anything and work it out. 

Some of your favorites from the year include (in no particular order): Starbucks, Asian foods, being an adventurous eater, Mainframe Studios, cuddling your cat, going to the mall, Sephora, and Ulta, adventuring (even though those adventures are now few and far between due to everyone's varying schedules), baking, Tik Tok recipes, reels, Roblox, Grey's, and Crumbl cookies. 

You're still always ready for a good time. This once worried me, but now I'm confident you'll use this quality for good. Your life will never be dull because you're a dreamer who will try anything once. These are all of my favorite qualities about you. 

I'm pretty sure I thank you every year, but I want to be sure it's engrained in your brain. Thank you for making me the mother I am. Thank you for making me the person I am. Thank you for showing me to be brave and try anything. I did not easily possess these qualities before you came along. You quite literally changed how I dealt with life. 

I hope as you go through this next trip around the sun that you continue to be true to yourself and never lose the qualities that make you YOU! This next year will also be a big one for you: high school, more dance classes, theatre, and everything that comes along with life changes. I can't wait to see what you do with everything. I am so incredibly proud of you! I love you! Thank you for sharing your life with me.

Love always and forever,

Mom (or Mama, as you've taken to calling me lately)

My favorite oops moment of yours from this year: the night you tried "Kardashian lips" and had to go to school like this the next morning. Lol

You got to come to your first networking event with me at Paws & Pints.

To My Daughter On Your Twelfth Birthday

 

What a trip around the sun this has been for you! Your whole year was filled with firsts, new beginnings, and milestones. You're almost to the teen years, riding the lines between little girl, angsty teen, and proper young women. This year held so much emotional and mental growth for you. You gracefully navigated big life changes and conquered them all. I've always been proud of you, but you absolutely left me stunned by your grace through the toughest days.

You completed your first year in middle school. It was a huge change and you did it with an ease I can only wish for. You had a great year with friends (both new and old), classes (those grades we're pretty darn great!), getting involved, trying new things even if you were scared, and staying true to your authentic self. There were dances, sleepovers, shaving your legs, learning who you wanted to be friends with and who you didn't, and everything in between. Saying goodbye to daycare was tough and left a lot of questions unanswered, but I feel like we got a pretty good deal for this summer for you to spend time with some of your best friends.

You've gotten quite the workout in of learning to stick up for yourself and how to speak up for yourself. From teachers to peers, I'm proud of how you handled any challenges that arose. You've always been one to do what you want to do and not give a damn what others around you are doing. While that has been challenging from the parenting side, it is also one of my favorite things about you. I'm thrilled to see that hasn't changed at all. 

Your resilience, fearlessly trying new things, and taking all things to heart are your best qualities. They make you caring, fun, and adds to your ability to keep us guessing (just as you have the last twelve years). Our family dynamic has changed dramatically this year, as I expected as all three of you have gotten older. School, friends, and activities are at the forefront of your priorities. Day trips and adventuring have taken a backseat, making our family fun days a rarity. We have fewer mom and minis sleepovers, but our late night chats and snuggles are still my favorite. I love connecting with you and sharing secrets, even when it's past my bedtime.

We're gearing up for your seventh recital season. You still have the same spark and love for dance as you did that very first year. If anything it has only grown. Your commitment always impresses me, especially because you never waiver in your love for your dance classes.

My sweet, sometimes volatile Elizabeth, I hope your next trip around the sun is as spectacular as this last one was. As much as I hope you continue to exude the extraordinary qualities that make you YOU, I hope you always do what makes you happy. Thank you for sharing your life and love with us! Happy Birthday to the youngest love of my life! 

Love you always and forever.

Mom 

A Letter To My Fifteen Year Old

 

Dear Max,

As I write your annual birthday letter, you're off and working. It's a new one that accurately depicts the stage of life you're in. Your life is growing, no longer revolving around family and our activities. Instead, you're developing your own life complete with friends, a job, and soon enough a car to drive around in. 

You absolutely rocked your first year of high school, coming in with all A's and B's and a few classes with Honors. Due to your awesome grades and hard work, you qualified for AP courses next school year. I couldn't be more proud of the hard work you put in, not only doing well in school, but also continuing to be an important person that helps our household run smoothly. You rarely complain (although there are a few more eye rolls involved these days) about your daily chores and happily make dinner for us one or more nights per week. 

You're still rolling with the same group of friends you've held onto for years. It brings a smile to my face to see the same group of guys enter my home as they did ten years ago as kindergarteners. I say this with love, but you are an old man in a fifteen year old's body. Several times throughout the school year, friends would ask you to do something that involved staying out past 7:30 p.m. You responded to them with a, "I can't, I have to go to bed." I laughed so hard when I saw that in your texts, but I do hope you won't be a twenty year old yelling at people to get off your lawn!

While you love adventure, going to festivals, exploring and traveling, hiking, arcades, axe throwing, and trying new things, you are absolutely a homebody. You have no issues staying home, gaming, trying new recipes, and drawing. Your art has really come along this year. Last week, I snapped at you, "put the freaking phone away and actually DO something!" You presented me a gorgeous painted picture thirty minutes later, leaving me speechless at your natural talent.

Unlike your siblings, you don't enjoy drama and stay out of it. You're happy spending time alone or with your family. More than anything, I love that you're unapologetically YOU and don't give a damn what anyone else thinks. You're still working on knowing when you're wrong, backing down, and offering an apology. It's an important lesson to learn, one that will suit you well throughout life. 

As you gear up for your sophomore year of high school, there's more and more talk of the future: classes, college, jobs, what your vision is for your life. I do a fair amount of listening and supporting any dream you throw out (although they're not quite as crazy as your brother's), talking logistics, and giving opinions when needed, but it's more important for you to remember that above all else I want you to be happy. I want you to do what makes you happy, to follow your passions, and continue being true to yourself. Those are things to always remember, but I hope they are at the forefront of your mind in this next important year.

Some parents are sad their kids age and grow up, but I can honestly say I am not. It has been the coolest thing in my life. My role in your life changes year after year. We're at the point where you ask me to coffee, talk politics and world news, find the local places we must try, and attempt to keep me in the know. I often hope that no matter where you land in the world, that's the kind of relationship we can have in the future. 

Year fifteen will be a big one. Full of changes and new adventures. I'm so proud of the direction you steer your life and can't wait to see what you do with this next year. I love you so much! I hit the jackpot with you. When I casually bring up how you cook, clean, take care of your siblings and pets, and do what you do daily, I'm often met with stares and comments about how they wish their teens did what you do. It's such a natural thing for me to witness that I often don't take the time to fully appreciate how wonderful you are! I've said it before, but I often feel like you raised me just as much as I have you. Thank you for everything you do for our family, for sticking with me even through the thick eyerolls. I couldn't imagine a life without you in it. You have always made my life better.

Love always and forever,

Mom

The foodie in you asked me for coffee flights from Blue Bean, birria tacos and gyro fries, and $90 worth of birthday cookies from Iowa Cookie Co. I can easily say you have expensive tastes!

This picture is two years old, but it's still one of my favorite of you (courtesy of Aunt Jenny).