Welcome to the Teens, Kristen!!!

On Monday, I officially become the mother of two teenagers. Kristen had a birthday!! Let's see....if it's "sweet sixteen," it must be "tart thirteen." Or "trial" or "thin"--as in I often feel like I'm walking on eggshells with the moods.

Anyway...aside from having to wake up early for school (oh, Mondays are sooo hard), she was in a good mood and had a great day! She even wanted to go to her tumbling class, since she's just getting her ariel down and didn't want to "lose" what she's worked so hard on.

My bad--I let Jon schedule a re-caulking of the sink and a polishing/cleaning of the granite in the kitchen that day, so we couldn't use the counters at all! Try decorating a cake, cooking a special dinner, etc without the use of the sink or counters. Not easy. She wanted chow mein and potstickers and I made some orange chicken for the meat eaters. She also wanted a plain vanilla cake, but was worried about it being too...plain. So we decorated it up with her favorite candy--Reese's.

I always feel bad because with everyone's crazy schedules, we often can't open gifts until after dinner--6:30-7ish. That's so hard to wait when you're young. She got a new hoodie, new summer outfit, new headbands, a new straightener (so I can have mine back--haha), perfume, and make up stuff. She's a real deal teen now. HAPPY THIRTEEN, KRISTEN!!!! We love you!!!!

gifts!!

Teenage spunk!

opening presents--happy!

bedroom door

yes--we did the balloon clue hunt--the kids love it!

blowing out 13 candles!!

jarren sure loved lighting the candles for me

a look I often see from her. :)

Mummies of the World

On Saturday night, we took the kids to this traveling exhibit at a local museum---Mummies of the World.. This display is only touring the US for 3 years, in select cities only. It was a great experience--very fascinating and interesting. But, unfortunately, a little disturbing for Jenna. She talks and talks about it all day, drawing Egyptian Littlest Pet Shop pictures and reading books about mummies. But at night, she gets a little spooked. They had mummified animals and people from Egypt, Peru, and Europe. Some were only about 200 years old! They don't allow pictures at all, out of respect (so, I don't have any). I'm glad we had the opportunity to go--it's something the kids will remember for a long time.

Bear Award

No, I'm not new to the scouting program, but Jon usually handles it. He should get the little mom's pin, not me. :)

Jarren got new Bear leaders a short time ago and last month, his leader said he was ready to get his Bear. I told her no, he still had one thing to do in this one, and one in that, and....etc. I finally actually read the book and yes, he was done. I thought he had to do every single thing!! So...at the Blue & Gold Banquet, he received his Bear award. Way to go, Jarren!!!

 

 

Goofy

Jarren is such a ham in front of the camera. He loves to be super goofy and make really crazy faces. I was trying to get a nice full-face picture for something and this is what I ended up with:

Basketball

It's so hard for me to take pictures at basketball games. For one thing, they all move so quickly that most of the pictures end up a big blur. For another thing, I usually get so into the game that I forget to. :) I did manage to get one of Kendall when he had to wear the nose guard--he's the one right in the middle of the shot.

They had a pretty good season. It was tough, but fun. He's still going on two of the three teams, but it's almost over and I think he's ready for a break.

Chinese New Year Program

Jenna participated in a Chinese New Year program last month at school. Each grade did a song and one of the teachers did a power point about the different animals that make up the Chinese calendar. Toward the beginning of it, the school went on lock down. I guess the police came in and had them lock down because they were chasing somebody and didn't want him to enter the school. At the time, it was kind of scary, but I was impressed at how professional the teachers were. I thought it was a drill at first, but nope. The real thing. Anyway...it was fun to see how far these kids have come. Jenna was reading a passage to me in CHINESE (Chinese characters and everything) at parent teacher conferences this morning. I was amazed!!

Love her expression!!

update on the nose

I took Kendall in to the ENT yesterday and it's very possible it was a small break, but it's hard to tell for sure because noses don't break like your leg bone, for example. It's rarely a clean break. If we don't mind how it looks (which you can't really see the bump unless you're looking for it), then there's no need to do surgery. His septum is kind of crumpled in the middle, instead of over to one side or the other, so again, no surgery, since it's not blocking his breathing passages. Phew!!