We had a really fun and busy week last week! Zoey celebrated her 8th birthday and Camden celebrated his 16th birthday. Zoey pretty much got a whole week birthday celebration because we had a family party on Labor Day, her school party on Friday, and then a Carowinds trip on Saturday. She’s basically living her best life right now. 

1. Maia and one of her besties had a sleepover last Sunday night since there was no school on Monday. And what sleepover would be complete without QT slushies and scary movies? 

2. My family showed up Monday afternoon to help us celebrate birthdays! We ate pizza and cake and everyone had a blast. We even got a new family picture!

3. Tyler woke up Tuesday with some huge cysts that looked infected. He had a fever and felt awful so off to the doctor we went. He has a serious staph infection and they’re culturing the fluid for MRSA. Awesome. Poor dude. He said it feels like he has the flu times 1000. But being the trooper he is he trucked off to practice Tuesday afternoon anyway. He’s on some powerful antibiotics that have unfortunate digestive side effects. 

4. The senior banners finally came in so I went over to help a couple of the other senior moms hang them up at our field. They look so good! Tyler looks fierce in his picture! Some of the other guys are all smiling and happy…then there’s my kid looking like he’s about to rip someone’s head off. Haha!

5. Matt and I went to eat lunch with Zoey on her birthday and took some of the cutest mermaid cupcakes for the class. She has such a great group of kids in her class. I just adore them! It’s so awesome to look at these adorable 2nd graders and know that these are the kids she will graduate high school with because we’re a K-12 campus. I love that!

Then after school Zoey’s bestie and her mom (who is one of my besties) took the girls out for ice cream and dinner before the home football game. They have so much fun together. I love seeing their friendship develop! They’ve been inseparable since they met at the football field in 2016. 

6. We had our first home game of senior season on Friday night and it was a doozy. The stands were packed, the cheers were loud, and our team was amazing. Tyler took a knock to the head on a kickoff return- and he doesn’t even normally play special teams but the player he replaced broke his arm in the first quarter. He’s fine, his sensor helmet didn’t alert, but with him being so sick from the staph infection and then the hit to the head the trainer kept pulling him out to check on his status. It was miserably hot even at 7:30pm so I appreciate her caution. We won the game 52-12 and Tyler got a decent amount of playing time at defensive end and a little bit at guard on offense. He got 3 solo tackles and even got a sack! Not bad for being so sick. 

7. We barely saw our other kids during the game. That’s the best part of the home games- we can let the kids roam with their friends and know they’re safe because all the parents are watching out. Maia had a whole group of her friends there as did Mason. Zoey found several of her friends to hang out with and a good time was had by all! After the game I managed to get some good pictures of Tyler with teammate and friends and of course, the other kids had to get in on the action too. 

8. On Saturday we took the kids to Carowinds for a few hours. It was Zoey’s only request for her birthday and we had a great time. The big girls took off for the roller coasters and the rest of us hit up Camp Snoopy to ride all of Zoey’s favorite rides. We did them all and she had a blast! I can’t wait to go back. Best thing we purchased this summer was season passes to Carowinds! Worth every penny if you’re local!

We had a week, y’all. I’m still recovering. For some reason 3 day weekends seem to be more exhausting than relaxing. 

1. We started the week off on a rough note. 3 kids woke up with fevers and sore throats. Mason said it best when he commented “we only made it 8 days before we got sick. We suck”. I concur kid. So they stayed home for a day until I was sure they didn’t have strep throat. 

2. The week then took an uglier turn when my corkscrew went missing. We’re talking 5 alarm emergency, send help! I emptied cabinets and drawers searching for that dang corkscrew! I finally found it 2 days later in the coat closet. Why? How? Not cool. 

3. Maia started the year strong but it didn’t take long for the same mean girls from last year to start their bull crap again this year. But the difference? My girl is stronger this year. She put them in their place and didn’t back down. She held her head up high and didn’t let them get to her. I’m so proud of her!

4. The mister and I actually got a quick impromptu date night this week. I had to pick up something at Target and we stopped in at Red Robin for a quick dinner sans kids. We rarely have time for an actual date night these days so we took full advantage of the opportunity!

5. Tyler’s varsity football game was on Thursday last week for some unknown reason. And of course, Thursday happened to be the most humid, hot, muggy, miserable night of the entire week. We got through a quarter and a half of football before we ended up in a 30+ minute lightning delay. Awesome. But Tyler (#53) had a fantastic game. He slid over to play Guard on offense and defensive end on defense. Those are much preferred positions for him so he was thrilled. They whooped the other team 54-0. 

6. After our 30 minute lightning delay where we all had to go sit in the parking lot because apparently metal bleachers and lightning is considered a bad idea, we finally finished the game. Because our school adheres to the mercy rule, meaning once the score reaches 42-0 the clock doesn’t stop running for anything, the second half went by very quickly. I got some great pictures of Tyler and his senior friends after the game and even got one of him with a teammate who graduated last year and came to watch. 

7. I received some amazing pictures from another parent from the game. I’m so thankful to this parent because he goes to every game and takes the best pictures of our guys and then shares them with us for free. He is truly amazing!

What a crazy busy week! I forget how draining the first week of school is and every year I’m shocked by how exhausted I am at the end of it! Ha!

1. Zoey’s teacher this year is so amazing. She has set up a little photo sharing account so the parents can all see images of their kids doing fun stuff all year long. I love that! These were from the first couple of days of the school year. 

2. This kid. He is Mr. Procrastination. His trainer bugged him for 2 weeks to take his IMPACT test for this football season and he left it until literally the last hour. It drives me nuts. But he snuck it in just under the deadline and now the trainer has an updated baseline test just in case. 

3. I’m not sure who gave this girl permission to look so old. I need it to stop. She’s been experimenting with hair and make up tutorials on YouTube and now she looks 16. Make. It. Stop. 

4. Tyler was a captain in the football game last Friday night. The coaches rotate captain duties between the seniors and pick the ones that they think led by example during the week of practices. I love that. We played a long time rival school that is a full conference above us. We lost 28-14 but our guys played hard and strong. Tyler moved back to his normal left tackle position and then filled in at guard when we had an injury. He also played nose guard and defensive end. He had a great game and played really well. 

5. A parent took some amazing pictures of Tyler during the game. I’m so grateful to have these images of Tyler’s senior season, especially since he missed so much of last season. 

6. Zoey came with us to the game and had a blast with her bestie, whose brother also plays on the team. Maia and Mason went to a friends house to have a bonfire and roast S’mores. They all had a great time!

7. Poor Tyler had a rough Saturday. He didn’t get home from the game until 2am. Because of his concussions he has to meet with the trainer after every game. She evaluates him and then downloads the info from his helmet to make sure nothing was missed in the game. He also took an ice bath with the other guys who played most of the game. So he rolled into the house tired and sore at 2am. Then he had to be up at 7am because he was taking the SAT the next morning. He left the house looking tore up y’all- shirt inside out, mismatched socks, crazy hair….it was bad. Ha! He got home from the SAT at 2pm and got to take an hour nap before leaving for work at 4pm. Welcome to the real world, kid. It’s rough. 

1. We attended Tyler’s senior breakfast on Friday morning. Senior breakfast. What? I am the mother of a senior now. I’m baffled by this. It was a great morning. It was amazing to walk in, sit in that banquet room, and see all his classmates and friends. Amazing to know them and their parents, to see how many of the parents know Tyler by name and hug him on sight. Amazing to be on a first name basis with administrators and teachers and to hear them speak such confident words over our kids. It was truly a powerful and uplifting morning and I’m so excited for his senior year. 

2. Friday night was Tyler’s first varsity game of the season. I didn’t take many pictures because my heart was in my throat for most of the game. I underestimated just how nerve-wracking it would be to watch him play again. He had a great game and they won 20-14 in overtime. I did get a good picture of him with 2 of his best friends after the game though. 

3. Luckily we have amazing parents at our school who also happen to be friends and also are amazing photographers. I got these fabulous pictures of Tyler after the game and it just makes me so grateful to be a part of this school. 

4. Saturday was mostly spent recovering from the week. It was a long week, y’all. But we survived. Saturday afternoon we did manage to get it together enough to run some errands. Zoey and Maia chose to come with us and then poor Zoey lost her enthusiasm. To be fair, our errands included Dollar Tree, Target, Sam’s Club, and a few other places. You can see the progression of attitude below. Ha!

5. Our Sam’s Club purchases looked somewhat sketchy this week. I only needed a few things but our cart ended up looking like a mix of college kid meets serious dieter. We had everything from edible cookie dough to rotisserie chicken to doughnuts to tomatoes. Very random. 

6. When we were leaving Sam’s Club with some serious bad attitudes we saw the most beautiful rainbow in the parking lot. Instant smiles. Mother Nature knows just how to turn around a bad afternoon. 

7. Mason hung out with friends at a party and got to go bowling. He loves bowling so much! We only got to go bowling once this summer so this was a nice treat for him. I love the friendships he has made at this school.