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Life with a Teen


It’s official!  This beautiful girl is a teenager!  We celebrated by a best friend coming over before Charly left town, eating at Noodles and Menchies with her birth family, and then the next day -- the actually birthday -- her friend, Ava, came over for cake and presents.  Another day Kate got to go to a lake with another good friend, Margaret.  She is so loved.  I was glad we could surprise her with a hoverboard to ride around and that she has the new iPhone she’s been wanting so much. She is paying for it with her own money too. I’m so proud of her for figuring out how to work for what she wants. 

Right now Kate likes the color yellow, eating Pad Thai, watching Ashley Garcia on tv and her current favorite movie is The Sandlot.  Her new favorite game is Roblox, she really wants to visit cousins in Utah, and someday she would like to be the founder of a cosmetics line.  Kate is a pro at making her friends laugh, make up and pointing out all the things I could improve on. She is excellent at paving the way for her younger siblings. I am a better parent because of her. Thank you, Kate, for being my oldest child and best teacher.  I have always loved teenagers, even when I was one, and I am so excited to be entering these years as a parent.  Kate and I are already dreaming of driver's licenses and all the excitement that comes with becoming independent.  May this year be the beginning of a wonderful, chaotic journey.
Michelle’s last week of Mom Camp was wonderful and included time at the Creek, making sushi, and having a backyard camp out. I’m glad I took my turn first because the bar was low back then. Lol.  So grateful she has been able to spend these weeks with wonderful friends during a pandemic.  She was also able to attend a backyard campout with some of the girls from our Girl Scout troop one night and loved catching frogs, jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler going, playing with their two dogs and sleeping in a tent.  A big thank you to Helena's mom for having girls over.
A blog post this summer couldn’t be complete without a picture from Danny’s last baseball tournament this season. He’s already looking forward to fall ball.  I am too!  The coaches, players, and other parents have been wonderful.
Last but not least, Natalie seemed to fall in love with softball but not having to be in a certain place at a certain time wearing her uniform so I haven't convinced her to let me sign her up for the fall season yet but she is requesting lots of time playing softball behind our house.  I'm glad she found something she likes to do and playing together as a family is pretty fun.  (:  I must say, I was very impressed at how well these teams played in the rain and how much fun rain delays ended up being for the softball team.  This portion of the rain delay included playing hide and seek and who can get the rain umbrella the highest.  Watching Danny and Natalie play ball was definitely one of my happiest memories of the summer.


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