Happiest 17, Rowan!

 Happy 17th Birthday Rowan:

 

Celebration #1: Grandma, Uncle Randy, Aunt Nicole, Emmett, Otto and Linda

Rowan's first celebration was a lot of fun including Monica'ls pizza and Grandma's homemade thumbprint cookies. Celebrating alongside Emmett was just the icing on the cake (or cookie). 

Thanks for the card and cash, Baum fam! 

Thank you for the Vols t-shirt and extra cash, Grandma!

Celebration #2: Grammy, Grammy, Uncle Nate, Aunt Amanda, Jade and Jemma:

Rowan enjoyed his second celebration complete with Chipotle and cookie cake! He even received a few early gifts from Dad and me! 

Jersey and hat for the Cub's game we'd be attending the next day! 

Thank you for the cash and the gaming headset, Grammy and Grammy! 

Cash and Rowan' favorite treats completed this celebration! Thanks O'Connor fam! 

 

 

Thank you for the gift cards to his favorite food places Grandpa and Deona! 

  July 27: Actual B-Day: 

Rowan got to choose the activities on his actual birthday. He had a few more gifts to open up and some of his favorite drinks as well including a few Monster energy drinks, Fresca and a Saratoga water. 

Rowan chose lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings after church...

and then we headed to the movies! 

The evening consisted of gift opening... thank you for the card and check, Linda! 

New bat from Mom and Dad! 

Pete was excited about her first family birthday celebration.

Happy, happy birthday my sweetest seventeen year old! 

Rowan Christian: 

Seventeen. Yikes. It's cliche but I cannot believe that we are entering your senior year of high school and last official year of childhood. We are so incredibly proud of who you are. You are funny, strong, loyal and extremely capable. You know who you are and where you stand on a variety of issues. You are smart and cautious. This year brought a lot more growing up. Besides celebrating a full year of driving, you started shaving, you grew taller than Dad, you made college visits, drove "far" away with friends and stayed home alone overnight. No matter how old you get though, a part of me will always see that little train loving boy you once were. The Cubs, the Vols, pickleball, Chipotle and Marvel movies will forever remind me of this time in your life. 

Happy 17th birthday my sweet Row Bear. May this next year be slow and sweet. May you continue to find who God created you to be and what His purpose is for you. I know it will be great. You were an answer to all of my prayers seventeen years ago and I continue to pray that God would use you for great things to further His Kingdom. I love you so very much, Rowan. Always remember, you are never too big for your mom! 

Love you! 

July

 

Our little Pete and Kyle keep all of us, including Elsa, on our toes.

While Coco was away at a sleepover, we had a fun night out at the movies.

July 4:

We all went our own ways on the 4th. Rowan drove down to Boca Grande with some friends and spent the 4th on the beach, Cruz and Rog celebrated at home, and Coco and I celebrated with friends.

 

Cora's day started out with friend Subella

 

And ended with Haven and Aleyah.

Time with Friends:

All three kids have had fun with friends this summer from the beach to swimming to pickl ball to movies to birthday parties. Coco especially enjoyed beach days with her besties.

 

College Visit #2:

 

Happy 19th Anniversary! 

 

Tremaine Nationals:

Coco and I headed up to Orlando with our dance friends for a weeklong Nationals filled with convention, auctions, competition, meeting new friends and ending with a fantastic gala.

 

 

Cora's first set of auditions for the week were for the Tremaine Performance Company or TPC. This was her first experience trying out for TPC so she will most likely not make it yet but she's a step closer to her goal.

First day of class

 

Cora competed her beautiful lyrical solo "Invincible" by Tiffany Maher one last time. Since she is finished competing it, we can share the video. 

When the girls were not competing, they were busy cheering on their friends

Cora competed three group dances. All of them placed but these girls are particularly proud of their jazz group which ended up taking 3rd place and did consistently well all season. 

"Take Your Vibes and Go" by Ms Geena

We lost track but many Shirley Temples were consumed using our Marriott free drink coupons. 

We had some fun meals with friends combined with ramen and fruit in the room. Its all about the balance.

'

Sis looked beautiful at the gala and way too grown up.

New friends and old

Daddy drove up to take me (and Coco) out for a fancy anniversary dinner.

Illinois Visit: 

We spent six days in Illinois and got to see so many of family members. We started off at Grandma's with the Randy Baum fam. We ate yummy food, played games, played Kubb and celebrated both Rowan and Emmett's birthdays.

We then headed to Crystal Lake to celebrate my Grandma's 98th birthday and spend some fun time with our extended family.

We finished off the trip with a trip to Wrigley Field to watch our favorite Cubbies!

Getting to see Linda was a huge bonus! :)

It's so fun for me to see my kids hanging out with my cousins kids! We were always so close growing up and it makes my heart happy to watch this bunch.

GeeGee and her great grandchildren.

 

Cousin date night!

Rowan received his hat and jersey as an early birthday gift and Coco is wearing a shirt of mine from when Roger and I were dating! 

Rowan almost caught a Royals home run ball. He definitely would have if he had his mitt and hadn't gotten shoved over by the adult man behind him. Nevertheless, he did make it on TV and on the Royals instagram highlights. He was bummed that he didn't catch it because Wrigley tradition is to throw the home run ball back if you catch one from the opposing team.

Rowan was on the ground. Cruz was concerned, Roger was loving it. Thanks O'Connor fam for the footage! 

 

The best night. Possibly the highlight of the entire summer. 

Contemporary Solo: 

Coco finished up her first new solo called "The Black Swan" with Ms. Lisa

Nashville Overnight:

Cruz and I made a quick 24 hour trip to Nashville for his yearly EEG and neurologist visit. His EEG was not yet clear which could mean that he does not have BRE as we originally thought but another form of epilepsy that he may not outgrow. The next year or two will confirm that. Other than that disappointing news, Cruz and I had the best time together. We ate Jersey Mike's in our hotel room, watched Marvel movies until the middle of the night, ate delicious Hattie B's hot chicken, made a couple Sonic runs (just like old times) and finished up with an escape room. Cruz is such a kind, sweet, fun kid and I had the very time with him. 

 

We all miss Sonic ice cream! :) 

 

Year 8 visiting Tristar Children's.

Our game master was more generous with clues considering it was just the two of us but I thought we did pretty well figuring it all out! Love my Cruzy Bear.