Happy 18th Birthday, Row!

 We celebrated our precious 18 year old over the span of several weeks. 

July 16: Grammy & Grampy

We kicked off Rowan's birthday celebration with some special time with Grammy, Grampy and the O'Connors (Hayden too!). We missed Cora who was still in TN with Claire. Rowan chose Nick's for dinner, opened pictures of a new desk chair and Cub's blanket from G&G and really sweet cards by Jade & Jemma who we met later in the evening for ice cream and Rowan's favorite cookie cake! 

July 20: Grandma 

We celebrated Rowan's 18th birthday (and Emmett's 7th birthday) in Morton with some family wiffle ball, Monical's pizza and thumbprint cookies! Rowan got a wake up light (much needed) and an American Eagle gift card (also much needed) from Grandma and some cash from the Randy Baum fam. 

The boys made Rowan the sweetest cards

July 26th & 27th:

Cubs, trains, video games and travel will forever remind me of the first EIGHTEEN years of our boy's life. On Sunday the 26th we went to church, Hayden joined in, and then had a delicious dinner at Outback Steakhouse, traditionally a family fav. 

 

The balloons were a bit of a fail as we did them at home and Roger overinflated and popped the 8. It's the thought that counts. 

Sibling birthday pic! 

Sweet Hayden 

Rowan opened gifts when we got home and was excited to receive a new laptop and.....

a new iPhone! It was the birthday of Apple! :) 

He was very excited to set it up! 

Thank you to Linda for the card and check! I somehow lost the photo! 

We wrapped up the celebration with cookie cake. 

Rowan chose to spend his actual birthday with all the people that matter most to him. Cruz, Cora, Hayden, Adrian and Cristian all came over and then we headed for a fun afternoon at Top Golf and a birthday dinner at Chipotle. We prayed for God to bring special people into Rowan's life and while he's never been the kind of kid to need a giant circle of friends, I'm so grateful that God provided him with these special people. 

Happy 18th Birthday, Rowan. 

I feel like this whole year has been reflective and sappy. I'm truly so excited for your future. I'm excited to watch you test your wings a little bit. I'm excited to go vote with you. I'm excited for you to grow into who God has created you to be this next year at Southeastern University. You are who you are, Row, and you've never been one to waver from that. It makes me feel proud and confident sending you off into the world knowing that. You'll inevitably question, make mistakes, and maybe wander a tiny bit off of your path but I pray that you continually seek the One who will nudge you right back where you belong. 

Some of my favorite memories of this last year:

-watching you grow to an official 6'1"

-cheering you on as you graduated high school

-playing mahjong all summer long

-standing by you as you made your college decision

-cheering as you played baseball and soccer 

-watching you learn how to be a boyfriend

-you choosing to be baptized 

-every single day having you live under our roof- you don't realize how special those days are until you watch them disappear. 

Welcome to adulthood, Row! 

July

4th of July:  

Rowan spent a week in Georgia with Hayden at her grandparent's cabin which happened to coincide with the 4th. Cruz, Cora, Roger and I attended a party at a friend's house.

Tremaine Nationals: 

Cora and I headed up to Orlando for a week of dance nationals. We dragged Cruz and Roger along with us too. Roger had a conference there for work and with Rowan being in Georgia, that meant that Cruz got to come hang out. We stayed at a hotel with a two bedroom villa and plenty of space. Cora had the best week dancing, competing her solo for the last time, auditioning for TPC and being in the very last cut of Dancer of the Year finalists. We ended the week getting dressed up and attending the gala with our besties. 

Traditional trunk pic! 

Year Two of auditioning for the Tremaine Performance Company. Praying that this will be her year.

Cruz was the most supportive brother. 

Besties

She can finally share her lyrical solo by Tiffany Maher called "When I Look at You." This solo was dedicated to Rowan. 

First day of convention 

Last year in the Preteen room. Next year she's a teen! 

National Scholarship Finalist (first time)

Beauty

Tiffany is just the best 

Us moms love her too. 

All of the MVPs from the season got recognized at the gala! So proud of Cora. 

TWENTY:

Rog and I celebrated TWENTY years of marriage in Orlando with a delicious steak dinner at Charley's with two of our favorite blessings in tow. We will celebrate again in November with a couple's trip to Morocco. 

Cora to Tennessee: 

Cora was brave enough to fly alone again this year and join Claire for her 13th birthday celebration in Dollywood. SO thankful for this friendship. 

Illinois Weekend: 

Roger and Cora flew separately to meet us in Illinois but Rowan, Cruz, Hayden and I left bright and early for Hayden's first visit to the great state of Illinois. We celebrated Rowan's birthday (more in another post), celebrated GeeGee's 99th birthday, had wonderful times with the Obermayer side of our family, visited Grandma in Morton, celebrated Emmett's 7th birthday and played a lot of wiffle ball! 

The whole fam celebrating GeeGee

Cubs Game

The Cubs Game group

The girls stayed back (most of us anyway) and had Starbucks,  got nails done and spent the evening at Activate. 

We packed up and headed to Morton where we played the most fun game of cousin wiffle ball. 

Everyone had so much fun! 

Looking at baseball cards.

Thank you Grandma for a wonderful time!

Jazz Solo:

Cora finished up her jazz solo called Love Me Not with Ms. Karyssa

Rowan's 18th birthday post coming soon but otherwise, that's a wrap on July. Two weeks until Cruz and Cora are back to school!