To Emily On Your 11th Birthday

 My sweet Emily,

As you have now informed me, you are officially a TWEEN!  So crazy!  Only 2 more years until you're officially a teenager.  I need time to slow down now.

This has been such a weird year.  When covid started last March, I would have never expected it to still be so bad at your birthday, but here we are.  You were the one that struggled the most with the stay at home orders.  You are such a people person and an extrovert; you missed your friends, activities and school so much.  I was so glad for you when we finally started being able to get out again.

Even though there are so many things you're missing out on, with this being your last year of elementary school, you've made the best of it and rarely let those things bother you.  In fact, I think missing out on all of those things might be harder for me than you.  You have loved being back at school and seeing all your friends.  You have a couple good friends in your class, but none of your besties.  With that said, you are having a great year in 5th grade.  I know you are more than ready to move up to 6th grade though.

You are truly one of the kindest people I know.  In fact, I've had several others tell me the exact same thing.  You are an extremely hard worker, very rarely complain and are super loyal.  You hold your friends very near and dear to you.  I couldn't be more lucky to have you for my daughter!

You're still heavily involved with soccer and do tumbling on the side.  This soccer season has been a little bit of a struggle, but I feel like you're turning the corner and will soon be playing your best.  I still love sitting on the sidelines and watching you do your thing.  You may be the smallest out there, but you never let that stop you.

Emily, I am more proud of you than you will ever know.  We love you and I hope you know just how special you are to us.  I hope you have the happiest birthday ever!

Love,

Mommy

Emily Turns 11!

Emily's birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, which is her busiest day.  Not only does she have school, but she also has soccer practice and math tutoring.  Even will all of that (and covid), we tried our best to make it special for her and let her know just how much she means to us.

We surprised her with bday yard signs.  Thankfully, the rain stopped in the afternoon so she could go out and see it.

Emily requested to make her own bday cake this year, so that's just what happened.  She made it the night before, so it was all ready to be eaten on her bday.  It was quite good.

We were planning to celebrate with her friends in November.

Emily's 11 Year Old Stats

 Here are the stats from Em's 11 year old well visit:

Weight : 69.6 lbs (18%)

Height: 54.29 in (19%)

Vision: 20/20

I was a little worried as to whether or not Em grew in the last year, but she did.  She grew 2 3/4 in, so I was excited about that.  The nurse said she should continue that pace for a while still.  

Evan's First Communion

 After a 6 month delay, Evan finally got to make his First Communion at church.  He was a little nervous, but mostly excited.  It was done a little different than normal due to Covid 19.  We were only about to have 6 people attend, so Mimi and KK were the 2 special guests that got to come with our family.  Evan sat with us and the priest came over to him.  Mimi, Papa and KK came over for dinner afterwards to help him celebrate.

September Little Things

After 3 weeks of virtual school, the kids finally got to start back in person.   They were so excited!  The kids have started riding their bikes to school with their friends.  They love the freedom of riding by themselves to and from school.

Mimi and Papa got Evan some rollerblades for his birthday.  We got him a street hockey stick that he could use with them and practice his hockey skills.

For one of Evan's school assignments, he had to write about a special person.  Even though I was the one that helped him every day with virtual school, he wrote about Shawn.  sigh.

Labor Day Weekend Hunting Trip

 Just like the last several years, Shawn took the kids dove hunting over Labor Day weekend.  Normally they stay in a hotel, but this year they decided to switch things up.  Shawn rented an RV and pulled it to his brother's lease to sleep in.  The kids had a blast, as usual.  

As for me, I stayed home and hung out with friends.  

Kid's Bathroom Remodel

 The kids bathroom has been in bad shape for quite some time.  We kept telling them that if they would keep their bathroom cleaner, then we would remodel it.  Well, I'm not sure if that happened, but the time finally came where we couldn't look at it anymore, so we took the plunge and did the remodel.  We've decided that we will move Evan downstairs in the near future, so that each kid will have their own bathroom.  Since we decided that, we let Emily have more input into what she wanted the bathroom to look like.  She decided that she wanted a white bathroom and that's just what she got.  I love the way it turned out.  We still have some decorating to do, but all the major things are done.

Shawn did the demo, but we hired the same company that did our kitchen remodel.