Happy Birthday, Grandma Ballmer!

Ella's sweet Grandma turned 90! 

Man, she looks fabulous for 90! 

We teamed up with The Dougherty's and headed to the celebration together. 

Mama Heather did a fabulous with the invites, the decorations, the food (TIGER!!!), and the cake. 

So yum!!! 

Happiest of birthdays, Grandma Ballmer! We love you!

 

Eclipse 2024

Total Eclipse of 2024 happened right over our house!! 

I didn't get too excited about it until it happened. 

It was truly so cool!! 

The girls didn't have school and I was working from home. 

We got our special glasses!

Dad was at work but still sent his photo! 

It was truly so cool. And during totality, our street lights came on. 

Very cool experience for us!

 

Casino Night

The Athletic Boosters hosted our annual Casino Night! 

There were months and months of planning. 

Food, prizes, games, every little detail. 

It's exhausting but rewarding! 

I couldn't do it without these 2 ladies! 

We make a good team! 

Our before event shot!

And our end of the night bar celebration. 

I have no other photos. We were crazy busy and had so much fun! 

I didn't get to bed until after 2am and slept until 10 the next day. 

Thank you to our friends and family for helping us with a super successful night!

 

Happy 13th Birthday, Addycakes!!!

My sweet, sweet Addycakes turned 13! 

This is a milestone birthday so I wanted to celebrate BIG! But she had other plans. She just wanted a small sleepover with a Wonka watch party. 

I decided to do a little extra on the decorations. I bought these marquee numbers, which were awful to put together. So I called in reinforcements. 

They did a great job even though they put the lights in backwards. 

The day of the party arrived and my teenager was READY!!

Her cake. It was perfect. 

We set them up in the garage to eat. 

She wanted a nacho table!

All set!

Such a great group of girls! ZERO drama. 

It was so nice!!

When either of my girls have a sleepover, my most favorite photos are the next morning. 

I love how they are sleeping! 

A little pancakes and basketball before they were on their way! 

It was a very successful party! 

 

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!!! 

The girls slept until 8:30 which is the latest they have ever slept on a holiday. Ha! 

They woke up, went through their baskets, and promptly laid back down. 

They have evolved to no toys in their baskets so it's not as fun and exciting! Ha!

A couple of snapshots before church. No Dad though...he was smoking the ham. 

After church, it was back to the house where the family joined us for good food, fun games, and lots of laughs!

The cousins. Love them so much!

 

Happy Birthday, Lyla!

Four days after surgery, Ava Kate went to the cutest little Sweet 16 for Lyla! 

Ava and Lyla have been playing soccer together since they were SIX and now they play Varsity Soccer together. I'm so grateful for their friendship! And Lyla's Mama is pretty amazing too!! 

Happy Birthday, Lyla!

 

Lunch with Mrs. Schober!

With Ava healing from surgery, our Spring Break was pretty low key. So we spent some time catching up with people we don't get to see often. 

This one was the top of the list! I surprised Addy with Mrs. Schober!!! 

She was so excited and talked her ear off. We definitely miss her but we will see her some this summer. 

 

Ava's Surgery {Lip and Nasal Revision}

 Back in August when we visited Cleft Clinic, the doctor mentioned that he could give Ava a nasal/lip revision. We let Ava make the choice as she is old enough and mature enough to make the decision. 

She decided she wanted to do it!!! 

We scheduled it after all sports and she could take the time to heal. 

Her surgery was in Columbus so we went down the night before and grabbed Uncle Carl for dinner. 

We let Ava pick since she would be on soft foods for a bit. I wasn't mad when she picked The Cheesecake Factory! It was so yummy!

Her surgery was scheduled for early afternoon but they called us mid morning and asked us to come early. We snapped a few before photos.

All checked in and ready to go!

Quite the support system.

Surgery went amazing. She was originally supposed to spend the night but she did so well, they released her early! Since we still had a hotel room and were going to be close, the doctor was fine with letting her go. 

She barely had any pain and did so well. 

This is the before and one week post op. 

Happy Birthday, JoJo!!

Happy Birthday, Jojo!! We love you!

We celebrated with chili dogs and bundt cakes. 

 

Work with Mom

 What I have learned about high school, they get the most random days off school. 

The freshman class had a day off and Ava begged me to come to work. I got approval from leaders and she joined me for an entire day. 

She loved the fact that our bilingual agents helped her with her Spanish project! 

It was a pretty good day, but I think she enjoyed lunch time the most!