My twin brother, Greg, bought a lot at Linn Valley Lake this summer which came with a camper and a few headaches, but they have it up and running, looking good, and a paradise for kids!  He invited our family to come check it out on Saturday but it was becoming quite clear the weather was not going to cooperate.  Therefore, we made a quick decision to make an impromptu visit down there on Friday.  We were done playing baseball for a bit and our family can’t sit idle for long, so we grabbed leftover bday party food and drinks, some swimsuits & fishing poles and drove 50 miles South.  We still had a little bit of daylight left so we were able to be on the lake for a bit.  The kids enjoyed the lilypad, wave runner, some cousin time, and meeting the DeFrancesco family, old friends of ours from Olathe.

The kids were able to do some 4-wheeler rides too (I think Morgan and Alyssa were trying to scare me!)  I see driver’s ed in their future.

They were also able to do some fishing on a pond that is near the DeFrancesco’s lot.  Quite a few snagged and tangled fishing lines and some lessons from Papa but in the end, several fish were caught so I’m calling it a success!

Greg’s lot also came with a zipline.  He had to buy the trolley and the super cool light-up seat to get it moving and now it’s pretty awesome…except at the end you have to weave through some trees to make it out alive….

This is what happened to Morgan on her first time down…

Here are the war wounds to show for it…

and after 2 days…

Just cuts and bruises but that sealed the deal for me.  I probably won’t be getting on that zipline until that tree is cut down!  Needless to say, this did not deter any of the kids and I bet Reece went on that line about 30 times.  It also turns out that it’s not the best idea to ask the kids to pack for an impromptu lake trip.  Reece forgot underwear!  Oops!

We had a great dinner on the grill and started in on the fireworks.  I told you…this is a paradise for kids!  There was a fireworks stand a couple miles away and I’m sure Brian is frantically hiding all evidence of how much was spent, but either way, we had so much fun watching the show.

We ended the night with some night-time ziplining and s’mores and got ourselves back home about midnight.  We are loving our time there and counting just a few bug bites.  My sister-in-law keeps us in line on our bug spray – I swear she reapplies bug spray about every half hour, it’s hysterical!  Thank you Greg, Brandy, and kiddos for having us and hope we can invade your place again soon.  Don’t worry…we’ll bring food, bug spray, and work gloves.  Love your new summer paradise…

 

 

Yep…still got that funny grin!  Maybe by the time Fall ball comes around we will have a few more teeth but for now, I’m still saying it’s his good luck charm.  Even though, these kiddos came up one short in the semi finals, they still ended up taking 3rd place out of 20 teams!  This has been the never-ending KS State baseball tourney.  We played our 3 pool play games on Thursday and Friday and won them all.  Due to weather, we didn’t play on Saturday and Sunday, and the tourney continued into today.  Drew played 2nd base and made lots of great plays, numerous good hits, and many compliments from the crowd…super proud to be his mom!  His little school buddy Beau hit his first homerun this tourney which was very exciting as well.  They are fun to watch!

Behind this sweet smile is a bit of sadness that they didn’t advance to the final game, but we are perking up here as the afternoon continues (nothing a little AppleTV can’t fix).  As the season comes to a close, his baseball pants have definitely seen better days and he’s moved on to a 2nd pair of cleats.  Drewy, keep playing hard buddy, you are a great ball player and we love watching you!  Go Bulldogs!

 

 

 

Morgan is thirteen.  I’m going to say that one more time.  Morgan is thirteen, and even if I say it a thousand more times, I can still hardly believe it!  My baby girl is a teenager?  How did that happen?  I’m a mom of a teenager now!!  In my eyes, she’s one fabulous young lady!  Morgy, I’m so proud of all you’ve accomplished in your life thus far and I look forward to seeing the wonderful things you will do in the future.  You are so special to this family!  However, I do wish on a daily basis that you were still a baby 😉

She’s been so excited for this milestone birthday and I was bound and determined to make it special for her even if that meant barely sleeping for numerous nights.  She truly is deserving.  She helps out so much in our household and becoming a teenager is a big deal! I created a photo book for her of the last year and a video (and she got a new phone!).  I was hoping to get the video on YouTube to share in this post but that is proving to be a little harder than I thought.

Because our family schedule is so crazy, the only time we could find to celebrate was in the middle of the week!  Over the last few months, we discussed when we could have her party over and over again and it was driving us all nuts, even her aunts!  Yes…we are reduced to that now…a family meeting over bday party scheduling.  What is this world coming to!?  She wanted to do something special with her close friends so we planned a “Plaza Sleepover.”  Morgan rarely has sleepovers (thank goodness) but since this was a big bday we decided that would be fun especially if it involved spending the night in a hotel.  We got a babysitter for Reece & Drew (thank you mom, you rock!) and grabbed her sweet friends from school (Emma, Ava, & Ellie) and headed down to the Plaza with snacks, games, and party favors in hand.

We checked into the Marriott and the girls got a really nice room with a semi-panoramic view of the plaza.  perfect!  and Brian and I had a room right next door.

We got settled in then went to lunch at Chuy’s where the girls sat at their own table.  I guess it’s probably more fun to not sit with your parents.  They were so cute and I had to laugh because they all ordered off of the kids menu even though they are all 13! ha!

We shopped all around the plaza until about 5:00pm then went back to the hotel and the girls played cards and headbandz and ordered Minsky’s pizza for dinner.  These girls are so sweet, kind and mannerly, they let me take their picture multiple times.  If this were my boys they would have been moaning and groaning for sure!

They all freshened up and got into cute dresses (thank goodness we bought one for Morgan during our plaza shopping because she hadn’t packed an extra outfit).  They looked so adorable!  I was sending pictures throughout the day to their moms and I had to laugh when Emma’s mom, Stacey, was caught by surprise when she saw Emma in a dress that was Stacey’s.  Apparently Emma had raided her closet while she packed.  Yep…we are already at that stage where we can share clothes with our daughters!  We walked to the Melting Pot for chocolate fondue.  Morgan LOVES going there for the dessert…she’s a chocolate lover through and through.  They sat us at separate tables when we arrived but they were right next to each other and we quickly realized that they didn’t want us so close so Brian and I ended up in the bar!  I think we are kind of fun and cool but maybe we aren’t!?

We had a great time there but it was getting late and time to walk back to the hotel.  The girls tried on their party favors…personalized towel wraps.  Adorable!!  They looked so cute and they were giving me tips they have learned about photography.  I could definitely learn some things from these girls!

By 10:00a.m. the next morning I decided to knock on their door…they were sound asleep!  Morgan is normally an early riser…have we already entered into the ‘sleeping in’ phase!? We had missed breakfast at the hotel by now but thank goodness I brought the breakfast of champions….donuts, cinnamon rolls, and mini bundt cakes.  This is the way to start your day out right isn’t it!?  Hey, it was Morgan’s actual birthday and I’m a firm believer in eating whatever you want on your birthday.  We lit her candles, sang her happy birthday, gathered up our stuff and returned her friends back home.  We had so much fun…a nice break from our day to day activities.

And when we arrived home we discovered that Aunt Jenn had come over for some late night room decorating.  She had 13 balloons in her room with pictures attached.  So cute and a great surprise for Morgan!

I already had everything packed up and ready to go to Lake Quivira for her family party at the Yacht Club that was happening that evening.  This is A LOT of stuff…I wished I had taken a picture of it!   Running on adrenaline at this point…and hoping to transform that Yacht club into the best 13th bday party ever!  It’s actually quite nice on it’s own, a beautiful setting but we like to go all out on our celebrations!  My devoted helpers…Aunt Jenn, Nanny, Brian and Morgan helped so much hanging things and covering tables etc.  Without their hands, I would have been there all day and potentially passed out on the beach.  Reece and Drew were so cute just hanging out on the beach swimming around and gathering up shells.  I think they may have gotten the better end of the deal!

That evening we all gathered to celebrate.  The kids spent 99% of the time in the water…swimming, jumping off the diving board, playing in the sand, and fishing.  It was very hard to capture all of this on camera because it’s a lot of land to cover between the yacht club and the beach area at the Lake.  So I’m realizing that maybe I should just hire someone to come take pictures!  We had great food and a beautiful cake that we decided may have been prettier than our own wedding cakes.  lucky girl!

I think the ants were having a great ‘ol time as well.  Their bellies are full I know for sure.  We ended the night with morgan opening her gifts and the hi-light was probably Reece’s gift.  The boys had already purchased their gifts and wrapped them when Reece realized she didn’t have anything for her.  Bless her heart…she scurried around the house and picked out several little treasures that she thought were Morgan’s favorites and put them in a gift bag!  She was so proud of what she had done and the thought she put into it was so adorable.  We all know that she LOOOOVES Morgan.  She spent a couple of days creating her card.  Morgan thought it was a birthday cake but I quickly tipped her off that it was actually a jellyfish (she needed to turn the card upside down!)  hilarious!

My helpers came through again and helped me clean up and we had everything loaded back into our garage by 11pm.  I still have much to do to clean up but every little thing I touch from the party makes me smile about the celebration we just had.  I feel completely blessed to have a sweet 13 year old and many friends, neighbors, and family members that always show their kindness towards my kids.  Thank you for making this a very special memory for Morgan and for our family!

 

P.S.  MoMo, in the words of our friend Jamie Borgman, You are gonna rule the world one day! 😉  Love you to pieces.