After an action packed November full of family birthday celebrations, we kicked off December with Paul and Elise's golden birthday, turning 8 on the 8th. We went big (I think I say that every year) with a private party at a Ninja Warrior Gym (they love the show American Ninja Warrior), old school video games, and movie night.
The Ninja warriors
During a very funny game of Telephone at Elise's get together
video game playing with his oldest friends
Paul is a sports maniac. He loves playing and watching sports. We wish he'd read more than just before bed and play with Legos more but he's doing great in school and stays on top of what we ask him to do... most of the time. He's more knowledgeable about fancy fast cars than I am by a landslide and it is often a topic of conversation during car rides. He'd rather do push ups than hug his sisters but the moment a teammate scores a goal or hits a run in, he is all about initiating celebration hugs. What I really didn't expect from him is how much he enjoys and is good at playing with babies and little kids. He's that kid who will play peek a boo with a baby he doesn't know. Go figure. He is a Nike loving, shorts in cold weather wearing, whistling, goofball.
Elise keeps me guessing. She wears her emotions loudly. Every facial expression you can imagine is exaggerated. She does not hide her feelings, only candy and her tablet from time to time to sneak screen time. She's a complete ham when she's in the comfort zone and likes to provide the element of "what did she just do and say?" on a regular basis. Whether it's saying she wants to be a boy so she can pee standing up, saying blood is her favorite food, saying she wants to change her name to Malificent or defying something Mom and Dad ask her to do on a daily basis. She loves to read, listen to music on her boom box, and come up with random things to create and do on her own. Elise is a jean shorts over tights wearing, book loving, homebody.
Paul and Elise won't admit they love each other yet love playing together. They wrestle and make up creative games regularly. They fight like crazy but make up quickly. Paul is quick to walk away and cry and Elise is quick to yell and get mad. They continue to be in the same class at school but with different friends and different interests at choice time and at recess. Elise says he tattle tales too much on her and Paul says Elise shares too many secrets about him to others.
Turning 41 this year was heartwarming. I enjoyed my entire Birthday week by spending time with my favorite people. Watching the sunrise after a morning tennis session with Lily and getting surprised by a breakfast get together with friends were definite highlights
My Dad turned 82 and he loves good food and family traditions. He has great taste. Jake's Crawfish is fantastic. He definitely dined exactly how he wanted and we were all happy to take part.
Oma turned 78 and she definitely deserves a do over. Knee pain mixed with agonizing tooth pain made it hard for her to enjoy the day. She's a trooper and rallied as much as she could to enjoy a very low key day with family. Moxie decided to jump on Oma's lap on her Birthday for the first time. I truly believe cats can sense when something is off.
We hosted Thanksgiving this year with my parents, just the 7 of us. I'll remember Nate made really a moist turkey, we enjoyed a visit from friends for dessert, introduced the tug toner to my parents, and got an improv silly performance from my kids after dinner.
Our yearly Girls Night crew family get together, friends for almost 20 years. 13 kids between us in the last decade. Boof.
Moxie is ready for the Holidays.
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