Happy 12th Birthday, Sean!!

 Holy cow.  How do I have a 12 year old?  Last year before being an official teenager?  Gahhh...

We spent his official birthday up north at the cottage on the lake enjoying the fall colors, the warm temps, and some swimming indoors.  He did some shopping at Dollar General (tradition up north) and had pizza from The Hearth and cupcakes back at the house.  It was a good day!

He was thrilled to get a Harry Potter Lego set to help complete his castle, tickets to Hamilton, and some East swag.  

We celebrated with my parents a weekend later by having brunch at The Sardine Room, looking at the scarecrows, and enjoying cake from an Italian bakery at our house.

The night before Sean had his friends over for a birthday party.  We took the boys to Zap Zone to play arcarde games and a game of laser tag.  The boys came back over to our house for pizza and cupcakes.  They played kickball at the park in our neighborhood and had a hoot driving in the back of Scott's truck to get there.  They also played Fortnite together on different devices when it got dark out.  

We capped off his birthday celebrating with Scott's family just this weekend by going bowling and out to dinner.  It was a fun night!

Sean is rocking middle school!  He's off to a strong start in all of his classes - even math!  He's coming home excited most days about school and his new friends and all the things middle school.  He went to 6th grade camp in Jackson for two nights that he had a great time at.  This week he has a Stranger Things Halloween Bash (aka dance) and he's been buzzing about that for quite a while now.  I can't get over how positive he has been about school!

He's finishing up fall soccer with another undefeated season and flag football.  Flag football was not the best, but he did what he could to help his team.  

He's rocking percussion at middle school too!  He's taking lessons once a week outside of school to make sure he's got it, but in the mean time, he's enjoying learning the xylophone and the snare drum.  

Sean's been having a great start to the school year both in sports and in school!  We are so proud of the young man he's becoming!  Seriously though...how is he 12?!

Fall Birthday Weekend Up North

 We decided to take advantage of Sean's birthday being on a Saturday and mine on a Sunday with minimal sports and we went up to Gladwin for the weekend!  Scott took a half day off work and picked up Evan early from school so that when Sean got home from school we could get on the road.  We grabbed food on the road and dealt with some construction, but made it up just in time to see the sunset and to take a fishing boat ride as it got dark.  Sadly, no one caught any fish, but we enjoyed the time out on the boat in the water.

We came back to the house and made spiked hot cider in the crockpot and a Halloween trail mix to have while we watched the new Hocus Pocus 2 movie that came out that day on Disney+.  It was good!  By then, we were all really tired and ready for bed.  After the kids were asleep, I decorated the entrance to the room the boys sleep in for Sean's birthday and played one hand of euchre.  Pops and I won!  

Saturday morning we all had breakfast and let Sean open his gifts.  He got a Harry Potter Lego set he had his eye on, tickets to see Hamilton when it comes to Detroit in November, a wallet, a watch, a sweatshirt for his new middle school and some pajamas.  I think he was happy with what he got!  

We got ourselves put together and ventured out into Gladwin for the day.  We stopped at a few roadside stands with fall stuff.  I bought the weirdest looking warty pumpkin, but I loved it and it was so cheap!  The kids had to stop at the Dollar General and pick out a few small things, as tradition.  And then we were off to the cider mill and hard cider place.  It was packed, but the weather was beautiful!  Their pumpkin spice glazed donuts are so good and the flights were delicious, as always.  We had to kill off some bees to enjoy ourselves, but luckily no one got stung.

We dropped the dogs back off at the house and got ready to head to the indoor pool.  We had the pool to ourselves!  I ran next door to the restaurant to order pizza, salad, and breadsticks to have at the pool and enjoyed watching the golf course as I waited for the order to be ready.  It was such a beautiful fall day!  The kids had a blast with the pizza pool party!  We came back to the house and played outside, went for another fishing trip (no fish were caught again...), and then sang "happy birthday" to Sean with cupcakes and ice cream.  The kids went to bed and the adults enjoyed more euchre and mini beers!  Pops and I were the weekend champions, completely shutting out Nana and Pops.  

Sunday was my birthday!  We had breakfast and then I enjoyed a really long walk around part of the lake by myself.  It was so peaceful.  When I got back it was time to shower and pack up.  The plan was to head into West Branch to do a hike and then grab a late lunch at The Highway.  The hike was just shy of 2 miles.  We didn't see any wildlife, but we saw some scat that we were trying to figure out the source.  The Highway had a bit of a wait, but it went by quick and then we were seated.  Lunch was delicious and we were all starving by then.  

We left right from West Branch and got home around 6pm.  We hit the ground running with unpacking, laundry, and helping Sean with math homework.  The boys watched an episode of Lego Masters while I worked on my Harry Potter puzzle.  Then, they all sang "happy birthday" to me before bed.  It was a great weekend!  Just what I needed...