Weekend with Mama and Papa

While Matt and I were in Quincy, the girls were hanging with Mama and Papa in DG. They had so much fun and were exhausted when we got home!

On Friday night, they went out to Culver's for dinner!

On Saturday, they subbed on their old park district soccer team. They had so much fun playing with their friends. The team would have had to forfeit if the girls didn't come, so Coach Alex asked if they would play. They ended up winning 5-1 and Morgan scored 5 goals! Here are some videos from the game that my Dad sent me.

 

     

 

Saturday afternoon, they celebrate Hunter and Beckett's birthdays at Aunt Erin's house.

On Sunday, they woke up super early for a soccer game with Roadrunners. They had to be there by 8:00 AM and it was at least a 20 minute drive. They spent the rest of the day playing with friends and cousins and relaxing at home. Then, they met up with my aunts and uncles for dinner... silver dollar pancakes and chocolate chip pancakes!

Ancient Greece

Avery's gifted class is learning about ancient Greece... about the gods, mythology, etc. and also about the architecture. The class had to build a structure to hold books. Avery's group held the most books/water bottles/etc. Future architects at work! :0

 

10

Oh my, where to start... the girls are 10! Double digits! I look at them and remember the day they were born! I have loved watching them turn into the amazing girls they are and am so excited for all that their future holds! I try to cherish the moments now when they still tell me everything and let me hug them in public (sometimes). I know one day that will stop and I'm totally not ready for that.

We celebrated their actual birthday on Wednesday with early morning presents and Oreo Ice Cream cake for dessert!

Let's see.. a little update on each of them...

Avery is involved in dance (tap and jazz), piano, Girl Scouts and soccer. She is a smarty pants.. she does accelerated Math and is in the gifted program at school. She also loves theater and is currently doing the after school theater program. She's driven and strives to do the best job she can at school and whatever she sets out to do. She's stubborn (gets it from her Dad) and likes her alone time (also maybe from her Dad). She is a girly girl and loves to dress up, wear earrings and fix her hair. She loves making slime and playing Roblox with her friends.

Morgan is involved in soccer, karate and recently started violin with the school orchestra. She has the biggest heart! There isn't an animal (or bug!) alive that she wouldn't take in and care for if she could. She takes such good care of Milo without even being asked. Her love for soccer keeps her busy a lot of the week. And besides that, she is a green belt in karate (Tang Soo Do). She volunteers to be a leader during karate class and is determined to get her black belt. She is a total Daddy's girl and right now a hug from Daddy can solve all her problems! She wants to learn all the Tik Tok dances and loves playing Roblox with her friends.

We are so proud of these girls and wish them all the wonderful things that being 10 will bring!

Richard and Marcia's visit

Richard and Marcia stopped in Downers Grove on their way across country. We went out to dinner on Monday night to Maggiano's, which gave the girls another reason to celebrate their birthday! They even dressed up for our "fancy" dinner out!

On Tuesday night, the girls had soccer practice, so we ended up ordering pizza at our house.

Matt and I were able to meet up with Richard and Marcia on their way out of town for brunch on Wednesday at Citrus Diner. Always great to see them!

Tired girl

All the soccer games and slumber party has worn this girl out...

10th Birthday Slumber Party

The girls decided to have a birthday party together this year and wanted to make it a slumber party! We don't really do sleepovers with friends yet, so I don't know what I was thinking when I said yes! Ha! But, there were 9 girls that came over for the party. We had given their friends the option to do a "sleep under" and not spend the night and three girls went home around 10:30. So, we ended up with 8 girls sleeping over (including Avery and Morgan). That was plenty! :)

I picked up some balloons to decorate the house with... a lot of balloons!

Since Matt and Morgan were gone all day at the soccer tournament, Aunt Erin came over to help Avery and me with the set up. She was a life saver... I wouldn't have gotten it all done without her! Aunt Sandi made t-shirts that said "Slumber Party Squad" on the front and each girl's name with "10" on the back. She also made water bottles for each girl with their names on them. They were all so adorable and I'm so mad I didn't get a picture!

Morgan testing out the photo props when she got back from her soccer game!

The girls arrived around 6:30 (like seriously all at once!). We had lots of activities planned in case there was boredom, but the slime making was the biggest hit. And the messiest by far! They started off at this table, then quickly moved everything to the island.

We had hair extensions and LED flower headbands that the girls loved.

Then, we opened gifts. Everything was just one big whirlwind!

This is a selfie from one of their iPads

I have no more pictures from the night unfortunately. One of the little girls had an allergic reaction we think to Milo's fur and I spent some time helping her out. Luckily, everything worked out and the kids all had an awesome night (and she was able to spend the night as well!)

But, other things we did after the gift opening... the girls had pizza, of course! The girls also decorated their own cupcakes and had those for dessert. Messy again, but fun. Then, we played a few games. One was pass the gift around and the girls loved that. Then we played a version of This or That to see who knew Avery and Morgan best. Turns out the two girls that knew Avery best also knew Morgan best (or at least they were good guessers!) I think there was a massive hide and seek game, too. Eventually, the girls got tired and we put on the Descendants movie. Most of the girls were asleep by 11:15, which I consider a huge success! Only one girl got up in the middle of the night and I think she was sleep walking because she doesn't remember any of it! Ha!

The next morning, Matt made breakfast for the girls on the griddle. Pancakes, french toast, bacon and sausage! Then they played some more... some played soccer in the basement. They used the karaoke microphones to announce the game! Avery played Roblox with Emily away from the craziness. Then, we built a massive fort with all the girls' blankets and they had popcorn!

I was an exhausted sweaty mess by the end of this party! But, I think all the girls had fun! Avery was a little overwhelmed at times with the craziness of it all, but said she loved it! Morgan had a blast even though she was so exhausted doing this and her soccer tournament. Will we do it again??? Ask me in a few months after I've recovered. :)

We've got a big weekend in store...

So, this weekend is the girls first big slumber party at our house... are we crazy?!? Yes, probably! We'll see how it goes!

Also, Morgan was asked to sub for the Black #1 Roadrunners team in their soccer tournament this weekend. So, in addition to her slumber party, she'll be playing at least 3 soccer games, maybe 4.

I'm pretty sure the Plothows are going to be exhausted by Sunday night.