Happy SEVENTH birthday Alex!

Oh snuggs, the day is finally here - you're 7!

You, sweet boy are a delight.  You're sweet, thoughtful, incredibly handsome, goofy, happy, kind, smart, athletic and full of joy!  

You are the MOST excited kid I've ever met and I LOVE that about you.  Literally everything gets you excited.  When you were little you used to wiggle your hands in little circles anytime you got excited and now you just jump.  Got a hit in baseball - run to first base and jump in excitement.  Watching a baseball game, jump in excitement.  Playing nintendo, jumping on the couch in excitement.  Find out Jakey is at the front door waiting to play with you, jump in excitement.  It literally is all day long.  And I love it.  Big or small thing, you're SUPER excited.  I worked from home a lot this past year and any time you went outside, I could hear your excitement spread through the entire neighborhood constantly.  You are full of PURE joy and it really is contagious.  Every coach and teacher you've ever had has pointed out this quality in you and I would have to agree.

You LOVE all things baseball and are convinced you'll be a baseball player and an inventor when you grow up.  You're in the first grade this year and you are LOVING it!  After you went virtual when covid hit last March you weren't so sure about going back to school in the fall.  You are my homebody for sure!  You didn't mind much when the world shut down for a few months and you were left virtual learning on the ipad, playing with neighbor kids, reading, hitting your wiffle ball around in the backyard, bike riding and watching PLENTY of Dude Perfect.  So when school opened back up this fall, you were a little nervous about going back.  But you, sweet boy, are ROCKING it and LOVING it!  And I'm so proud of you for it!  Your teacher is a GREAT fit for you and is challenging you and pushing you and its really starting to show.  You came home yesterday and declared that you LOVE writing!  Which is funny because that was our BIGGEST struggle in quarantine - getting you to write.  But you worked SUPER hard this summer writing out your Bucks and Brewers scores (from last year since noone was playing) and you got SO good at it! 

Your favorite thing to do - hit the wiffle ball around in the backyard.  I think you did it just about every day during quarantine.  Here you are so impressed that there is ICE on your bat that you left outside overnight.  Never too cold to hit the ball around! Even if it is only September here....

In fact, you love wiffle ball SO much that when Mama suggested a wiffle ball birthday party you were ALL over it.  You had an absolute blast playing a pick up game with your friends and neighbors.  You skipped around the field with a HUGE smile on your face the whole time.  You were in HEAVEN!

And let's not forget when you went to open your gifts and got your very own pack of orange tic tacs!

You LOVE a good snuggle with daddy.  I love the way you both laugh SO hard when you watch TV -here you are watching Dude Perfect.  You discovered it shortly after quarantine started and I think you have watched just about every episode.  

Oh that crack...... you still can't quite figure out how to cover that up.  You may have a bit of a reputation for it these days..... Someday you'll figure out how to get those pants up all the way.  Right?!

Your first day of FIRST grade!!

Bring it on!

You ADORE this woman here.  If there is one blessing that has come out of quarantine, Hope is DEFINITELY it.  After camp shut down we were struggling to figure out a plan for the summer.  Hope was looking for a nanny job and saved the day!  She is SUCH a good fit for our family and you and Makenna both just love her to pieces.

My rockstar writer.  You are SUPER interested in all things president and assassinations and are becoming quite the little smarty pants. 

You are still loving our morning mama time, which I absolutely TREASURE.  This has been our favorite book to do, and we are on our second time through.

We were SO excited when we made it to the ballpark this year AT LAST!  It was only a Milkmen game but it felt SO good to do something normal!

Did I mention that crack?

Daddy was SO excited to coach your team once again this year.  You had a GREAT season and are SUPER exited for next year when you get to play for the JUNIOR CHARGERS!

Fishing - oh kiddo, you love to go fishing with me.  It's one of my favorite things to do with you and I wish we would have made it out a few more times this year.  I'll never forget that first "large mouth bass" you caught - lol!

Yep, this is totally you - blankie and baseball.

When you and Daddy found out the Brewer game was FINALLY on but only on MLB tv, you snuggled up and watched it on daddy's phone.

More fishing

Our one and only family covid test (so far!)  Thankfully we were all negative and after one short day of quarantine complete with binging on Dude Perfect and movies we were back in action!

I must admit this hand holding is happening less and less and that makes me a a little sad...however that quarantine haircut hair pictured here I do not miss. Oops!  Sorry, buddy!

Those eyes.......

We invested in a batting cage right when the world shut down and it saw a LOT of action this summer!

virtual learning

Your Thursday night zoom story time... in the patio deck box.... with your crack hanging out for good measure...

Let's not forget the RECORD you set in pop a shot!!

On Monday's this spring you didn't have any e-learning so we tried to get out and go into the city on adventures.  One day we found this amazing little trail by the lakefront and you and Makenna had SO much fun!

more e-learning...

Another Monday adventure..... riding bikes around Miller Park

Your first Thursday night zoom story time with your teacher

Let's not forget about your obsession with cracking open the coconut this year....

Living your BEST life

You really did LOVE quarantine.

You lost your FIRST tooth!

Oh kiddo, you are going to be a heart breaker....

Inside and out, you, sweet boy are such a gift.  

The things you say continue to crack us up on a daily basis...

"Wiffle ball is my love language"

"Wiffle ball is my happy place"

"Clamson"

"Calepittar"

"Walicha State (Wichita State"

And things you are into:

-Books, books and more books - mostly ones on the Presidents, Assasinations and baseball

-Playing outside with Jakey, playing 500 with the neighbor boys after school, lots of wiffle ball, throwing the ball against the front door, LOTS of pitching and video games when mama actually lets you play

Favorite foods:

-Orange Chicken

-Culvers

-Honey nut cheerios

Favorite shows:

Dude Perfect

Quick Pitch

Flip or Flop (with mommy)

Any sports you can find - in quarantine it was a lot of

PGA bowling with daddy

Best friends:

-Jakey

-Griffin

-Caleb R

-Will

-Ben

Happy birthday Alex!  

 

Kennagirl is TEN

Oh Kenna girl, how can it be?!  10!! 

You, my dear, are turning into quite the AMAZING young lady right before our eyes.  If I had a dollar for every time Daddy told you how beautiful you are I'd be RICH!  Truth is you are beautiful on the inside and the outside.  Seriously.  We're in big trouble when you get to the dating years! 

Where do I even start with this year's post. Gah!  I'm LOVING this age - so much!  I feel like you and I have really connected even more this past year and I'm so amazed by you.  You're sweet.  You're silly.  You're gorgeous.  You're kind.  You're funny.  You're crazy. You're conscientious.  You're aware.  You're observant.  You're smart.  You're such a joy and a delight to be around. 

This year I wanted to make your birthday a little extra special.  I had a handful of women that know you well write you letters of encouragement.  As each of them poured in these past few weeks, each one made me beam with pride. I'm so proud of you and each of the qualities that they all laid out.  So much truth. You, sweet girl, are such a joy.  Your zest for life is contagious.  Your energy is unmatched. God is going to do some AMAZING things with you.  Heck, He's already started. 

This year, your faith has gotten stronger.  You're starting to ask more questions and make your faith your own which is so exciting to see.  I hope and pray that in the next year your faith just continues to grow.  Keep asking us the question.  Keep learning and growing. 

You have been a ROCKSTAR in this quarantine. You've had SO much taken from you - friends, school, your last year at Woodside, your plays, Kid Blast, Sunday School and the list goes on.  But you, sweet girl, just keep on smiling and bringing joy to our family in the midst of this chaos.  You wake up in the morning with a smile on your face (and beautifully perfect skin and hair - daddy is amazed by this every morning) and that joy continues throughout the day.  You love life so much and you spread that joy to everyone around you.  

Another one bites the dust. I'm so proud of you for trying out for Music Man even after getting a few rejections leading up to it.  You gave it your all at the audition and I was so proud of you for landing a role in the ensemble. Even though you never made it to the stage (darn you COVID!), you gained so much great experience rehearsing with the cast in the initial weeks.  

I think he'll still try to do this when you're 20!  

You are a ROCKSTAR basketball player. I LOVED coaching you again this year!  You are such a great teammate - always the biggest encourager on the bench and a great teammate on the floor.  You're a STRONG player and I loved bragging on all your great moves to the hoop and your STRONG boxing out this year.  You had a GREAT season & kept your cool (mostly) against some really great competitors. 

You are the BEST big sister.  You love Alex so much and while that love sometimes comes out more like motherly love, I know it all comes from a sweet place. There is nothing sweeter to this mama than watching the two of you work together on things - playing card games, building legos, the Tiny Talk show, making videos, playing catch - I love how much you love each other (well,most of the time).

You LOVED Kid Blast and all the dress up themed weeks.  You totally rocked each one and were SUPER brave in inviting your friends to come along. I'm so proud of how you reached out to each of them in faith and invited them to come.  And of course,you were always quick to makes sure they had fun too!  

I'm SO thankful your softball season will go on! I know it might not look quite as planned, but I know you're going to rock it. You've been working pretty hard on that pitching and I can't wait to see you light it up on the mound this year.  

I'll never forget the day I picked you up from school early for the orthodontist and you found out that you got Veruca Salt!!  That squeal you couldn't wait to get out until we were safely outside the school - ahhhhh.  I'm so proud of you.  And although we never got to see the play come to fruition (darn you COVID), I'm certain you would have rocked it!

I have LOVED every minute of our mama-kenna time this past year.  From coffee shop bible dates to movie dates to shopping dates, I really do love spending time with you. 

Oh my llama crazed girl!

This year we had our first annual mama-kenna black friday extravaganza and it was SO. MUCH FUN!  Oh my, I can't wait to do this every year with you. We were silly, we were crazy, gosh I love hanging out with you!

Gosh you're just so pretty!

Remember that time you lost 2 teeth in a matter of about a minute?! 

You and your 4th grade girls

I fear your American Girl days may be coming to an end soon ....... I'm thankful for friends like Maddie that you can get together, get our your dollies, play dress up and just be kids. 

Always such a fashionista

 Wow, that one is surely going to make me cry...  First day of first grade and first day of 4th grade.  Gah. It's been quite the ride little girl.  You've been a rockstar through it all.  This year's wordle says it all:

Your teacher had all the kids in your class say one word about you.  The bigger words represent multiple people using that same word to describe you. I love it. 

Makenna, I love how much you love your friends.  Whether we see them only once every few years 

or just about every day...  You are such a good friend. You can read people so well and that is such a gift. I hope and pray that God will continue to use that in such big ways.

Fly high sweet girl

Keep loving your mama the way you do!

Never give up on your dreams

Keep learning new things

And keep bringing joy to EVERY situation!

Now let's talk for a minute about this guy.  Holy cow is he ever crazy about you.  I know you know because he tells you 100 times a day, but gosh he loves you.  He would do ANYTHING for his Kenna girl.  I love watching the two of you together - from on the field, to deep talks in your gray chair, to silly moments goofing off, you two have a blast together. 

I do also  love that you aren't afraid to match me (yet)!

I love how you are always willing and excited to try new things!  Catcher, Catcher, Kenna girl!

Ugh. We sure do miss our Brewers this year, don't we!?!

Kenna you've grown up so much this year and I've loved having a front row seat to it all. I love you more... MOST and I'm looking forward to all the amazing things 10 will bring!

Happy Birthday Kenna girl!  We LOVE you!!!