Peyton Turns 16!

Sweet 16!

Happy Sweet 16 to Peyton! She turned 16 in Mexico and had another birthday celebrating while on vacation. That's the beauty and the curse of birthdays during the holidays. You're never with your friends or celebrating with them at school but if you're lucky, you're on some trip somewhere celebrating. And, Peyton usually is. 

She celebrated her 1st birthday in Mexico and 15 years later we finally returned so she could celebrate her 16th one there too (and Hailey could visit Mexico for the first time). 

We woke up to sunshine and warm weather - it was nice we weren't in Chicago with freezing temps and snow. Went to breakfast overlooking the ocean and then back to our room for presents. Peyton got all Alo apparel. If it's not that or Aritizia, Brandy Melville or Garage these days and some Princess Polly for dresses thrown in there then she's not thrilled by it. I had also bought her a key chain that she wanted for her car keys and wallet when she got her license. But she ruined that right after Xmas when she declared she didn't get it so unbeknownst to me, she went out and bought her own so she got one less gift! 

Workout attire

Peyton wanted to go to the beach so we spent the day at the beach and headed in for a late lunch before going to workout. Peyton got all dolled up for her workout - complete in Alo workout attire (which is way too cute for working out in my opinion). 

After, she had picked the oceanfront restaurant for dinner (no idea why she wanted to go to that one but it turned out to be one of her least favorite restaurants of the week. We went to some better ones later in the week and I think she regretted picking that one but who knew?! 

She's looking forward to getting her license when she returns to the U.S. (we have an appointment on Jan. 5th) and galavanting around with her friends. However, Austen is home for the next two weeks too so I'm sure they'll be battling it out for the car. 

Peyton is also deciding on her big 16th bday gift - a trip to LA, a concert she wants to go to or something else. She hasn't decided yet....but since Austen got a big 16th bday gift, she's banking on one too. 

Happy 16th Peyton! May all your wishes come true! 

Ice cream for her bday, yes, please!

Presents!

Xmas 2025

What a whirlwind Xmas 2025 turned out to be. With just 3 weeks to enjoy the Xmas season and shop, it was hard this year to squeeze everything in and really enjoy it. I like a good 4 weeks between Thanksgiving and Xmas. It gives you ample time to shop and a whole other weekend for parties and fun. 

Merry Xmas Eve

Still, we managed to get all of our shopping done, presents wrapped and attend several holiday parties before December 24th. Plus, we got to enjoy having Austen home for almost all of December, and he won't leave to go back to school until January 18th or 19th. (We may be ready to see him go by then!)

This season, we didn't walk any light shows and had no plans for holiday plays. Hailey asked where the elves were and I told her they didn't follow us to our new home. We knew she no longer believed and was trying to get us to admit that there is no Santa Claus so I told her the truth from a very wise "post" I saw and kept saved. The truth is that we are all Santa Claus. It's the act of giving without expecting anything in return. We all are Santa Claus all year long when we give to charities or when we exhibit a small act of kindness or are a big help to others - all without getting anything out of it. That's believing. That we can all make a difference by doing things and expecting nothing in return. It's the message I want to leave my kids about this season of giving. 

Anyway, Xmas Eve this year was a quiet one since our family celebrations were both on Xmas Day. So we enjoyed a leisurely brunch at our favorite restaurant, Buttermilk. We finished up some last minute food prep for items we were bringing to Xmas Day events and then we got ready to go to church. Came home and had a bunch of appetizers/dinner and watched Home Alone. (The night before we played a variety of games and watched movies). 

Xmas morning, we were up early to open our presents and then head to my brother's house for the opening of our extended family presents at 11am. We were there almost four hours before heading to the city to enjoy some time with Tom's family. We left about 9:30pm and were home by 10pmish. 

So fun to catch up with family including all the older nieces and nephews. Now on to New Year's! 

The Szurgots

G Cousins

Gifts!

More Gifts!

More and More Gifts!

Cheer Competition

Even Hailey came to cheer for her big sister!

Peyton had her first cheer competition of her season last week. She competed as a rec cheerleader in competitions when she was younger but as a high school cheerleader, only the Varsity team was scheduled for competitions until this year. And, while her goal is to make Varsity next year, as a sophomore, she is on the JV cheer team. 

The cheer teams at her high school have not competed in recent years or been required to tumble until just a few years ago. Because they do want to compete, the coaches are now requiring certain tumbling skills to even make the team. 

Peyton has worked hard on her tumbling skills and earned a coveted spot "on mat" - the entire team must try out for these positions as not everyone on the team makes "mat." The routine required her to do a standing back handspring as well as a round off back handspring. Positioned in the front for most the routine, she jumped, she danced and she looked animated in her first competition of the season. And, although their flyer fell (their stunts looked a little rough the first go round), it wasn't because of the bases. You can see the flyer clearly loses her balance after bringing her extended leg in way too fast.

They came in third place out of 10 teams and probably could've gotten at least 2nd had their stunts been a little more polished. So they went back to the drawing board to rework these stunts for their next competition on Friday and Saturday. 

We can't wait to cheer her on! 

Front row, bottom left (JV cheer team)

(Look for Peyton in bottom left corner and then follow her around the mat)

Hailey's Parent Teacher Conferences

Hailey - 6th Grade

By the time your last one reaches 6th grade, you often wonder if you really need to still attend parent-teacher conferences! Or at least I am! Most of the time, my kids are doing pretty well in classes and sometimes I'm even embarrassed that I booked a conference with a teacher to talk about how my kid has an A in a class. However, the reason why I keep signing up for these conferences is that it's nice to put a name with a face and have them know/learn more about my child. 

So I picked four conferences with Hailey's teachers - Advanced Math, Science, Social Studies and Advanced Language Arts. She has As in all of these classes but it was so good to have these conferences because there was a common theme running throughout them in most of my discussions with her teachers and that was that she tended to be more quiet in class especially during discussions. 

I forget that Hailey was a really shy kid when she was little. In fact, her Montessori school took her to be tested because she literally did not talk. Of course, we knew she did talk but she definitely is the quietest of my three. 

Now I had been noticing this the last year or so at the dinner table. Of course the discussions always revolved around Austen's college or his soccer and then Peyton would pipe in to make sure she had some of the attention too. Hailey was just a quiet observer during these discussions, even when we tried to pull her in. I thought it would get better when Austen went to college - no more college or soccer talk but it didn't. Peyton just monopolized the conversation more! 

So now, after these conferences, I'm challenging her to come out of her shell and be an active participant in these family discussions so in turn she's a more active participant in her classroom discussions too. I'll report back in six months to see if she's improved but with Austen home again for the next month or so,  she's really going to have to work at participating in the conversation. 

Thanksgiving 2025

 It was a nice, long Thanksgiving break starting with Austen arriving home a full week before Thanksgiving Day. He kicked off his break by eating a lot at home and at Ruth Lake (where he misses the sushi) as well as seeing many friends including his roommate whom he just saw for three months! It's good to know they aren't sick of each other yet. 

Peyton always ruins the photo

He did spend some quality time with us too at dinner, playing games as a family and watching some movies as well as practicing his golf on our new golf simulator. Surprisingly, he also studied a lot more than I was thinking he would. Now that his room is on the 3rd floor, I don't necessarily go up there all the time but every time I did, he was studying. That's what I like to see as he heads into his first semester finals his freshman year.

Tom worked late the Friday and Saturday/Saturday night before Thanksgiving so I was making sure the girls got where they needed to go for sports/practices and getting everyone fed. Sunday was a grocery shopping day and Monday and Tuesday, Tom headed to work for a bit before coming home 1/2 day on Tuesday to help prep. (Peyton also had school those two days.) I did venture to Hailey's school conferences on Monday (more on that in a follow up post) and got the table ready to host 17 - I'm glad I figured that out early since my Thanksgiving idea only had 16 place settings!

Tom and I then officially kicked off Thanksgiving by heading to our friends' house for a Friendsgiving on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, we did some more prep and the girls and I headed to a movie before Tom and the kids went to another Chicago Blackhawks game (Tom always gets awesome tickets and this time scored a skybox for four). 

Blackhawks game

We enjoyed a nice and relaxed Thanksgiving in our new home with family (who still can't figure out our curvy driveway). On Friday, we canceled our annual tree cutting for Saturday that we've been doing with friends for at least 25 years due to a blizzard forecast. We were all sad to not catch up with our friends and pick out the perfect tree. But we knew the storm was coming so we went to the local Lions Club tree lot where we hoped to pick out a great tree but the tallest they had were about 7-8 feet for $185 and I thought that was too short for our now 12 foot ceilings. So off we went to another tree lot where we found a 10-foot tree that cost us $400!! Now don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful tree but we literally would've pad 1/3 of that price at a tree farm and had much more fun! 

But we accomplished the goal and that was to buy the tree on Friday so when we were snowed in on Saturday, we could decorate the house and the tree and that's exactly what we did. So it all worked out. It was a cozy Saturday and we were all hoping when we woke up on Sunday that the roads would be cleared enough for Austen to head back to school and they were by 5pm when he left. The goodbyes weren't too tough this time since we'll see him in another week as he's done with most of his finals/presentations by December 8th so he'll be home for a good 10 days before taking his car and driving back for his one final (oh the beauty of being 2 hours away!). But we are looking forward to seeing him again soon. 

Grateful this Thanksgiving to know he's thriving at U of I and that our family has adjusted a bit to having him gone. Thankful too for our beautiful new house; cherished friendships with both new and old friends; time spent with our extended families; and of course our good health. Truly blessed. 

Thanksgiving Dinner