Sports Seasons = Done

We finished up all our sports a few weeks ago. Peyton had her cheer banquet and Hailey's basketball team made it to playoffs where they had a weekend of games earning their spot in the finals. 

Hailey definitely grew as a basketball player this year. She became a more aggressive player - chasing down those loose balls and grabbing the ball when she could to force a jump ball play. She had a number of steals and in the end a few rebounds too. 

I saw her dribble the ball between her legs in a game and make a 3-point shot this year. She definitely improved from last year and has a desire to get better as she went to the park close to our house at least three times in a week to shoot some baskets. She'll continue to improve her skills by doing some ball handling training in the spring since she did not want to play softball again, and will have time to pick up something additional.

She'll also be continuing to skate and hopefully moving into the Intro to Hockey level (not sure where this will lead but she's enjoying learning so we'll keep at it). She just finished a cooking class that was every Monday after school that she enjoyed as well. And, she's finishing up her final religious education classes too after confirmation. 

Peyton continues to take some tumbling classes to prepare for her spring cheerleading tryouts for next year and has an interview to be part of a "link crew" for the school helping freshmen and new students acclimate to the high school. She will continue to lifeguard this summer too at the club she worked at last year. 

Austen, on the other hand, had to get a new job this summer since they are redoing the golf course where he caddied the previous summers. But, he found one at one of the clubs in the area doing golf services (cleaning carts, clubs, etc.). He's excited about being outside and around a golf course and having more hours this summer (with no competitive soccer) to make some money (which he realizes he needs to support his college lifestyle).

I can't believe how quickly this year has gone and that spring is almost here (despite the snow on the ground right now). Soon the kids will be moving on to sophomore year in college, junior year in high school and 7th grade! Trying to enjoy all the moments - even the ones where I get yelled out for not allowing a 16 year old to go to the city of Lollapallooza! 

2nd Place Champs (Hailey back row middle)

Peyton is Such a Princess!

Today, Peyton comes home from school and told me a bird pooped all over her car! I told her that happens to cars. Well, she said, that's soooo embarrassing. 

I told her to go clean it off if it was so bad. "Ew!" she said, "I'm not cleaning that! I already texted Dad to clean it off!" She then said that she's not driving that car (until said poop is cleaned off). 

OMG, what a princess! That's part of owning/driving a car (which she doesn't pay for!). I then told her she could take the bus tomorrow if she didn't want to drive the car/clean the car. 

We'll see what she does. She'll probably convince Tom to clean it. But, she said there's no way she'd be caught dead driving that car with the poop on it! People would post her picture on the "Barstool" - which is a social media site that her school uses to post funny things. 

I guess she'll be taking the bus tomorrow then because I certainly won't be cleaning it (unless she leaves it outside in the rain tonight which would be another good option!).

Hailey Makes Her Confirmation

And that's a wrap! We have successfully ushered three kids through religious education classes receiving many of their sacraments including confirmation. 

Hailey and Papa

It's been a journey through 2 parishes with us changing churches so Austen could make his in 8th grade instead of 10th grade. We returned to the first parish once they hired a new priest (who is fabulous and made you actually want to go to church to listen to his homilies) and after a year there he changed the confirmation age from 10th grade to 6th grade. So Peyton made hers in the 7th grade since that was the year she was in when this change was made. A few years later, Hailey entered 6th grade and her final confirmation class. 

She's the one that is probably my most "religious" but she has complained relentlessly about 6th grade confirmation classes and how utterly boring they are - of course most of her friends are in the Sunday class but they tell her it's the same on Sundays and her teachers are actually nicer. She used to love going to religious education classes but this year it has been hard to convince her to go and they must still go even after confirmation. She says no one goes and especially now since she made her confirmation (even though they are supposed to). In fact, after dropping her off last week, she sent me a text with a picture saying "Thanks a lot Mom, I'm the only girl here!" I did feel bad and promised her that since she has not missed a class since the start of the year, that she can have two free misses - her choice. 

But, she did make her confirmation on a Friday night at the end of February with Papa as her sponsor. (Papa has served as the sponsor for all three of my kids. They all said he's the most religious person they know!) We bought her a white dress (even though they wear red robes over them now), had a nice dinner and ushered off our Madeleine (her confirmation name) to confirm her Catholic faith.  Bishop Spies led the ceremony, which we were initially disappointed about because Father Mark is so good and we wanted to hear from him, but Bishop Spies was absolutely wonderful too. It's such a breath of fresh air to have priests that relate to the kids and the parents. He gave an amazing homily about having a favorite quote from the Bible and being able to recite it and it mean something to you. He shared one that he adopted as his favorite in the 6th grade and it was about friendship (which so many 6th graders could relate to) and yes, that verse could've been talking about your peers who were your friends but he was really taking about allowing Jesus to be your friend. It was a great way to relate to these confirmandi. 

Anyway, Hailey (Madeleine - the patron saint of girls rights and education) was confirmed. We had cake (bundtinis) afterward to celebrate the latest sacrament for Hailey. Now she just has 7 more classes to go until she's totally done with religious education (we'll see if she uses one of her free passes to miss tonight - it's actually confession/reconciliation today but I'm not going to tell her that. After all, she had one year less than Peyton and two years less than Austen where she had to go to religious education classes so I think she's made out just fine). 

Celebrating with Hailey

Papa gave her gifts

Hailey processing in (w/ her friend Bree behind her)

Hailey Confirmed with Sponsor Papa

Peyton Gets Her Braces Off - Finally!

Last Day with Braces!

Last week, the day came after 2 years and 7 months where Peyton finally got her braces off! Every time we'd go for an appointment over the last 7 months, she would get so angry when they would tell her almost there but not quite yet. "Will I ever get these braces off?," she whined. "Do you think it will be before Spring Break?" she asked. Well, it happened. Finally. 

And, while she still has about four more appointments with the dentist to work on her fake tooth and put a veneer on her peg lateral, she is almost there and they are going to look great. In fact, they are already looking great and they aren't even totally done yet. We have about 6-8 weeks to go but she is in the final stretch. 

I'm just looking forward to her actually smiling with some teeth in her pictures now. She refused to really smile with her braces on for shots so she would have these closed lip smiles for the last 2 years and 7 months. 

Your teeth can make all the difference in how you look but also in your confidence too. It certainly has for Peyton.

The Finale!

Beautiful Smile

Be Mine 2026

Valentine's Day 2026 - I'm sure Tom and I will get back around to doing something for ourselves for Valentine's Day when our children are all grown and gone but for now our Valentine's revolves around them. (Although we did make them go to Michigan that weekend.)

Pink Mocktail

Hailey had a birthday party on Friday night but after she got home we took a late ride to Michigan. Of course, our house had not been cleaned in about four months so once we arrived, we needed to all pitch in and dust, vacuum and kill some spiders as well as clean some bathrooms before heading to bed. We did about an hours worth of work (well, Tom and I did) before the girls went to bed. Austen wasn't there so his  tasks got divided up amongst the girls or rather we shuffled some tasks down the pipeline. Peyton did more and Hailey did something (we'd always let her out of cleaning before but not anymore). 

On Valentine's morning, since we had no food in the house, we went out for brunch to a new place that Tom had recommended. We got in right away (probably because it was the off season) and the food was pretty good. I'd go back. After that, we shopped and walked around a little before heading back home to finish our cleaning. (I am always grateful when do clean that we didn't put more bathrooms in that place.) I cleaned out the kids' closets (always clothes they grow out of up there while Tom and Hailey went down to the beach.) After that, we headed out, grabbed some hot chocolates and did a story book trail that was a bit lame but we got our steps in. Then we went to Meijer to buy what we were going to make for dinner - cheese and chocolate fondue. 

We all pitched in for dinner. It was definitely an experience! The cheese fondue is certainly better at a restaurant but still we dipped our steak, apples, broccoli and sourdough bread into the melted fontina, gouda and havarti cheese. We all gave it a 6 or 7 (ha ha) out of 10. The chocolate fondue turned out a bit better and we gave that more of a 7 or 8 out of 10. We dipped pretzels, marshmallows, angel food cake, bananas and strawberries into the rich chocolate. The high light might have been the pink mocktail we made. Now that one was good!

It was a unique Valentine's experience coupled with a nice Michigan sunset. The girls opened Starbucks gift cards and candy from us and we all went to bed fairly early as we needed to head back home early Sunday morning for Hailey's game. 

Happy Valentine's Day 2026!

Valentine's Brunch

Hockey Mania!

Hailey or as her friends call her "Mrs. Bedard" has an obsession with Chicago Blackhawks hockey star Connor Bedard. Ask her anything about his family, favorite food or favorite color and she knows them all. So anytime she has a chance to watch him in person she jumps at the chance. 

Recently, Tom had special tickets to a dinner before an actual Blackhawks game with a high profile retired player and then they had the chance to watch the game. It was a Sunday night and while I like her in bed at a decent hour on Sunday nights due to her late basketball practices twice a week, I couldn't say no to this opportunity. So off they went on a Sunday night  to this dinner and to see the Hawks (Bedard) play. (Peyton and I had dinner together at Peyton's restaurant of choice where she was happy to have me all to herself and get Andy's Custard for dessert.) The special guest was Jeremy Roenick. Tom won a signed jersey. Hailey got to see Bedard, and I think they won (maybe?). It was a good night.

Hailey has also been improving her skating skills to someday get on the ice with a stick. (She attends a lesson once a week but I think she'd be happier if it was every day.) I think she still has awhile before that happens and she's actually playing hockey. As a kid who becomes obsessed with things - Wings of Fire books, certain boys since she was little - I don't know how long this obsession will last. It's been over a year now but there could be worse things than liking hockey so we are going with it and encouraging her skating and her love of watching the Blackhawks (Bedard).

With Retired Blackhawk Jeremy Roenick

Last in Line

I didn't know how much Hailey was missing Austen until she had to say goodbye again after the Xmas break. He was home for almost six weeks so we really got to see him a lot and spend a good portion of time with him but still that wasn't enough for Hailey. 

Our Last in Line

The day he left was a crazy day. Peyton had a cheer competition and Hailey was at her friend's house and we weren't sure exactly what time he was leaving. Peyton had said goodbye to him the night before but the rest of us wanted to say goodbye too. During the cheer competition, he texted us that he needed a ride to his roommate's house to go back to school so Tom went and grabbed him at home while I got Hailey from her friend's house and raced to say a quick goodbye. Goodbyes are never that easy but he was ready to go back and we were going to see him again within the next month to six weeks or so. Eight weeks at the most. On the way back home, I happened to look in my rearview mirror and noticed Hailey crying. "Oh my gosh, what's wrong?" I said, completely unaware that this goodbye had affected her so much. "I hate him leaving," she said. She proceeded to tell me all the reasons why being the youngest child is hard. It's like being left behind. 

I should have known that this was coming. There were signs. A few weeks before she had penned an essay for a writing workshop at school titled, "Last in Line" and it was all about her brother and sister leaving for college and how she would be the only one left - the one left behind. She even read her intro and concluding paragraphs at the dinner table one evening for us all to hear. 

Now we did try to tell her all the benefits of being the youngest child. All your parents' attention (of course only the good). There will never have to be a divide and conquer (especially for college visits as Peyton kindly let us know this weekend that not "all of us" will be attending her college visits). Plus, you learn from your siblings' mistakes. But she wasn't moved by any of our arguments that being the last sibling is probably the best position. For the record, Austen wishes he was the last child and so does Peyton. 

She is in a unique position especially amongst her friends. While many of her friends are third born children in families of three or four (with a few first borns thrown in there), none of the older siblings have left for college yet so she's the first one experiencing this shift in her family. And, she's feeling all the emotions of that shifting dynamic. 

Don't worry, Hailey, Austen will be home soon to see you. But in the interim, I'm sure Peyton will terrorize you enough so you feel differently about her leaving for college (although it was nice of you to include her in your essay). 

Happier times with Peyton

The three