BUSY & Kara Turns 15

Kara turned 15 on February 12th. She had multiple days of celebration. First, the Mitski concert. Then, we celebrated as a family on Saturday, February 10th. Kara wanted us to go to a park, have a picnic, and hang out like we did on Thanksgiving in Tennessee. We went to Fort Christmas. We tossed around a football, then Thomas made up a game where we played basketball with the football. The rules were that once you had the ball, you either had to pass or shoot. It was pretty fun. Then, we played baseball, had our picnic and left.

Just a picnic in the park.

That night, we had Kara's chosen dinner, meatballs, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. She made her own cake again this year. It was a fancy strawberry recipe with vanilla buttercream. It was delicious, but we agreed the strawberry flavor wasn't quite strong enough. 

Sunday was the Superbowl and my friend Bevin's baby shower. Bevin's daughter, Beya, is Luke's age and Luke was invited. He was the only male in the house and felt a little awkward, but toughed it out. Beya was the first friend Luke made when we moved to Florida. Then, they were in the same Kindergarten class. They are also in the same class this year.  After the baby shower we came home and watched the Super Bowl. Thomas was in first place in our work poll (about 70 people) and he had to pick the correct winner to stay on top. He chose the Chiefs and we were very excited that they won.

The week passed busily. The girls had a lacrosse game on Kara's actual birthday. It was a varsity game, but the coach let some of the JV girls play, including Kara and Anna. Their team won handily. There is a big dichotomy here in lacrosse. Some teams have never played and some are really good. I would say our team is in the middle. We have had three games, we lost two by a huge margin and won one by a huge margin.

Jack had track practice everyday. He is running distance and feels like he is making improvements. And, of course, Luke still has baseball. So, every day it is a minimum of 2 activities, and some days 3. Thank goodness the girls are doing the same thing or I don't know how we would manage! We thought about pushing Jack on getting his license (which he is on board with), but there is no parking for Sophomores at the high school, so it wouldn't do us much good. We still plan on having him get it around summer time. Then, we will focus on Anna, and then Kara. Ugh!

The girls also had their first JV lacrosse game this week. The coach appointed Kara as one of the captains (just for that game). She played a lot and did really well. Anna had been sick and missed two practices this week, so she didn't play as much. Oh, speaking of being sick--Luke had strep throat last week and was home for three days. 

Kara playing in the "draw"

Blurry shot of Anna (had to zoom way in, she was across the field)

I am writing this on a Saturday. Kara has a few friends over for her Valentine's/birthday get together. I am hanging out in my bedroom. Luke was supposed to have a baseball tournament, but it got canceled for weather. So, the boys went to Arcade Monsters. Anna is also avoiding the party, she is hanging out in her room.

Kara and I were proud of how cute the pretzels looked.

With most of the party snacks.