Megan's 13th Birthday Celebration

We started off Megan's birthday celebrations with present opening!

She received gift cards, money, clothing, shoes, a new cell phone case, and accessories for her room. She also received this inventive present that Sadie made:



Sade named it "family tree". Each "branch" has the name of one person in our family.

Then it was time to go and eat. Megan chose Buca di Beppo.



Sade has not been there in some time and kept pointing out all of the "inappropriateness" in the form of statues and pictures:



Sadie: "Look Jackson I'm Bunnicula." (Which was Jacksons last book club book)



For Megan's birthday we went to the Cancun Resort here in Las Vegas for a mini-staycation.

We let Megan have the big bed:



While the rest of us shared the pull-out sofa:



Not.

We spent most of the afternoon, evening and next morning playing in the pools and going down the water slides.





We spent our non-swimming time singing to Megan, blowing out candles, and staying up late playing games. (As a side note I won 3 games of Racko in a row! You would have thought it was my birthday.)



Happy, Happy 13th Birthday Megan!

At 13

I have a teenager!!! (Gulp)

 

At 13....

 

She has a love for her phone that borders on obsession.

She is a grown up gal, measuring in at 5 feet and 1/2 inch tall, and wearing a size 7 1/2 shoe.

 

Her love of reading has yet to make an appearance.

 

 

She is a dog lover, and forgives Tucker of all of his faults.

 

She is a very, very good swimmer.

She is alternately very annoyed and very loving towards her siblings.

 

 

She is alternately very annoyed, embarrassed, and tolerant of her parents.

Froot Loops continue to be her cereal choice.

 

She spends quite a bit of her money on ordering songs from iTunes.

 

 

She is helpful to me, always willing to clean something when I ask her to.

 

She has really straight teeth and it looks like she will never need braces!

She loves to act and hopes to do more of it this next year.

 

 

She continues to be good friends with both boys and girls.

She is a T.V.-aholoic. (kind of like me).

According to her, her favorite food is pasta, her favorite dessert is ice cream, her favorite candy is Kit Kat, her favorite soda is Sprite, and her favorite color is pink.

 

 

She continues to be orally fixated so you can almost always find her chewing on some gum.

She continues to become somewhat of a less picky eater.

 

She HATES the sound of silverware clinking together.

 

She is a learn things on her own type of gal, instead of a learn things from advice given type of gal.

She has started sleeping in a bit more than she used to. Often waking up between 7 and 8 am.

 

 

Happy Birthday Megan! You are one smart, gorgeous and hilarious girl!

Dry Land Summer Events

Every year we sign up for the summer reading program at the library, and then every year we lose motivation and don't complete it. Maybe this year will be different?

On this particular trip to the library Sadie AND Megan decided to get library cards. Jackson has had his for some time, but Megan had never wanted one in the past, and Sade had to be 5 to get one, so they both had been without.

I find this signature unbearably cute:



It's dreamy when they get along:



Last Monday we were scheduled to take another trip out to Wet-n-Wild, but when I received a text from Rachael informing me that it was super cold and windy, we changed our plans and went to the Springs Preserve instead to check out their new exhibit, Rainforest Adventure.



Jackson and McKinna checking each other out:



We all had to try out this contraption. It was somewhat difficult:






It wasn't horribly hot so we spent time playing outside, and visiting the gardens:



We even found a part of the Preserve we had never been to before! It was all about energy savings and recycling:



Pretty exciting stuff.

Soakin' Summer Events

I do believe the only way to thrive in Las Vegas in the summer is to swim. A lot. Happily I have  friends with pools, along with lots of public pools semi-close by.

Like the Hollywood pool. A definite favorite of the kids, but a bit far to visit too often:

 

 

And of course Wet - n - Wild! Also far, but worth it. My favorite time to visit is late afternoon/evening. And my favorite person to visit it with is Eric, so this trip was especially fun.

 

 

Sade's favorite slide:

 

 

She is of course a basket case the entire time we are there, UNTIL I tell her she doesn't have to slide down any more slides. These pics were taken after her and I quit sliding. Her joy could not be contained:

 

 

Have I mentioned lately how much I love these 4?