11

Somehow he turned 11, and is the coolest kid. We're so lucky to have Tyler in our family - like jackpot lucky.

 Glazed donuts for school treat Friday:

Last basketball game before playoffs and the Golden Knights won!

Mini golf, arcade games, and Islands burgers for dinner. What a treat - Kim and Lexi are here, too.

Plenty of presents from near and far. Shopping with birthday money and he came home with lots of Legos. Happy this kid still loves legos so much.

Tyler! I'm so aware that you're growing up. We're in our last year and a half before middle school. And although I can tell you're right on track and the future is bright, I'm gonna soak up this time before things really start to change. So proud of you, and happy to celebrate another year. We love you Tyler!

Likes:

Baseball

Basketball

Dodgers and Lakers fan

Legos

Xbox

Rey

Primary

Frankie and Kaiden

Church friends and scouts

Reading (currently all Rick Riordan)

School

Star Wars

Great eater and will try anything (growing!)

Cheeseburgers
Root beer and Izzes

Menchies

Fantastic listener and rule follower

Super trustworthy

Super student

Best big brother

True friend to Audrey and Tyler

Maureen!

When Maureen told me she was performing in San Diego, I knew I had to try to see her. Thankfully it all fell into place and Adam's parents came down for the weekend to stay with the kids. Maureen and I performed together at CLOC years ago and became forever friends, family really. She is now my famous opera star friend. I just love spending time with her and her husband, Jesse. It was fantastic to see them.

Adam and I stayed at a great hotel downtown, right by the opera. We ate a quick dinner at Tender Greens, then walked to the theatre for Falstaff. Hadn't seen an opera in years, like maybe since MET coat check days. It was so fun. Love that both Adam and I can appreciate these kinds of dates! The sets, singing, acting, orchestra were all wonderful. Maureen was my favorite, and made me cry/gave me chills at least twice during the performance. I am biased, but it's the truth - she was fantastic and could listen to her all day.

 Went with Jesse and Maureen to the opening night reception. Love these two!

The next day we got to meet their son, David! He is just perfect.

I have a picture of Maureen holding Tyler at the exact same age. I have to find it!

Lunch and walking by the beach, just the grown ups. Maureen's mom stayed with David.

Love friendships where you pick up right where you left off. I wish we lived closer, but am so glad that we've kept our friendship up all these years. 36 hours wasn't enough time, but I'll take it, and can't wait to see them again! Also great to spend time just me and Adam - a belated anniversary/Valentine's Day.

Science!

First science project ever. First of many, I'm sure. The Effect of Caffeine on Plants. He did it all himself, really. Go Tyler!

Family Day

We snuck into Disneyland yesterday! A "morning of" surprise for the kids. Happy for family time - all five of us (perks of hiatus?) February is always a great time to go to the park, and weather was so gorgeous.

Plus we snagged a birthday pin for this almost 11 year old, so lots of Happy Birthdays all day. We hit his favorite ride first - Star Tours.

Treats of choice, and happy birthday singing:

This one was happy/sad all day. He is going through quite a phase, let's call it.

Cutest California Adventure photo bomber:

Love these four so much. Glad to spend a day together away from to-dos.

Poor Audrey got carsick? Disneyland treat sick? Motion sick? Exhausted sick? Dehydrated? Whatever it was, it got her out of school today because I just felt too bad sending her.

Rey didn't seem to mind having one of the kids home with her all day.

Valentine's Day

Went on a 6 mile Valentine's Day run together, followed by Adam making me a berry vanilla protein smoothie. I got plenty of chocolate from my little Ladybugs, so I was happy with our healthy date!

Kids cleaned up! So. Many. Valentines.

Audrey got her first ever box of chocolates from a boy. Who has a crush on her. 

 Oh my and extra Skittles from Desi. I think it's kinda sweet because Audrey (so far) is very level-headed about boys saying they have "a crush" on her. She got more sweets than I did this year! Good thing she gives me the dark chocolate ones.

 Super fun day at school, and the mailboxes were filled by us, too.

Prep

Love getting ready for Valentines Day in elementary school. Happy Love Day.

Friend Party

Tyler isn't officially 11 for two more weeks, but when he said he wanted to do The Lego Batman Movie with Frankie and Kaiden, we decided to go opening weekend. Got popcorn, and our pockets were full of candy. These boys were happy, and it was a great movie.

Came home to pizza, present opening, video and board games, and cake!

Legos + baseball = Tyler

Tyler is such a super cool kid. I love watching him grow up. It'll be fun to keep celebrating him this month.

Track!

Track started today. I don't know much about track, really, but this club seems fantastic. Real family feel, and the coaches all seem so knowledgeable. Audrey had a great morning, and the weather was gorgeous after all our rain.

Audrey told me afterward she tested for distance and passed, so she can run with her friend Megan (who is a pretty experienced runner.)

Lots of drills - lunges, sprints, sit ups, planks, and push ups.

A great workout and really cool vibe. I'm glad our friends recommended Storm. I think Audrey is going to grow a lot this season - it'll be fun to watch (and learn!) If we like it, I'd love to see Tyler do cross country with them.

On a side note - this is how it feels to watch a basketball game with Cole. I got the better end of this deal today. Though I hear Tyler got a good basket.

Audrey Time

Cookies! First day at the stores. Audrey and Presley were great, and adorable, sales girls.

 This is how we watch The Super Bowl. With pizza and root beer, too.

 Audrey's school project: Visit a local landmark. We went to the William Hart Museum yesterday. It was really neat, and especially fun to have one-on-one time with her.

The mansion was really neat, and made me wanna watch a Western. Cool history from our area.

We are related!

They have bison! Actually 25 of them that roam the park.

It is pretty where we live:

Finished our Audrey/Mommy time shopping for track clothes and delivering more Girl Scout cookies. She was happy when I treated her to a Sprite. Lucky me I get to hang with this girl.