Owen wanted to go to Portillos with his friends. We sat across the room from them but close enough we could keep an eye on them. This is what they looked like the whole time.
Teen boys at dinner
Category Archives: Owen
My heart is melting.
And feeling a little sentimental because I miss this little boy. He’ll be turning 14 in about two weeks.
Introducing…Ivy!
We had a list of about 12 names we were considering, but Ivy won by process of elimination! (Some of the last to get eliminated were Sissy, Sadie, and Ruby.)
And of course Anna and David came over to meet her! Olive couldn’t get enough of her.
And as soon as Ivy got up… Olive took her place!
It’s official — I’ve lost my damn mind!
I’ve agreed to get a second dog.
We’d been thinking about getting a cat to have a friend/playmate for Olive, but long story short that’s just not a workable option…so when Tom found Boston puppies locally it sparked the discussion. I still have reservations, but Tom loves to remind me I’ve always said I wanted a fleet of Bostons.
So we discussed it with the kids (Katie was REALLY excited—enough to offer to pay for part!) and discussed it ourselves…and decided to take Olive to meet her and at least see what happened.
The lady warned us that “Sasha” was really shy so everyone was surprised when they got along! (Maggie never got along with other Bostons so we didn’t expect much.) They even ran around and played a bit!
We don’t have a name yet but we get her Monday. ❤️ (We had to put all of Christmas away first.)
BrickFest was a dud.
We’ve been to a BrickFest before in Virginia and it was AMAZING. So we were excited to go again… Except this one was a complete dud compared to that. Super SUPER disappointing.
There were basically NO displays—the previous one had city blocks, automation (think roller coaster), big things, little things, selfie stations…
This one had some giant creations:
and a very small area of smaller creations like this:
but that was about it. Most of it was lame (for older kids) stuff like “make and race a Lego car”
or “create a glow in the dark Lego” (which Owen did to at least do something).
The kids also did one square of a bigger design—which we would never see.
But man did the store and checkout lines take up a ton of space (conservatively 1/4 of the venue):
This was the best part for me—a local artist who did lilacs. I’m going to need that ASAP.
What was even more disappointing is that we were supposed to go with Anna and family—but long story short they got there after us and got stuck in a huge line and then we discovered it sucked so they just gave up and never made it in.
After we got home I decided to look up the last one we went to…and discovered it wasn’t BrickFest, but was BrickFair. UGHHHHH.
Tired kids
My view on Christmas morning!
Presents have been opened. Katie was thrilled Santa got her the Ouija board she asked for but was upset it “didn’t work.” Tom liked seeing what he bought me…and everything we got the kids. And now the kids have disappeared…so Tom is napping and I’m reading a book with a cuddly dog.
Olive likes e-learning days.
Our first ever visit to urgent care
Owen came home from school complaining of a sore throat. He said the dreaded words: it feels like swallowing glass.
Unfortunately… there were no appointments available at the hospital as everything was shutting down for the storm. So…I researched which urgent care we could go to and off we went!
Thankfully it was just minutes from our house and we got in quickly. We had to wait for a rapid strep test plus they took a Covid test. Strep was negative so it was off to Target for some throat drops. We did a rapid Covid and it was negative…so I just think he had a cold with nasal drainage causing the sore throat.
A cat nap. Dog nap? Boy nap?
WMS Holiday Band Concert
Getting ready to play in the jazz band! Watch for his solo!
And then an outfit change into a tux for the 8th grade portion!
It’s bedtime, kids.
It’s time to pick freshman classes!
Botanical Gardens Lightscape
Admittedly I bitched a lot beforehand about Anna making us go to Lightscape (I’m turning into a major homebody as I get older!)…but it ended up to be super cool and I have apologized.
Just chillin’
The Illusionists!
Getting ready to see The Illusionists thanks to Veteran Tickets Foundation!
Olive even helps with homework!
Pysanky lessons!
David wasn’t going to do it but then Evan didn’t want to finish his so David took it over! He did really well and it turned out cute!
Anna swore up and down she was going to suck at this but she did amazing with her very first egg! Now she can’t wait to do some more!
The second best part about Thanksgiving!
Holiday decorations go up!
Tom hauls everything up, puts the tree together, then comes back to do the star. Unfortunately the lights in the star were dead and we didn’t realize until it was attached.
Our first hosted Thanksgiving dinner!
I was so busy with a houseful of guests and dinner prep that I barely had time to look at my phone (so most of these are from everyone else)! But it was so worth it to have everyone together — from Georgia (Filipek), Michigan (Schwalm & Coe), and Illinois (Schwalm & Hudson). And our best friends joined us, too…and fit right in!
Then we did some reenactment shots!
I can’t believe it was 22 years between these photos. But we all still look the same, right?! Also: no kids in 2000, six kids in 2022!
Let the family festivities begin!
We excitedly volunteered to host the Schwalm side family thanksgiving this year—Filipeks usually host in Atlanta but they’ve recently downsized and didn’t have room. We had plenty of room for everyone (most even stayed with us—kicking the kids out of their rooms of course)!
Everyone had varied arrival times, but by Wednesday afternoon everyone was here! It makes my heart so happy to see my kids having fun with their cousins.
Dinner for 21 is served! Charcuterie that takes up our entire kitchen island!
Career exploration at the Shedd Aquarium
After some initial super frustrating snafus with actually getting everyone INTO the aquarium, the three boys (and three parents) took a “deep dive into the day of an aquarist—the animal care staff that work with animals ranging from fishes to reptiles to birds—and learned more about this profession.” They all seemed to have fun!
After school boy and dog cuddles
Trick or Treating
Owen didn’t decide until the day before that he wanted to go trick or treating so his choice of costumes was limited… I didn’t even get a picture of Katie because so much was going on.
Olive loved everyone! She would wait patiently and wouldn’t bark or go crazy.
But she loved the attention.
Of course, Katie refused to wear her wig at the last minute, so Tom put it on instead. It looked epic.
And he and Anna made a cute couple.
I was innocently checking her phone.
Guess who just lost her phone for a good long time?
Yes, that’s her on TikTok.
I had to use her phone to figure out something with her watch and she was out of space so I was going to delete some photos/videos…and found this. And then a whole slew of videos.
UMMMMM WHAAAAAAAAT?!
I had TikTok locked down. I had no idea how she did this. Originally I didn’t even think to look at the time stamps on her phone…but they were last night between 10-11:15. After bedtime.
Ugh.
To start with, she knows TikTok isn’t allowed, let alone her having her own account. Even legally, you have to be 13. But there she was, with a bunch of videos uploaded!
UGH.
And a few of them were completely inappropriate.
UGHHH.
And I couldn’t even figure out how to delete her account—I had to prove I was her by verifying her email (which I had access to) but it wasn’t working.
UGHHHHH.
Then I noticed another new account she shouldn’t have had. And a bunch of new apps I don’t remember her asking for.
It was a long and frustrating day. But she’s lucky I had all day to calm down while she was at school…because I was LIVID.
So Tom was home and we presented a united force. During our conversation, she finally told us how she was able to do it. Are you ready? When I was gone to Ohio, Owen snagged Tom’s phone (because he hadn’t changed his password after the last incident) to log into the app we use to control their phones and give himself more time allowance—and Katie said she wanted stuff, too, so they changed all sorts of permissions. She lost her devices for a month. And I deleted almost every app off her phone.
So then we called Owen down. And after a bit, he admitted that he did that. We were really surprised and upset because he got in trouble for this exact thing previously. So, since it was his second offense, he lost devices for two months. Katie wasn’t smart enough to keep her mouth shut and said well she did it before, too…so fine, we increased her one month to two. So both have lost their devices for two months (phones, ipads, Xbox).
Technology and social media is a nightmare. We were doing the right things with programs meant to help us and protect them but they got around it. Good times.
To Owen’s credit, he REALLY handled it all well. Tom and I had anticipated Owen losing his crap because this was the biggest punishment he’s received… but he was actually amazing! You could obviously tell he was disappointed, but he didn’t lose his cool at all, stayed calm, didn’t try to hurt himself, didn’t storm off or cry… We were both surprised and thrilled.
Katie, on the other hand, ended up fighting and arguing and yelling and crying and slamming her door. After about an hour she was okay.
I don’t like this part of parenting.
She’ll get comfortable anywhere
Baseball morning!
We had an away game which means we’d be gone for like 4 hours so we took Olive to Anna’s so she could play with Honey. She always ends up in the front seat.
I haven’t posted much about baseball this fall season… Tom is coaching again. They’re about 50-50 for wins and lossses. Owen isn’t pitching but it still liking first base…and has been catching more!
It was a wee bit chilly. Katie even stayed in the car!
Roar Run 2022
Tom said there was some whining throughout the race – and there was some walking – but everyone finished!
2022 Fill the Drum concert
Owen’s first concert with his new instrument, the bari (baritone) sax!
Olives first (and last) baseball game
I thought we’d try taking Olive to the baseball game so she didn’t have to stay cooped up—plus it was nice weather and Katie promised to take care of her.
Ha. Haha.
I mean overall she was good, but she went crazy if dogs came near her. And Katie quit about 45 minutes in. So this might be the heat time we take her…
Finally tuckered out right as the game was ending. Of course.
