Jillian is a Teenager!

Jillian became a teen today! We had a Peterson family celebration at our house in the evening to celebrate, watching old home videos of Sweetie Pie when she was 1-year-old, and eating Bruno's Pizza and cake & ice cream.

Earlier in the day, she got to ride in the front seat of the car ... one of the perks of turning 13.

Yesterday, we had a Woodruff family celebration at Grannie & Papa's house, with pizza and pie, and party games, of course.

A few days back, we had a party with neighbors Hazel and Ila.

Jillian is 13

We have a teenager! Jillian is now 13 and it came too fast. She wanted peanut butter pie and we put on 13 candles that made a number 13 and she managed to blow them all out before Tor could. That's always the race.

We played a Family-Fued game with the answers given by Jillian and Tor's team won that game. Then we had a minute-to-win-it game where they had to move M&Ms from plate to plate with only a straw. Jillian and Daddy won the first 2 rounds so faced off in the final. Daddy won that one. It was a fun evening, then Jillian had to leave for an 8:30 volleyball game. We got to cast it on our TV to watch and she played a super game!

Bridget and Tor got to stay the night and then take Aunt Julie's dogs for walks when they were gone. Sometimes they had a hard time controlling these two(Bo and Bella) but having lots of fun doing it.

 

Volleyball Returns

Jillian got the call a couple weeks ago from PacWest Volleyball Club that she had made the U13 Tahoma team, which is the 7th grade-only team in the club. She had her first practice last Wednesday, and knew a few of the players from last year. They played their first games on Saturday at the Summit Church, and did pretty well, competing against U14s. They lost the first 2 matches, which were pretty close, and they won their final match. Spectators are not allowed, so we had to watch the games on a Facebook livestream. Here's a couple screenshots (Jillian is #1):

Day 3: Best Snow Day!

They started their sledding on the big hill with Aunt Julie's 2 dogs and Cale's puppy. They had a ball as the dogs would chase them down the hill and eventually cause them to crash. The snow today was over 14 inches and packed very well. Here Bella is chasing Jillian. Daddy is building a place to jump with the ramp.

Tor did the small jump and caught a little air.

Here is Tor with Bella after him. Sometimes it would be all 3 dogs chasing them. 

Pretty soon Ty, Deb, Cale, Erika, Kevin, and Julie came to sled and watch the show. Everyone took a turn braving the hill with the dogs chasing. Erika even tried to ride with the puppy in her lap which make the kids chuckle when that ride came to a crashing halt.

Ty was the bravest and made a bigger jump and Tor was excited to try it with him. They got good air this time.

The snow day ended with a big snowball fight with Cale, Erika, Ty and Deb against the 3 kids. The last and most fun day with the cousins.

 

Day 2 Snow and Igloo

Jillian, Bridget , and Tor stayed overnight and didn't sleep in as late as I thought they would, as they were excited to head outside in the deeper snow today. Jillian measured right away and it was at least a foot deep.

It was snowing pretty hard, so on their first trip out in the morning they decided to get big umbrellas to keep from so much snow getting on them. Maybe a good idea but it didn't last long as it was hard to go sledding holding the umbrellas.

The first sled trip was over the hill and they had to hike up through the woods which had a lot of low hanging branches blocking the trail.

Getting clever with the umbrellas, they made an igloo to get inside to rest. Very cool idea.

Tor was creative in finding a place to slide near the umbrellas. He went down the house front steps. I think just once!

I took them out cups and spoons and Gatorade so they could make "slushies" to eat in their tent or anywhere outside. Then Papa decided to plow the driveway so they had to move their tent to a different location and it never got used again. Lots of fun snow time again!

 

Day 1 Sledding

Here is Daddy having just as much fun as Tor, sledding together down the long hill. It packed pretty good so everyone got lots of runs in. Then Daddy got the jump for an added attraction. It was fun having Adam come to sled with them. While sledding on this hill everyone heard a lot of cracking and watched a big limb come crashing down off a huge cedar tree. Nobody played under the trees after that.

After this hill and a rest inside to warm up, they went to a different area with a steeper hill. This is Tor enjoying his fast ride.

I'm not sure Bridget was enjoying this fast hill.

Later they decided to work on a snowman but Tor was worn out again so he made a pillow from the snow and laid down to rest.

The snow didn't pack very well but Bridget persevered to make a small one.

A fun day for all and they were excited to get this much snow. There was almost 7 inches so far. Later that night for dessert they tried making snow ice cream. I guess it was okay but everyone opted for their regular ice cream instead.

 

Oatmeal the Snowman

Bridget worked hard at building a snowman for the front yard. She named it "Oatmeal", as suggested by a kid in the Frosty the Snowman movie.

Snow, Finally!

The kids woke up to a blanket of snow this morning. They were out the door by 9:30 am, playing in the back and front yards with the neighbor girls Hazel and Ila.

Tor's 2nd Grade School Photo

Tor missed his first opportunity to get his school picture taken (due to being sick), so he had to get retakes. He seems to be looking older.

Super Bowl and Birthday

Jillian, Bridget, and Tor stayed overnight Friday, and Saturday was a rainy day. They spent their time letting Aunt Julie's dogs out to play since Aunt Julie and Uncle Kevin were away, and playing games indoors. One fun one was Valentine Bingo with money prizes and Tor was the big winner with a big celebration after each victory. Bridget didn't win any games on the first round but made up for it the next round, which cured her crankiness over never getting a Bingo.

Next came a lot of play with Squinkies, surprisingly. Of course, first I said I was going to put the Squinkies in the garage sale. They were adamant that I can't do that!

Sunday, Super Bowl! Tor wore his Mahomes shirt for the game and was so excited when the Chiefs scored first. Then when they were behind at halftime he took it hard.

But during halftime we had a belated birthday cake for Aunt Julie's birthday that was fun.  Bridget made the goal post decoration for the table in honor of the Super Bowl birthday. Then it was back to the game which by then was boring. But a fun day all around!

 

Party for Mommy

[Late Post] Heather got a second birthday celebration, this time up in Castle Rock.

The kids now expect that there will be fun games to play and compete in. The girls continued to dominate the boys, this time in Pictionary. Tor did the bulk of the drawing.

Jillian made it all the way to the finals in the candy heart stacking game.