A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 18 Recap

Falling behind on these blogs only takes one week. I try to get them up and published on Mondays, but some weeks are better than others. This week was a typical, last week of the semester, crazy track season, grading nightmare, birthday planning mania type of week. I knew when I had my children the first and last week of the school year that every birthday would be stressful, but I really had no idea until we starting throwing these ridiculous bashes every year.  It's crazy how much stress I put on myself, but the outcome makes me do it all again when the next birthday rolls around. 

Because it's also nearing the end of the school year for my real kiddos, lots of vocabulary memorization and spelling words.  Olivia is typically really good with doing these and her reading homework...math, not so much.  Isaac is the opposite. He sometimes knocks out his math homework on the bus ride home and drags his feet on the reading.  They're a good balance. 

We started off the week with track practices. We had our first track meet on Saturday. Both kids did well for their first meet.  I mean, we're not setting any Olympic records lol, but we are learning something every practice and meet.  Olivia did the long jump and ran the 100, 200 and 1600 meter races.  Isaac did the long jump and ran the 100, 200, 400 and 4x100 relay.  

Saturday, May 1, 2021....Olivia's 9th birthday. How can that be?  She celebrated by running in a track meet and having dinner at her favorite restaurant Yamato (Japanese steakhouse in town). Maw and Paw were able to join us for dinner and then she helped me decorate for the all-out birthday party for friends and family on Sunday. 

Sunday we hosted Olivia's Harry Potter birthday party.  Now I knew nothing about HP three months ago.  She brought home the book from school and wanted to read it.  I agreed she could read it if she read it to me.  It took us a couple months reading every night, but we eventually made it through (tough book for a third grader!). Olivia LOVED it and wanted to have a Harry Potter themed birthday party.  Since last year we didn't really get to host a party because of COVID, we were both ready to pour into an all-out crazy-themed out party! Pinterest is always our best friend and we start planning about a month out to be ready. The invites I ordered from Esty and paid $56 dollars for 15 and they were AMAZING.  I joked if I could have had them delivered by owls, I would have. The cake was made by Rachel's Cakes in Anna who always makes my Pinterest-inspired cake ideas come alive.  The rest was all Olivia and I working to make it happen.  I ordered baby snow owls for each kiddo to take home as a keepsake along with their wizard notebook and HP bookmark.  Guest came through Platform 93/4, which in the story is the train station where HP runs through the brick wall (see video of how they entered the house!). I think everyone had fun and the party and I know Olivia had a blast, so that's all that counts right?!