16th birthday

Happy 16th birthday to this amazing guy!!

Kacin is fun-loving, easygoing, loyal, resilient, strong, hard working, clever, sweet, loving, kind, patient, competitive, and an all around amazing human being!


Definitely a bit of a goofball. haha. And we love him for it.

I can't believe he is 16! Except I can. Because he is so ready. He is ready to drive and to date and embrace the world as a sixteen year old.

On the day of his birthday we took him and his friend (one of the few who weren't quarantined because of coronavirus) out to eat at Red Robin. His only request was bottomless fries. And that's what he got. Six baskets of fries!


And a birthday ice cream sunday to top it off.

He spent the rest of the day doing something he loves but that rarely ever happens in our home--watching football.

It must have been a really exciting game because all three of the football watchers fell sound asleep.

The girls helped me decorate a birthday cake for him after dinner.


And we opened his presents.

It was a simple, relaxing 16th birthday.

It's always tricky celebrating a birthday the day after Christmas. Which is why we got smart and planned a birthday surprise the week before!

We had Jacqui ask him to babysit to get him out of the house. Then all the teens showed up just before he got home. 

Surprise!!!

I thought for sure he had an idea that something was in the works. Since text messages were going around the week before his party, I was sure someone would accidentally say something. But he was oblivious to our plans, thank goodness, so we got a true surprise out of him. 


He does not like being the center of attention these days, but we needed a day to show him how cool we think he is.


Kyler made sure he felt like a king. ha!

They lifted him up in his chair as everyone sang to him.




Happy birthday, Kacin!!

We played a game of pass the parcel. In case you haven't played before, I set the game up by wrapping a bag of candy in a box in multiple layers of wrapping paper. On each layer was written a note with a task to perform. When the music came on, the parcel was passed around the group. When it stopped the person who had it had to open it and do whatever it said to do. There were things like sing rudolph the red nosed reindeer, get kacin to smile without touching him, catch popcorn in your mouth, etc.

This one was to give Kacin a santa beard with whipped cream.

These guys had to dance to a song.

Thank goodness they got some help with their dance moves.




While they gathered around the firepit outside, Kyler presented Kacin with a gift that he had been working hard on--a dating guide. He wrote out ten rules of dating and then listed a bunch of fun dating ideas. It was so great to watch him present the book and read the rules to everyone! Kacin and Kyler will be a fun pair to go on dates with that's for sure. 

In our family, we decided that before you get your driver's license you must participate in serving other people. Kyler had decided to join a club at school that works with kids at special needs (he is two years strong being a part of that group and has had some awesome experiences.) Kacin wasn't sure what he wanted to do. And when you wait until the last minute it gets kind of tricky to make it all happen. But on the eleventh hour, this guy served a lot of different people to show that service is part of who he is. He organized two trips to serve at feed my starving children, wrote letters to missionaries, used his own money and collected money from family to buy 10 pairs of shoes for specific boys at child crisis center, served with the salvation army to pass out toy donations, helped out at a church activity, made food bags with Layla and passed them out to homeless people on the street corners, and served our family in small ways, too. I'm so glad he had these varied experiences to give a little of himself to those around him!

So a few days after the holidays, we took him down for his road test and he passed!! We now officially have another driver in the house. So proud and excited for him!

Happy birthday to you, Kacin!! Love you so much.

the end of cross country season

Kacin and Kyler finished the cross country season strong. They were dedicated and pushed themselves and enjoyed the season (even with all the Covid adjustments). They both PR-ed at the last race of the season. We attended the cross country banquet to see them receive their certificates.

We are so grateful for good coaches who help the boys build skills and also character. 

Here are some pictures from the last couple of races...

Until next year, cross country!

cross country

Oh man, cross country runners have grit and strength unlike any others, don't they? especially here in arizona.

These two brothers have spent the last few months at 5am practices and then transitioned to 3pm in the heat of the day practices. I don't know if early mornings or intense heat was worse. But either way these two boys are so incredible to do it and to work so hard. I'm so proud of their commitment and dedication!

Brinna insisted that they each race her too on cross country meet day. She is definitely one feirce competitor for them.

There have been a few changes to races because of covid. They spread them out a little bit more to run in more heats. And they have to wear masks on the sidelines (oh I still think that's the silliest rule, but I'm so glad they can be out there running again!).

These guys finish three miles in the time it would take me to run two (if I could even make it that far...). So proud of them this season!

best Dairy Queen employees

Kacin followed in Kyler's footsteps and got his first real job at Dairy Queen. 

I think he will love the perks of working at a place that makes blizzards just as much as Kyler did. :)

Kyler made the decision to make his exit from Dairy Queen and head to a new place of employment in order to gain some new skills and avoid working weekend nights. When he told his employer he would be leaving, he put in a good word for Kacin. Lucky Kacin got a job without even an interview because any brother of Kyler is for sure amazing and will make a great employee. (I think so, too--both these guys are pretty incredible people).

Kyler got to work with Kacin twice before his last day. On Kyler's last day we stopped in to visit our boys. Kyler was on a break when we got there and he welcomed us warmly.

Kyler took our order and Kacin worked hard back there. We loved seeing them working so responsibly at their first jobs. They love the people they work with and have had such great experiences there.

The last time he will serve us our blizzards...

Survivor (part 1)

Our little family started watching Survivor episodes together. We are way back in the early days of the show. But all of our kids (Perry included!) have gotten really into it. As pandemic restrictions were lifting, my cooped up kids and I started reminiscing about the summer in Washington when I had Kyler and Kacin play Survivor in the backyard for a week. They didn't even know what the show was! But they have some fun memories of living off of wild blackberries, sleeping in the tent, and challenges for donuts. We got to talking about, now that they know what the show is, how fun it would be to have another Survivor. I decided I'd much rather spend my time doing something fun for my kids and their friends instead of unpacking boxes and cleaning the house. So I got to work and used all of my creative energy to put together...

Backyard Survivor!   

Eleven hours. Twenty-two people. One Survivor.

Outwit. Outlast. Outplay.

(Thanks to Eric who was so supportive and helpful during Survivor and the few days leading up to it. How fun it was to bounce ideas off of him to put it all together.)

What started as Kyler, Kacin, and a few of their friends grew into 22 teenagers, and turning down many others who wanted to play. We will definitely have to do this again! 

Warning: this will be a looong post with lots of details, just in case we ever do decide to do this again.

All of the teens gathered at our house at 7am with swimsuits, towels, sunblock, and water bottles. We sat in the living room and I explained the rules to them. They could only come into the house to use the bathroom or refill their team's water dispenser with water and ice. They would receive a tub of team supplies for the day--that would include all of their food for the day (unless they earned it in challenges). They would start in two teams, but at some point during the day they would merge into one team. In order to win the title of sole survivor, you had to earn the most points. Points were earned for each individual on a winning team during team challenges and for the top 3 winners of individual challenges. Because Survivor is a social game, too, you can also earn points when other people voted you in as most deserving of the title of sole survivor. After team challenges, each person on the winning team could cast a vote. After individual challenges, each person could cast a vote. All the votes would be tallied at the end to determine the winner. I reminded them to have good sportsmanship, be kind and inclusive, and look out for each other. And the person who wins would walk away today as a Fiftydollaronaire!! $50 and the title of Sole Survivor.

We went into the backyard and each person randomly received a wrapped "buff." (To create the buffs, I cut strips out of material we already had around the house. Nothing fancy.) 

Each person wrote their name on our Survivor poster where we would tally points as the day went on.

Then they unwrapped their buffs one by one and were sorted into two teams--blue or green.




Green team!

Blue team!

 Have you ever watched the show survivor and seen a stark contrast between two teams? Like one team working hard, organized, and productive while the other team goofed off, laid around, and ended up under prepared for the weather and elements? Well Backyard Survivor was no different! It was ctaullay a fascinating social experiment to see what happened in these teams when left to their own. 

Each team was given a tub with a lid, a roll of duct tape, a line of rope, a jar of peanut butter, a loaf of bread, two dry ramen, two cans of spaghettios, and a pile of cardboard boxes.

The green team built a beautiful structure, decorated it, created a thoughtful team name and flag, kept their camp neat and tidy, and played get to know you games together during their free time.

 

The green team was a mess. That had a half built shelter that fell down. They were hiding people in cardboard boxes, wrestling, blasting music, and lying around in the grass during their free time.

It really was interesting to see the difference in the two teams!

About 10-15 minutes before each challenge, we delivered tree mail. 

Their first tree mail was this:

This challenge was all about teamwork. Each team had to hold onto a rope and move around the backyard to five different stations completing a task at each station. Once they completed the task they received a small ocean animal of a specific color. The first team with all five animals back on the mat won the challenge.

Each station was a different task. I used games and toys that we already had in the house to make the challenges. At this station, they had to find the right picture that matched the clues. (I used the cards from the game "Codenames: Pictures.")

At this station they had to find nine wood pieces and place them correctly on the peg board. I should've taken a picture of the toy we used, but to get an idea it was a lot like this one.

I didn't get pictures of every station because I was so busy monitoring three of the stations. But at the other stations they had to put all the pegs into a lite brite, place connect four circles into a specified pattern (I drew a simple picture), and string and spell the word "Survivor." 

Green team came in for the win! The winners got to place a social vote for who they thought was most deserving of the title of sole survivor and they got to choose a reward. They had a choice between comfort--in the form of a pop shade and camping chairs--or sweet treat--donuts. This smart team chose the comfort.

In between challenges the teams had about twenty minutes to hang out and rest before the next challenge.




The second tree mail of the day was delivered.

I explained the rules. There would be one caller from each team who would stand up on the balcony overlooking the backyard. There would be four puzzlers to solve the puzzle at the end. Everyone else would be blindfolded. The people who were blindfolded would need to collect bags with their team color. They could retrieve one bag at a time. The caller would be their eyes and tell them where to go. Once all the bags were collected, the puzzlers could run the pieces over to the mat. The first team to put their puzzle (dollar store puzzle!) together won.

 

This was one of the best challenges to watch.

There are the callers way up there.

This time it was blue team (and Perry!) who walked away with the win. They were smart enough to remember that tree mail was actually a clue and showed them what the final puzzle should look like.

Here they are preparing to give themselves a point on the board then cast their first social point. They received the reward of donuts.

In between challenges...

Layla and Macie had a special part in Survivor. They delivered all of the tree mail and then joined whichever team or challenges they wanted to.

For this challenge, it was two vs. two on the float mat. Last person on the mat scored a point for their team. the first team to ten points won. 


This was another FUN challenge. And made me so glad we bought this float mat for christmas. By far the best pool toy ever!!

This challenge was definitely one of the favorites of the day.

I LOVE all these teenagers. They were so patient and kind and inclusive to Perry and Layla. They cheered Perry on as he battled against Brighton. 

Perry was the winner!














After the challenge, I gave everyone just a few minutes in the pool. But then we kicked the losing team out and the winners got popsicles and some more pool team for themselves.

Backyard Survivor continued in another post soon!