Spencer turns 16!

Spencer has been waiting to turn 16 for years!  He's been wanting to drive and date.  Now that it's here, he's still as excited about driving, but now feeling as though girls are very confusing/weird/drama-filled/a lot of work.  I think he might be right about that one!  Well the day arrived regardless, and Spencer had a great birthday filled with very random gifts (bro-tanks and Bare Bread?), including a lot of clothes.  Spencer has had a very busy year, but he's always working hard and doing his best.  He loves listening to music, watching music videos, and creating playlists.  This kid is all about the music!  I can definitely say that our house would be boring without him, he has a great sense of humor, and he's just turned out to be dang cute!  Watch out ladies, here he comes...

This year for his party, we invited a bazillion of his friends over, and we had some serious fun.  The first thing they did was walk down to HEB, each armed with $5 that I gave them.  Their job was to buy whatever food they wanted for the party!  I supplied the cake, and they were to pool their resources, be creative, and buy food.  They came up with some great ideas, and we had frozen pizzas being cooked, rotisserie chicken being ripped apart, and lots of chips and pop.  Then came the best game ever - sock wrestling!  The boys were each given a letter, and the girls were each given a number.  Then one letter and one number was randomly selected.  This pair was the next to wrestle!  The goal of the wrestling was the get the socks off of the person you were wrestling, before they could get the socks off of you.  It was so awesome to watch!  My voice was hoarse from laughing so hard.  The kids were all begging to keep playing, but they were sweating so much I had to stop it.  Plus I was afraid that somebody would get injured (and actually a girl did break her toe - oops!).  They all had cake, hung out in the backyard, walked down to the park, and basically hung out the rest of the night.  I think it ended up being a successful teenage party! 

Ruby's 7th Birthday

Ruby Jane is seven years old!  The baby of the house is 7.  She's still our little Rooster, but she's growing up.  And is just as funny and pleasant as ever!  Ruby has a great, big personality.  She's still quiet and very good at school, speaking in her barely there little whisper voice, but those that know her well have seen her sassy side.  And not in a bad way!  Sassy as in fun!  She is an absolute joy to have in our family.  Her birthday this year mirrored Ella's in many ways (what's new?).  She wanted her own arsenal of Vera Bradley bags, as well as Beanie Boos.  She got her wish!  She also had a really fun day at school on her birthday.  She and her beloved teacher Mrs. Tiller share a birthday, so in Ruby's honor the day was designated "big hair bow day" - for obvious reasons.  And we took it to heart! :)

For Ruby's party this year, she had my beloved Night Owl Pajama Party.  It was so much fun!!  The girls were all happy and fun, and they loved their little owls.  We played glow-in-the-dark games, ate mini pizzas and cake, and then had the "owl adoptions."  All of the girls were thrilled with their owls, and it was fun to watch them cuddling with them for the rest of the night.  I'm so glad that Ruby has such a fun little group of friends!