Now it’s Morrison’s turn to go off to middle school from elementary, and these pictures get me every time! I distinctly remember his first day of K4. It was a very rainy morning, so we took our first-day pictures inside for the only time ever so far. And we didn’t even get a picture together on the front steps of the school like I did with his sisters! K4 starts 5 minutes after the older grades, and they had all the older grades lining up in the gym that morning because of the rain. I had Morrison wait securely in the car so he didn’t get soaked and lost in the crowd, and when I got back to it after seeing the girls off he was just sobbing, thinking I’d left him. I felt horrible! But I reassured him I would never leave him and had told him so before I left, so he got calmed down and ended up having an amazing time. Hard to believe it’s now 7 years later and that chapter has closed. Have so much fun in middle school, Skittle! I can’t wait to see how far this wide world takes you!
I don’t know why the collages flipped the chronological order of the pairs of pictures halfway through, but whatever. They’re still so cute!
Morrison turned 11 in recent memory (as you all know, i’m never timely with this blog anymore), and he’s becoming such a great big kid! He still loves to fight with his sisters and maybe more often than not is the instigator, but isn’t that what little brothers are for? 😉
He’s off to 6th grade and middle school next year, and I can’t wait to watch his academics grow. His math skills remain unrivaled, still scoring in the 99% on every standardized math test he takes.
I’m so happy he has such a great group of friends to head to middle school with, too, as the social aspect can often be worse than anything. They’re all in various sports together, and I love watching them all hang out and play. He and one of his friends specifically have been complimented by multiple people on the kindness they show toward others both in their grade and younger, which makes me happier and prouder than literally anything else.
His favorite color is still green, his favorite food is still sushi, he still loves baseball (in majors with little league this summer and umping the pee wees games), but he’s dying to play tackle football. I’ve adamantly clung to my edict of no tackle football until now, but I think we might give it a shot next year. His Little League coaches this spring/summer season (who he’s had before and are amazing) also coach the Jr. Dukes tackle football team for kids his age, and a bunch of his friends from the baseball team are on the football team. These coaches want him on their team so badly, but he’s going to do flag football one more year this fall since 6th grade is as high as it goes through our rec department, then I told them we might come calling for tackle next year. We shall see! He’s a faster runner than almost every other kid his age, so I’m really just waiting for him to be able to run track in 7th grade.
His love language is still helping, and he jumps at every chance to help take the twins places or to lessons if I can’t take them for any reason. He’s brilliant with our little neighbor kids, too, who just adore him, and even though he loves to “police” the twins when not asked, I can’t admonish him too much for looking out for everyone and everything.
Happy 11th birthday, Morrison John!! You make us so insanely proud, and we love you so, so much. My little skittle is getting so big!
The twins turned 8 last week, and although I say it every year, life really does get better and better with these 2.
In a new twist, Avit chose tacos for his birthday request dinner, but Nat stuck with his favorite tried-and-true mac and cheese. “Real” mac and cheese, though, not his usual blue-box Kraft. 😉 And since they got lucky this year and their birthday landed on a weekend, they got McDonald’s for breakfast, too. Plus Grampa came up that day, so they got to pick their Dairy Queen treats for after lunch and he brought their Cuphead cake up for after dinner. What a day!
It’s funny – when the big 3 reached age 8, they truly seemed to be inching closer to “big kid” status. But with these 2, it feels like they’ll always be 5 for some reason. I’m sure I’ll feel that way well into their double-digit years – always the babies of the family no matter how old.
They’re in 2nd grade this year and in separate classes for the first time. I was very nervous to separate them before next year, but it’s worked out totally fine. They are thriving in their own environments and with new, different groups of friends, and they could NOT have gotten better teachers for this year. But they always find each other at recess and remain each other’s go-to for everything – news from the day, something they learned, something they saw, and they still love to snuggle up in Nat’s bigger bed to sleep together more nights than not.
Nat’s favorite color is still red, he still adores cats, and right now it’s everything Mario again with the new Mario Galaxy movie coming out this spring. He’s recently said his lucky number is 12, which I love, because it’s mine, too! He sleeps with about a dozen stuffies, including 2 cats that have removable heating pad parts, which he’s named Floppy and Mini Floppy. He is also becoming a math whiz like his older brother and knows how to spell far more words than I ever imagined.
Avit’s favorite color has switched to pink, his creations are still works of art, and he can build the hardest, most intricate Lego sets with shocking ease. He loves squishmallows, and his bed now contains a “forest” of them that he arranges with abundant TLC. He can express his feelings better than most adults I know, and I never pass up an opportunity to tell him how proud I am of that – how he can so easily put his emotions into words and self regulate. Again, something most adults can’t even handle. His writing is becoming amazing, and he remains our resident ham. This kid is destined for a stage of some sort. He proved to be an outstanding ice skater when we skated downtown this winter, but he said he didn’t want to play hockey when I suggested it. Speed skating, maybe?
They plan to live together when they grow up – Nat will have a cat, Avit will have a dog, and they’re going to be YouTubers. Ah, growing up in the age of all things digital. I absolutely adore that they are ever-present in each other’s vision of the future, and I hope all their wildest dreams come true together. Their best days are when they get to play with Morrison and his 5th-grade friends at recess, but the age and behavior differences between 5th graders and 2nd graders is enough that I constantly quash their desires and tell them to stay with their own friends. As much as they look up to and idolize their older brother, I don’t need 3 tween boys in the house right now, that’s for damn sure!
Twins. It still blows me away and probably always will. Happy 8th birthday, Nat Jennings and Avit Jerome! You 2 are extraordinary beings, and we couldn’t possibly love you more. We’re so proud of the *almost* big kids you’re becoming, and you make life so much fun!
Lana turned 13 last month, which means we now have TWO TEENAGE GIRLS in the house!
This one is spicy, sassy, ridiculously creative, loyal, and has a heart of pure gold. She’ll make you crazy with her massive eye rolls, teenage slang, and seemingly uncaring attitude, then turn around and do the most thoughtful thing in the world that no one else would ever even realize you needed.
She and Ryan butt heads constantly; he hating the fact that they speak in nonsensical terms and she seems to “never” listen, and she hating his overbearing father-ness. But they are so similarly minded, neither backs down. Yes, she could stand to learn when to respect authority a little more appropriately sometimes, but I will never quash her spirit to stand up to him and for herself. It’s taken me practically my whole life to learn to stand up for myself, and it’s one thing I will never dissuade our kids from doing.
She’s incredibly smart and now knows the world of beauty and skincare practically inside out. Her artistic skills aren’t at the forefront quite as regularly as they used to be, but they’re still there. She recently brought home some Halloween/fall drawings and paintings she did in art class last quarter, and they absolutely blew me away. They honestly look professional. She loves to make some seriously elaborate food concoctions from scratch, and I’d like her to be my personal barista for life.
She has a great group of friends that has carried over from elementary school and is still going strong. She ran cross country again this fall and was the fastest 7th-grade girl on the team, getting invited to the year-end meet for only the fastest runners again. She claims that she still hates running, but I’m hoping she’ll give track a shot in the spring since she is so fast and it’s so different from cross country. I think she’ll be great at sprints, middle distance, or some of the non-running events. We shall see.
She still loves sushi, meatloaf, and Thai beef with sticky rice. Her favorite color is purple, her favorite holiday is Christmas. She’s watched pretty much every short that exists on YouTube, and she starts almost every text to me, “Mother?” I absolutely love it.
My little Shmee. I can’t believe that tiny girl with the giant blue eyes and Nigh-Night constantly in the crook of her arm (he still is!) is a teenager! The person you’re becoming is so completely amazing, I can’t wait to see where this crazy life takes you. We love you so much, Lana Marie! You are the sparkle that every life needs, so thank you for being perfectly you!!
Here we go, the yearly comparison photos and posts…
School started 2 weeks ago, and man, is it off and running!
The girls both have cross country practice after school each day, with meets once a week or once every two for Della and once or twice a week for Lana. Morrison is playing fall ball with Little League and flag football again, so those games and practices are once a week. I’m waiting to sign the twins up for their next round of swim lessons until this winter, mainly so the family calendar doesn’t burst into flames and my head keeps from exploding. 😀
We did make sure to have a lot of fun that last weekend before school began again, though. Obvisouly Donut Monster, Della went on her annual up north trip with her best friend and her family, Ryan took the other 4 up to Sheboygan Falls for dinner with his family and a hometown high-school football game, and those here did a few nights of backyard camping. Well, not me. I don’t camp. But I did put up the tent and get it all situated for them. 😉
Hard-earned $ from a lemonade stand the day beforeTreats bought with that $!Last early-morning walk together of summer 2025
I went to Parent Orientation for the boys this week, and I absolutely love getting the peeks into their daily lives at school when they’re away from me. I hope to god our schools always stay safe and keep them protected. But they all have fantastic teachers and are off to a great start, so I think it’s going to be a wonderful year!
Della turned 15 last month, and the independence she’s gaining is nothing short of astonishing.
We actually just had her physical, too, shockingly on time, so here are her official 15-year stats:
Height: 5′ 7.7″ (so we just call her 5′ 8″ 😀 ) (94%)
Weight: 127 lbs. (69%)
BMI: 19.4 kg/m2 (43%)
She’s a sophomore this year, and I swear, even since this school year began just a few weeks ago she seems more grown up. She’s carrying a full class load this fall semester with her first AP class (comp sci) and no study hall, plus she’s added a second sport to her list – cross country. I was very surprised when she said she wanted to join the team this fall earlier this summer, because she doesn’t like running. But she went to most of the optional practices this summer and is all in this fall. They’ve had one meet so far, and she did great! She ran a sub-8:00 first mile, then in the 9:00s for her second and third miles. That’s pretty impressive to me, seeing how she couldn’t even finish a full 3 miles running when practices started. She’s doing this as conditioning for her first sport, lacrosse, in the spring, and I think it’s great. They do a lot of cross conditioning like yoga and swimming, and they work with a strength coach for muscle building and to help prevent injuries, plus a dietician and nutritionist. I wish we had all those extras back when I was in high school! After the first meet I asked her how everything went, and she said it was great aside from the running. 🙂
But the independence. She chose and scheduled all her classes by herself. She’s already thinking about colleges, seeing which ones on Ryan’s list of tuition exchange will fit her best. She keeps track of all her practices and meets by herself. (in fairness, i obviously do, too, but she almost never needs a reminder for anything) She started going to the chiropractor with me this summer so we have all those appointments set up. Side note – her scoliosis got much worse over the past 5 years so we had to go back to the back doctor for x-rays this summer, but fortunately she’s pretty much done growing so it shouldn’t get any worse; we go back for follow-up x-rays in a couple more months to confirm that. She makes plans with her friends and they do stuff all on their own. I always tell her I don’t remember doing anything on my own when I was her age. But I also didn’t grow up in a place like this where we could walk everywhere at any time and never need rides from our parents. She can pretty much fully take care of herself and siblings when needed, but she does still prefer my help on that kind of stuff. 😉 And I’m happy to give it!
She has a great group of friends, which is so important in these weird high school years. This summer they went out to a pizza farm for one of the girl’s birthdays, then the very next day they went down to Chicago for an amazing overnight shopping trip for another girl’s birthday. They went to her first concet at Summerfest to see The Lumineers right after the 4th of July, and they’re always going over to one of their houses before and after football games to get ready and hang out.
For all the “grown-upness,” though, she still loves to be silly. Making faces, picking on her siblings, having summer or weekend sleepovers with the twins, burping the alphabet, showing me all of her purchases and product unboxings. She tried to get a summer job this year, but that didn’t pan out. She did do some mowing for one of the neighbors a couple times, but it wasn’t quite the regular paycheck she was hoping for. We travel a lot during the summer, though, and she had lacrosse and cross country practices, so I’m not sure where she was planning to put that job. So not totally grown up quite yet… 😉 She also has a tiny strawberry plant that we got from a neighbor’s baby’s 1st birthday party this summer that she started from seed and has been taking meticulous care of – bringing it in during heavy rains, misting it with a spray bottle when it’s dry. Still the caring peanut she’s always been.
She just got her driver’s permit a few weeks ago, too, and she’s already scheduled her first behind-the-wheel session for later next month. She did 30 hours of online lessons this summer and passed the written and road signs tests last month. I took her to a big abandoned parking lot a few blocks from our house for her first driving lesson last month, and she did really well. She only revved up then slammed on the brakes once, ha! She said she was scared to actually get behind the wheel, but I was very proud of myself for staying completely calm the entire time so I didn’t freak her out, even when we thought we might crash into the sidewalk there at one point.
Happy 15th birthday, Della Jolee! You have no idea how proud we are of you, and your quiet confidence impresses us constantly. You’ll always be my little peanut, but this bigger version is turning out to be a really great one. We love you so much!!
