Celebrating the Kennedy Kids!

We love celebrating Eli and Emerson in the month of November! With their birthdays being 8 days apart, it seems like we get to take advantage of all the individual and combined birthday fun! This past weekend, we ate dinner at a fancy Japanese restaurant to celebrate three of the four in the “cousin crew” that have birthdays within a few weeks of each other. Eli wasn’t keen on the singing but M and Em enjoyed all the antics! 

Matching my two carpooling buddies on World Kindness Day

One of our favorite events of the year…. An annual zoo trip to celebrate Emmy (turning 8) and Eli (turning 5)! They are so easy to celebrate and I’m so thankful I get to watch them grow up! Each zoo trip gets easier as the kids are able to move to see all their favorite animals on the path and fill out their Zoo Trekker books to earn a new pin. The weather was perfect, the animals were active and the company made for such a wonderful day!

Life Lately

Just a quick catch up post since the Houstons have been busy lately!

Zander had his first youth retreat with our church! He enjoyed devotions, sleeping in cabins, ziplining, archery, shooting, a silent disco and lots of fun with friends! While he was away for the weekend, Maddox and I had an “M & M” weekend- Maddox and Mommy)! Zack had inventory so it truly was a weekend for the two of us! He cashed in on some of his birthday gift cards and got a couple new games for the Nintendo switch. We enjoyed eating out (Chickfila) and a trip to the Science Center. We watched some college football on Saturday evening and finished out our weekend with church and a soccer game.

Maddox continues to get a hat trick (at least three goals scored per game) and multiple assists in each soccer game! He plays multiple positions and excels at each one!

We had a teacher workday this past week due to the presidential election (Donald Trump was elected as our 47th president and will serve his second term after Inauguration Day in January). We took the afternoon to visit Mommy’s college campus, eating a late lunch at Yum Yums and getting Krispy Kreme donuts for our two boys who both had straight A’s for the first quarter of school! I’m so proud of both of them and how hard they work at school!

We finished a puzzle that Maddox got as a birthday present!

Maddox finished his soccer season yesterday with a 7-1 record and a big scoring game to finish the season!

Grammy and Grandpa try to make it to all the boys’ games…. Home and away! 

Maddox loved playing with Gunner and John this season!

Beau is getting ready for his first Christmas as a Houston (if I can talk him into not trying to eat the tree… haha!) I decorated for Christmas yesterday in between soccer games! It’s a busy November and I love having the decorations up as long as possible before Christmas! 

Happy Halloween 2024

Our “bad dog”, Army soldier and “Mario riding Yoshi” had a blast this Halloween! We carved our pumpkins (the 20th year for Zack and me and counting….) and hosted about 18 people at our house for all the trick or treating fun! We started off with a pizza dinner and then most of the adults and children made the 1 mile loop around our neighborhood, coming home with pumpkin buckets full of candy! Jayne, Beau and I held down the fort handing out candy to all the costume wearing kids (young and old)! It will always be one of my favorite nights of the year with family and friends!

Happy 9th Birthday Maddox!

Dear Maddox,

    You are NINE years old! One more year in the single digits and I'm not sure how we got here so quickly!  You have the best personality!  I love how enthusiastically you memorized all of your multiplication facts through the 12s in record time (Mrs. Servello says you were the fastest to knock out all of the facts in all her years of teaching).  You absolutely love math, causing you to run for school treasurer within our student council.  While you didn't win this election, you handled the defeat like a champion and celebrated with each of the winners! I was so proud of your response to your classmates!  You continue to excel on the soccer, basketball and baseball fields/courts!  Aunt Lindsey and I noticed just yesterday that your teammates immediatedly started celebrating when you were coming back onto the soccer field.  It is apparent your teammates know they can count on you to give it your all and you are someone that is a leader on any team you play on.  You are so brave and strong.  You will bounce back quickly from a physical injury and even the emotional injuries as well, with an incredibly optimistic outlook.  You are resilient when something doesn't go exactly as expected or anticipated, you will quickly move onto the next thing.  You are so generous, handing out some of your birthday presents for your cousin, Henry, and your brother, Zander, to enjoy and play with.  The best part of this year had to be making the decision in March to ask Jesus to be your Savior.  You followed in believer's baptism in September making this the year I will always remember.  I am so thankful I get to spend eternity with you thanks to the promises of God's mercy and grace through his son, Jesus. You have taken some epic trips this year:  Houston, TX in the spring, England in the summer and two beach trips with both sides of your family!  You are happiest when you are around others!  Your family and friends are so lucky to know you and to have you cheering them on as you always do!  

    To celebrate #9, you invited your whole class from school, some of your best buds from church and closest family friends and family members to the local trampoline park, Airbound (23 kids in all were able to attend).  You mostly enjoyed running up and down the basketball court the whole time.  Each friend got to spend $5 at the arcade and enjoy an Icee drink before we had pizza, chips, fruit and DONUTS!  You decided that you didn't want cake or cupcakes this year and requested donuts for both your classroom celebration and birthday party.  I think the 9th celebration will be a hard one to beat! I am so thankful for the friends and family you are blessed to have! Here's to making many more memories this next year as we count down to #10!  I love you so much and am so thankful I get to be your mommy!  Your hugs and cuddles are the best and your smile lights up every room you enter!  Please keep your sweet, optimistic personality and I can't wait to see what you will do next!  I love you with all my heart, Madman!

Love, Mommy :) 

Third Grade School Picture:

Classroom Celebration: Mrs. Servello had you wear a birthday crown.  Daddy brought you ChickFila for lunch (with a cookies and cream milkshake)!  Donuts were enjoyed by all!

Your party was on your actual birthday, which made the day extra special!

8:14 p.m. (after the party was over but at the exact moment you turned 9 years old)!

SOOOO many people helped you celebrate #9... I forgot to get a picture of all of them before some of your friends had to leave... but 23 is a large number to help celebrate this birthday! :)

Enjoyed two soccer games and two WINS on the day after your birthday! You had many goals and assists!

Fall Fun!

Thanks to Emma Claire and Ethyn being in town the last two weeks, our boys have enjoyed hours of entertainment playing basketball and some Mario Kart! They offered to give us a date night tonight….. on a Monday night!😃

We had our fall festival at church last night…. Katie sent me this picture of Maddox and Luke (above) after I had already made the collage (below) of our Fall Fest adventures but as you can see, the boys had a blast…. Seeing friends, handing out treats (Zander with the other middle school boys), going on stage to use the blaster and spending time with their cousins (and Grammy and Grandpa)!

I voted…. It’s a presidential election year! Stay tuned….

We had our fall festival at school Friday night! Kristen McKillop and I were in charge of games so the only picture I snapped was of Maddox with Marty, the meerkat! 

Not pictured from the fall festival was Zander running a station with one of his best buds, Jackson!

Grammy and I matched at school last week without even planning to! I love that she volunteers each week!

EC and Ethyn with all our crazy boys!

Maddox is running for student council treasurer. Emerson helped him with all his posters on one of the teacher workdays when Grammy was in charge! She helped cut out all the letters and gave them a template to start from.  They turned out great! Voting takes place at the end of the week! Win or lose, I love that he was voted to be his class’s student council representative and can have a leadership role in student council as a class representative! (Mommy was the middle school treasurer…. Maybe he will follow in my footsteps…. Haha)

We took Beau for his first hike as a Houston! He enjoyed it while we were on the trail but was worn out when we got home!