Aubrey turned 12 on February 10th and she had been looking forward to it for awhile because we had set 12 to be the age for when the girls could get their ears pierced. Aubrey has wanted her ears pierced for years. Tessa got her ears pierced at 12 two years ago and ever since that day, Aubrey’s been begging for us to change our stance on when she could get her ears pierced. She was hoping she could get them done sooner than waiting for her 12th birthday. However, we held out, so as soon as her birthday came, it was the top of her to-do list. Her birthday this year was on a Wednesday, so as soon as we got home from school and work, we headed out to the mall to get her ears pierced. We had a little hold up when we got to the store in the mall because their piercer was not at work that night. They were willing to schedule us for the next day, but Aubrey really wanted them done that night. We tried another store in the mall that the lady recommended, but it was a tattoo and piercing store that didn’t allow children inside under the age of 18. We found another piercing place on the bottom level of the mall, but Aubrey was really hoping to have it done at a Claire’s, so we ended up driving to the outlet mall hoping to get there before they closed. Luckily, we made it in time; she got her ears pierced, and she was happy with her blue gemstone studs that she had been planning on getting. We love this beautiful girl and are happy to have her bubbly and spunky personality in our home.
Aubrey has always been our most fashion conscious child who loves to dress up fancy, accessorize, and have beautiful hairstyles. In preparation for her 12th birthday, she decided she wanted to have a new hairdo every day for the week leading up to her birthday. Her first hairstyle of three braids was also a twin day that she had set up with her friend Rianne so that they had the same hair and clothes for the day. She had a friend take a picture of them at school so I’d have it. I remembered to take a picture of her hair some of the mornings before leaving for school.
Most nights Aubrey would show me a picture of what she wanted for the next morning. We are usually pretty rushed in the morning to get out the door, but Aubrey was very good about waking up extra early so that we would have enough time to get the hairstyles in. She was ok with Taryn copying one of her previous hairstyles, so I was able to get two hairstyles in one picture one of the mornings. Aubrey said she got a lot of compliments each day at school as she showed up with new hairdos.
Abby and Tessa made Aubrey’s birthday cake - a double layered heart-shaped cake with a strawberry filling and blue icing. Aubrey’s favorite color is still blue and she loved the way the cake turned out. Aubrey opened up her presents after dinner where we had picked up food from her choice of restaurant. She got a few presents from her sisters, but the big present on the bottom was full of our traditional gift in a gift in a gift wrapping style. She was the last one of our family and the Kasallis family to get her birthday presents wrapped this way, so she had been looking forward to it for a long time. She was very happy with all of her gifts which included air pods, shoes, clothes, and lots of new earrings.
Aubrey was able to have a little birthday party at our house the weekend after her birthday. She invited five friends and they made their own pizzas and watched a movie. They had fun visiting and hanging out, and it was fun for me to listen to them as they talked about school and boys and things that they’re in to these days. It was definitely a girls middle school party. They were really cute.
The girls had a lot of fun eating snacks while watching the movie and doing karaoke on the wii. These are Aubrey’s closest friends from school this year - Lydia, Abby, Lexi, Aubrey, Rianne, and Angie.
One day as Tyler and I were driving home from an errand, we saw these deer in front of a house in our neighborhood. They blended in really well and at first looked like they were just statues as part of their front yard decorations until we saw them move. So Tyler made a U-turn and we headed back to get a closer look. I was able to get this picture of them as they were wandering in front of the houses. We realized as they started walking that the one in front must have been injured because he did not ever use his back right leg. You can even see it in the picture that he never put that leg down and you can tell that something is the matter with it. He was still getting around fine, but we felt bad for him knowing that there really wasn’t anything for us to do.
This year the middle school is doing a yearbook, but they are having parents send in the student pictures. I included Aubrey’s picture already, but we had taken Tessa’s picture a week or so later, so here it is finally making it into the blog. Tessa also started track in February and after just a few weeks of practices, they had their first meet. Because of the pandemic, fans were not allowed, so I had to drop her off early one Saturday morning and just take this picture as she got out to wait for the bus.
Luckily when she came home after her meet, Abby’s friends Astrid and Braelinn talked Tessa into a photo shoot so I could have a lot of pictures of Tessa in her track uniform. I really liked these pictures and those girls were really good about getting candid and natural poses out of Tessa that I loved.
After a few practices, they had their time trials and Tessa was one of the fastest 8th grade girls. She was entered into three events for their meet. She got to run the 100M, the 400M, and the 4 by 400 relay. She thought she’d be placed with the other long distance runners since she’s comfortable with those distances because of cross country, but because she was so fast in the trials, she was happy to do some of the shorter distances too.
She had a friend take a picture of her at the school where their first meet was held. She said it was a lot of fun and she did so well at the meet. She placed 4th in the 100M, 2nd in the 400M, and her team placed 1st in the 4x400 relay. She really enjoyed it and I was sad to miss watching it. Continuing on with sports, Taryn has continued playing basketball games every week and you can see the kids improve with each practice and game.
Abby had a tournament in February on the east side of town. I was able to watch her play and she had a great day. Her friend Josh came to see her play as well. They were short on some players because of injury so Abby got to play all around and hit while in the front row. She really loves hitting even though her main job is setting. She was so excited to be able to play the front row at this tournament and I was able to get this picture of her as she scored a point from her kill. She also got to be the team captain for the day because the regular captain was the one out due to injury, so all around it was a great day for Abby and I loved watching her play.
Abby’s high school volleyball team posted this picture of all of the girls from Varsity and JV on their social media page. I saved the picture and was happy to have it here so that she can remember her volleyball career in high school.
All of our girls are awesome. We love how dedicated they are to their passions and how they like to grow as they learn new things. I love their positive attitudes and their amazingly good examples that they set to those around them. We are so proud of them and all that they do!
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