Lia's 15th Birthday Celebrations!

We wrapped up Lia's 15th birthday celebrations today after celebrating a few days late over the weekend.  Since Lia needed to stay home to attend her play practice and go to school the next day, we sadly had to leave her behind on her birthday while we drove the other three children to Coeur D'Alene for Ella's gymnastics meet.  The good news for Lia was that it meant she got to have a slumber party at the house of her dear friend, Alyssa, on a her actually birthday which was a first for her since it fell on a school night.  We then returned home the next evening on February 23rd and had one day to get ready for her friend birthday party/slumber party on Friday night and Saturday morning.  I then turned around and hosted her family party on Sunday evening, February 26th.  So, it was a busy few days, but I really tried to make Lia's birthday feel special although we were gone for her actual birthday.  I think it worked as Lia seemed to really have a good time celebrating with both her friends and family this weekend.  It's hard to believe that my first born will be driving in a year, but she acts so much like a 15-year old that it really does make sense.  Sniff.  It's all just going to by way too fast!

February 22nd:  

I sent Lia off to seminary this morning with a batch of homemade, blueberry muffins to share with her class.  After school, Lia went to Alyssa's house to do homework and go on a run in the neighborhood.  Alyssa's mom was then kind enough to feed her dinner and drive her to and from play practice.  Lia brought homemade cookies and brownies to share during snack time at play practice.  The entire cast also sang "Happy Birthday" to her during rehearsal.  Since Lia's birthday is the same day as Alyssa's dad, they surprised both of them with cake and ice cream and a gift after she got home from rehearsal that evening.  Alyssa's mom sent me this picture and a video of Lia blowing out her candles.  I was so grateful that they helped make her day feel special when we were so many miles away.

February 24th:

After a busy day unpacking from our trip and getting ready for Lia's friend party, we hosted ten of Lia's friends for the evening.  Since this was the first time that Lia "mixed" her friends from elementary and junior high school, she was a little nervous that the evening would be full of awkward moments.  Luckily, the girls all did a great job blending together and had a great time.  It was so fun to see all of them enjoying each other's company.

I decided to keep the decorations simple, but went with a woodland theme after Lia chose a set of paper plates with a leaf pattern on them.  I found some darling Easter decorations at the store (ceramic mushrooms and straw bunnies and birds) that went with the theme nicely.

Lia's party table all set up and ready to go.

All eleven of the girls enjoying dinner.  We served pulled pork sandwiches with a bunch of sides.  The girls had a great time talking and eating together.

After dinner, the girls went into the family room to open gifts.  As always, we had each friend come up and sit next to Lia while she opened their gift.  Here is Lia sitting next to one of her dearest and oldest friends, Sienna, who she has know since PreK.

Lia sitting next to Erika, her closest running buddy who is also waivering into the same high school as Lia.

All eleven girls posing for a group photo.

Top row from left to right:  Katelyn, Jaqueline, Rian, Lia, Mollie, Elle, and Erika

Bottom row from left to right:  Abby, Heather, Sienna, and Hope

Back at the table, the girls all sang "Happy Birthday" to Lia.

Clapping for Lia after singing to her.

Lia smiling after blowing out her candles.

Ron and I then drove all the girls to the mall for the activity of the night.  Lia divided up everyone into groups of two.  Each group then had 40 minutes to go to any clothing store to find and try on three outfits of their choice from three different categories:  silly/ugly, fancy, and casual.  They all had such a great time and picked out some amazing outfits in a short amount of time.  Each group then had to take pictures of each outfit for me to judge once we got home.  The winning group won gift cards to Bath & Body Works.  It was a close tie between three of the fives groups, but Mollie and Elle ended up winning!

The happy girls pose for one last group photo outside the mall before heading back to our house.

After returning home, the girls went down to our basement to have a dance party for an hour until parents picked up the majority of the group at 10 p.m.  Since we had arranged it in advance, Lia's friends from elementary school spent the night after everyone else was picked up.  We managed to keep this a secret so that the other girls wouldn't get their feelings hurt.  The remaining girls had a great time watching a late movie, sleeping in our basement, and eating a waffle breakfast the next morning before their parents picked them up at 11:30 a.m the next day.

February 26th:

After church and a slow afternoon, we hosted my parents for Lia's family party on Sunday evening.  We enjoyed a soft taco dinner (par Lia's request) in the dining room with all of the fixings.

Lia finally got to open up her gifts four days late!

She enjoyed getting some clothes, slippers, jewelry, makeup, and new headphones.  She also received a custom, XC hoodie that I had my friend make in her high school colors.  Lia found this saying online a few months ago and we thought that it would be so fun to put it on the back of a running-themed sweatshirt.  The message says:

Some girls chase boys

I PASS THEM

Emmett was constantly trying to help Lia open her gifts.  Here is a funny shot I managed to get of Lia pushing Emmett away from her gift after he had ripped some pink tissue paper out of the gift bag.  Silly Emmy.

I just had to get a picture of Logan reading his book while Lia opened her gifts.  That boy always has his nose buried into a book--even in the middle of a party!

Lia showing off the black and white finger nail polish that she requested to use next month to paint her nails before performing the role of Cruella de Vil.

The Hartland fam posing for a picture before cake time!

Lia and her traditional banana cream pie.

Ella and Emmett singing "Happy Birthday" to Lia.

Blowing out all 15 candles!

Lia posing with all of her siblings before eating pie and calling it a night.

We love you so much, Lia!

We are so grateful for what a hardworking, responsible, talented, righteous, and fun-loving young lady you have become.  We are so proud of all of your accomplishments with school, church, running, and theater and can't wait to see where you go in the years to come!

Ella's Great West Gym Fest Competition

We just returned from Ella's first out-of-town gymnastics meet in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.  This is a huge, 4-day gymnastics meet called the Great West Gym Fest held at a very fancy hotel right on Lake Coeur D'Alene.  Teams from all over the region come to this event and we have heard numerous times from other gym moms that it is their favorite meet of the year.  Although we had to leave Lia behind on her birthday since Ella's Level 2 team was assigned to compete on the morning of February 23rd, we were very excited to watch Ella compete and cheer her on.  

Luckily, this meet fell during the week of Ron's midwinter break, so he didn't have to take off any time from work to join us.  Ron, Emmett, and I left our house a little after 1 p.m. on February 22nd and picked Logan and Ella up from school on our way to the freeway.  We made it to Coeur D'Alene in a little over five hours and were blown away by how cold it was there!  We had totally forgotten to check the forecast and were so surprised to learn that it was 16 degrees when we checked into our hotel.  Since we had not packed hats and gloves and Ron and Logan didn't even bring warm, winter coats, we were all so grateful that we were going to be in town for less than 24 hours!  After checking into our hotel, we took the kids out to eat and to swim in the hotel pool before getting them to bed by 9:30.

When we woke up on the meet day, Ella was so excited that she could barely contain herself!  So far this year, Ella has never been nervous or scared before a meet like so many of her Level 2 teammates.  Instead, she is always so happy and excited to compete which makes it so much more enjoyable for me!  After getting her dressed and ready, we hit the breakfast buffet before driving over to The Coeur D'Alene Resort in 8 DEGREE weather for her 9:05 check in.  After finding her coaches and wishing her good luck, Ron, the boys, and I went and found our spot on the bleachers to cheer her on.  Since the girls on Ella's massive Level 2 team had been divided into two different meets, there were less girls in the 10:05 meet.  As a result, it went so much faster than normal and the meet was done in an hour which was perfect for Emmett's short attention span.  We had so much fun cheering on Ella as she dominated this competition.  She had the best meet of her season and received a 9.55 on the vault (her best event), a 9.525 on floor, a 9.275 on bars, and an 8.925 on beam.  It was so fun to see her get such high marks on vault and floor and to score above 9.0 in three of her four events.  I just loved watching every minute of it!

After the competition was over, everyone moved into a smaller conference room to attend the awards ceremony.  There was a beautifully decorated stage at the front of the room and all of the girls sat on the floor in front of it.  After handing out the awards to the younger age groups in Level 2, the announcer began calling up the winners for Ella's Senior A age group.  Since he started off first with the vault, I assumed that Ella would place somewhere on the podium and decided to quietly get out of my chair and work my way up along the side of the room towards the front so that I could get some pictures.  To my surprise, Logan joined me to the left of the stage.  After the announcer started calling up the top 12 girls in Ella's group, my heart started to sink as he was approaching the first place gymnast.  I even turned to Logan at one point and said, "I can't believe that Ella isn't getting called up to the stage.  This is her best event."  And, then when the second place winner's name was called, I immediately thought to myself, "What if Ella got first place?"  A second or two later, the announcer called Ella's name.  I was so excited that I screamed out loud and kissed Logan on the cheek!  It will honestly be a moment in my mothering career that I will never forget.  I was so excited for Ella and just so proud of her!  She works so hard week after week, practicing long hours in her gym, and never complains.  All of her hard work had finally paid off.  So many of her teammates and her coaches cheered her on as she walked up to the stage to take center place with her new plaque.  It was such a great moment for her!

Within a matter of minutes, we learned that Ella also got first place on floor and third for bars which was incredible.  And since beam is her least favorite event, we were so proud of her for finishing in 5th place,  And, it was equally exciting to learn that she came in 2nd place in the all-around category, and that she only missed out on first place by .075 of a point.  It was so close!  Regardless, it was just so amazing to see Ella placing so high every single time on the podium.  There was so much cheering and clapping and it was so fun to see Ella beaming from ear to ear.  Overall, the Great West Gym Fest was such an incredible experience for her and it was so fun to be a part of it all.  Ella's only regret was that Lia wasn't there to see it all which I thought was the sweetest thing.  After finishing up the awards ceremony and buying the kids some popcorn in the lobby, we headed out in freezing cold weather around noon and hit a MacDonald's on our way out of town for lunch on the go.  We got home safely about five hours later and were so excited to reunite with Lia as a brand new 15-year old!

The darling professional picture that was taken of Ella before the meet began.

 

Ella's first and favorite event:  the vault.

Ella taking off of the springboard with Coach Chad looking on.

Ella's perfect handstand from the top of the mats.

Ella finishing her vault by posing for the judges.

Giving Coach Chad a 'high 5.'

Ella's amazing score of 9.55 on the score board.

Ella's second event:  the bars.

This event was the one time that I didn't leave the bleachers to get closer to Ella since there was a table of officiators in the way.  As a result, all of my pictures came out with a tiny Ella in the distance.  She still did a great job and got a 9.275.

Ella flashing me a smile while waiting with the rest of her teammates to compete on the beam.

Ella's third event:  the beam

I was able to stand against the wall next to the beam and have a direct view of Ella which was so fun.  She received a score of 8.9 which is the highest one she has received this season in this event.

Ella doing her mount.

Ella finishing her mount before standing up on the beam.

Ella going into a split handstand.

Finishing off her split handstand.

Ella doing a front kick.

Ending her front kick.

Ella beginning her dismount.

Another action shot of her dismounting.

Ella finishing off her dismount.

Getting a congratulatory hug from Coach Kelsey after finishing the beam.

Ella giving me one more smile while watching the other girls on beam.

Ella's fourth and final event:  the floor

Once again, I was able to move to be right next to the floor when Ella performed her routine.  She was so solid and finished right on time with the music and received the amazing score of 9.525.  She just looked so brave and confident out there.

Ella doing her leap.  I just love this picture with the massive "Great West Gym Fest" sign in the background.

Finishing her leap.

Kicking into her handstand.

Coming out of her handstand.

Ella doing a bridge.

Ella kicking out of her bridge.

Ella finishing her bridge.

Ella smiling for me while sitting on the floor waiting for the awards ceremony to begin.

Ella walking up to the first place position on the podium after receiving first place for the vault.

The girls giving a gymnast salute after receiving their awards.

Ella standing in the first place spot for the floor event with all of the other girls in her level who placed behind her.

I just love this picture of Ella looking down and admiring her plaque while standing on stage.

Ella cheering on Harper who got first place in the all-around competition.  I was so proud of Ella for immediately congratulating Harper when she walked up to the first place spot on the stage.

Ella standing next to two of her gymnast friends, Annabelle and Caitlin, after the awards ceremony was over.

Ella showing off her plaque and rose after the ceremony was finished.

Pointing her toe and posing with a wooden bear on stage!

Ella's plaque covered with all of the individual, gold tiles she received from the competition.

A close up of all of Ella's tiles that she earned.