Tweens, Trails, & Trick or Treat!

October was an awesome month for us. Brayden ended up scoring the only goal during the regular season of her field hockey team. It was so incredible to watch her make her way down the field and have the support of her teammates when she scored two goals. Everyone was screaming like crazy and she was so happy. Even though they didn’t win the game, the amount of pride and the sense of accomplishment that she had was truly amazing. The girls continued to take their gymnastics and tumbling classes. Brayden is really doing a great job working on her back handspring, but she says she just needs to focus on building up her confidence so that she can do it unassisted. I know she can do it!

The ladies concert series continued with dinner at Loft and Cellar before going to see Maroon 5 perform. We had a great time at the concert, but I have to say that I was a little bit underwhelmed by their stage presence. Adam Levine’s voice sounded amazing, but in terms of being great performers, it wasn’t that impressive. I guess when you’ve seen Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars in concert, it’s really hard to have other groups measure up to that. Regardless, it was still an awesome evening hanging out.

Trent did the Ragnar Trail race at the Anne Springs Greenway with his F3 friends. His team came in third place and they all had a blast. This is an overnight 24-hour relay where each person (on an eight-person team) runs about 90 miles over three different legs. While he was recovering from a night of pretty much no sleep, I took the girls and Myers to the Whitewater Center where we met up with my dad to watch the Build Your Own Boat competition. It was extremely hard, but it was so much fun see all the creativity and the boats fall apart. Hanleigh had her monthly Y Guides night with Trent as well. I was able to meet up with my Triple B friends in Mebane for one evening, which was awesome. All seven of us were able to get together, hailing from Maryland, Raleigh, and Mebane. We did some retail therapy and enjoyed some tasty beverages outside, then had a fabulous dinner together and went back to his Becky’s house where we continued to party while dancing and using our traditional random assortment of kitchen utensils (see video). Then, around midnight we got out Becky’s daughter’s python snake and hung out with her for a little bit. Her name is Cleo.

On Sunday of that weekend, Tonya and I took Brayden and Kaitlyn to a reproduction-related class at the hospital that was taught by an OB/GYN to educate them, along with numerous other 12 year olds, about reproduction and sex education. Needless to say, it was a bit eye opening for both girls and they were giggling like little kids at first, but once the awkwardness wore off, they slowly opened up to us and we had really engaging conversations at dinner about what could be embarrassing topics. Growing up, my mom was always very open with me about anything and no topic was ever taboo. I feel very strongly about raising our girls with the same openness in terms of communication style. I want them to come to us with any questions they have and I want to always be able to tell them the truth about boys and crushes and anything along those lines.

I went to see a star is born with Heather and Tnya. If you haven’t seen this movie, I highly recommend it. It is absolutely incredible and should win countless awards. Of course, it moved me to tears multiple times. I can’t wait to see it again. Brayden turned 12 years old (we sprayed the rock at middle school, which I’m sure embarrassed her a bit). It is so incredibly hard to believe that she’s nearly a teenager. I really have noticed over the school year how much more mature she is in terms of how she carries on conversations with us. The meltdowns are very few and far between, although the battles these days deal with what clothes she’s going to wear based on the weather. If she had her choice, she would wear shorts every single day. She is doing an absolutely amazing job at school in her studies and has straight As. She really has a very good work ethic and I hope she maintains this throughout life. Her field hockey team was recognized the local high school during the varsity field hockey game where they went out into the field and were called by name. She continued going to Cotillion where she learned how to greet people older than her. I have my monthly Selfish Club that was Halloween-themed and I dressed like a witch. Brayden had her field hockey tournament to wrap up the season. While they hadn’t won any games the entire regular season, they ended up tying two of the tournament games and we lost the last one. Again, it was so great to see this whole team rally together and never let outcome of any games affect their positivity.

Brayden ended up having her birthday party at Inner Peaks, which is a local rock-climbing facility. It was great to see all of her girlfriends get together and scale those walls like a boss. Of course, there were buckets with candy in them at the top of each wall, so their mission was to get as much as they could. It’s amazing how chocolate can motivate anyone!

We had our parent-teacher conference for Hanleigh and it was so awesome to hear her teacher talk about how great she is and what a pleasure it is to have her in her class. Her grades are awesome and she really likes her teacher and has met awesome friends, Morgan and Emerson. Apparently, the three of them get chased by three boys on the playground each day. It is really cute to hear how they all sit together at lunch and discuss if the boys will chase the girls or the girls will chase the boys on the playground. Hanleigh participated in the annual Boosterthon Fun Run where she had to raise money for the schools by running laps with a classmate. She ran over 30 laps and all the parents and friends came out to watch the kids, so it’s a pretty big deal. We encouraged her to raise all of her money for this event by calling family members. It’s always really cute to hear her sales pitch to them over the phone.

We hosted Brayden’s BEAM crew for a sleepover one evening. I ordered pizza for all the girls and then they all hung out doing whatever middle school kids do these days like making up dance routines and playing hide-and-seek, etc. They were super duper easy to watch. While I was hosting the slumber party, Trent ran an overnight relay around the area in which we live. This one was much shorter than the Ragnar race, so that was good. I think he ran a total of 12 miles for this one. We went to see Brayden’s friend, Emily, in a local dance competition as well. That night we had a dinner out with our neighborhood crew of friends (sans children) to Stoke. It was absolutely delicious, but very expensive. I think Trent and my days of splitting meals evenly with friends may be numbered because we typically split a salad and entree mostly these days. After dinner, we went to Merchant & Trade for some drinks and then back to our local watering hole. The next day, I spent some time at the spa getting a massage and facial, where Kendall met up with me and we continued hanging out for a little bit afterwards. We wrapped up the month with Halloween at Nina and Keith’s house where the whole neighborhood crew ate dinner and then ventured out for trick-or-treating. Trent and I dressed up as the game Operation, Brayden and Kaitlyn were “Kiki, do you love me” (in a homemade costumes), and Hanleigh was a cop.

Brayden-ism:

• I said, “You know what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna have a beer later.” to which she replied, “Me, too, girlfriend.” I said, “Oh, what are you going to have?” to which she replied, “I don’t know. Probably a Bud Light.” I said, “Really?” to which she replied, “Nah, probably a good morning Vietnam.” Nice, Brayden!

Hanleigh-ism:

• When Brayden’s name didn’t get called during the field hockey introductions at the local high school, she said (in a very frustrated voice), “Where is that microphone person? They don’t care about Brayden.”
• While in Hollister, she said, “Brayden won’t like this outfit. She likes being a dirty girl, not fancy.”

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