Reed and Jude singing Happy Birthday to Anna

As usual we had been building up to Anna’s birthday as soon as the month turned to October, Anna’s birthday month. We got an early start to the real celebrations as Marcy baked a carrot cake yesterday and with Reed doing a sleepover at our house we decided to start on cake last night. It was delicious.

Anna woke up early on her birthday and was greeted with lots of presents (it is still dark outside)

We wanted to get an early start on Anna’s birthday because Jude had a soccer game at 9am and Anna wanted to do go-kart racing which also started at 9am. Anna and Reed were up well before dawn with Anna understandably excited. She opened her presents and then it was off to “berries and cream” (Original Pancake House) for breakfast. We used to go here for birthdays when the kids were little but it has been a few years.

Blowing out her pancake candles at breakfast

After breakfast we went our separate ways with Anna and Reed heading to Unger Racing for a morning of go-kart racing. They have both done this several times before and it is what Anna really wanted to do on her birthday. They had a blast going around in four different races.

Anna leading with Reed in hot pursuit

Unfortunately, I had to leave around lunch time to head to the airport. We have our Europe conference starting in London on Monday and I had to leave. Anna and I were both pretty sad about it but I was grateful to celebrate at least half her birthday with her.

[From Marcy]: In the afternoon Anna had her soccer game where they won the game, and then she got to go home with a teammate for an impromptu playdate.

On Sunday the celebration continued for Anna when a friend invited her to go zip-lining in Castle Rock. It worked out very well, since Jude’s team made it to the tournament final and had a game at 1pm. They played a great game, but lost to come in second place. We went out for ice cream after the game though, and the kids really did have a great time.