Jude celebrating 15 years (11+4)

Jude turned 15 on Tuesday this past week. As is usually the case he was on Thanksgiving break so he had the freedom to do whatever he wanted. So, he played some soccer in the park and some basketball in the alley, watched some Simpsons and played video games.

Because Anna had gymnastics practice that night we celebrated with a birthday lunch. Jude decided that he wanted Outback Steakhouse delivered so he had a steak feast. And, of course, there was cake. Dairy Queen ice cream cake for dessert.

Off to run the 2021 Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning

On Thanksgiving Day Jude and I were able to run the Turkey Trot (it was canceled last year). It was great to get some solid exercise before our feast. I ran the best race I have done since I took up running again three years ago, coming in 3rd in my age group (out of 155 people). It is a big race with 8,000 registered runners.

We had some time in the park before the big feast

It ended up being a really nice day on Thanksgiving, beautiful sunshine and reasonably warm. We had a little family time in the park while everything was cooking, with Jude and me playing a little football.

Sitting down to Thanksgiving Dinner

I cooked the turkey and made gravy, Marcy and Jude made some fantastic twice-baked potatoes as well as cranberry sauce and the kids prepared the green beans. And Anna made the brioche bread rolls that were delicious. The whole meal was fantastic.

The rest of the four-day weekend was spent around the house for the most part. Anna’s friends were all away and Jude was content playing in the park, watching football and soccer and playing video games.

Ready for the Blue Debut – her first Cheer performance

The highlight of the weekend was Anna’s first cheer team performance, known as the Blue Debut. Her Cheer Athletics team did a performance they had been working on for months. It was our first time seeing Anna in action and it was really cool to see all the things they could do.

Anna forming the base (she is in the middle looking up)

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. Jude and I watched Australia play New Zealand in the T20 World Cup Cricket final this morning which was a blast. It was a close game but Australia prevailed in the end for their first-ever world cup title in that form of the game.

Jude and I watching the T20 Cricket World Cup Final – go the Aussies!

The cool weather suits Olive and she loves to run at the park. Here she is returning her ball during a game of fetch.

Fetching the ball in the park

Anna doing the vault at her gymnastics meet

Anna had another gymnastics meet on Saturday and she did great. Her back was bothering her in the lead up to this and she wasn’t sure if she would be able to compete in everything. She even adjusted her floor routine to make it easier on her back. It was undecided whether to do the vault but she was feeling ok and went for it.

Anna comes 2nd in the vault out of dozens of girls

Anna performed really well, above expectations. She placed second in the vault, fourth on beam and fourth in the all-round (with a score of 34.95). This was the best performance on her team and she was really happy.

Raking leaves in the yard with Baba

On Saturday evening Baba and Grandpa arrived from Iowa for a few days. The kids were so excited to see them again and as always they arrived with lots of goodies.

Today, the kids had a quiet day. They played games with Baba, did a little yard work and then Anna had Cheer practice in the afternoon where she received her new competition uniform.

Showing off her new Cheer Athletics uniform