At her school Halloween social

On Friday afternoon Anna had her school social with a Halloween theme. This was the culmination of “Spooky Week” at her school where regular classes were often replaced with Halloween activities like pumpkin carving. Anna was not as in to it this year, she even said she missed her normal lessons.

Anna had cheer practice again on Saturday and Sunday and she reached another milestone yesterday. She had a private lesson after her regular practice and executed a “Roundoff Two” for the first time which is a roundoff followed by two consecutive back handsprings.

At the top of the Incline. Who is that tall boy?

Today, Jude and I did the Manitou Incline. It has been exactly a year since we last took the climb up 2,768 stairs (around 2.000 feet) in less than a mile. We both broke our previous records, Jude did it in 31:14 and I did 41:54, beating my previous best by several minutes.

Finally, I meant to publish this a couple of weeks ago but we have Anna’s offiicial 8th grade photo.

Official 8th grade photo

The view of Tower Bridge from my hotel room

Last weekend I flew to London for our first event there since before the pandemic. The event went really well, better than we expected and it was great to be back in London again.

The closing game of Jude’s soccer season was an emphatic 8-0 victory

I missed Jude’s second last game of the season but I was able to be here to catch the last one on Thursday afternoon. And what a game it was. Jude scored his first JV goal and their team dominated to an 8-0 victory. Jude played injured but still managed to score a solid close-in goal.

At the Botanic Gardens in Chatfield with her Cheer team

Anna had cheer practice on both Saturday and Sunday as per usual. She did manage to squeeze in a soccer refereeing game before practice on Saturday. Then afterward her whole team went to the Botanic Gardens in Chatfield for a corn maze and team bonding. Marcy joined the other moms for the afternoon.

Jude had a quiet weekend trying to rest his leg. He injured his hamstring in a match a couple of weeks ago and has not recovered yet.

Singing Happy Birthday at home with Marcy’s cheesecake (note Olive in the background)

On Friday Anna turned 14! We have been talking about it for weeks and she was so excited about it. It was a school day so Anna wanted to take donuts. So she and Marcy drove down to Krispy Kreme right after they opened so she had fresh donuts to take to school.

Anna with two of her best friends at Starbucks on her birthday

After school, Anna went to Starbucks with some of her school friends and then had to go back to school to help set up for the movie night. She didn’t want to stay to watch, instead, she wanted to go to Outback Steakhouse with the four of us where we had a delicious meal. Before we went, Anna made sure to get in her driving lesson. Once they turn 14, the kids can start to learn to drive in the parking lots near our house. Anna did great.

Anna’s first time behind the wheel on her birthday

On Saturday Anna had cheerleading practice, as always, but this time she invited her team back to our place for some food, drinks, and games. They played on the trampoline, got out the AirTrack to practice tumbling and went to the park.

Celebrating with her cheer team

Today, Anna had cheer practice again and the theme was pink for breast cancer awareness. Then we did a second driving lesson when she got home.

Anna’s cheer team, the Cool Cats