Last year Katie and Joe's Rehearsal Dinner was at Amy's home on Paulina's birthday and Amy was so kind as to get her a birthday cake and it was just a really great evening/time together. Then of course this year Paulina became an honorary Ekblad as part of the Ekblad Academy Homeschool from February through the end of summer! Since Amy wanted to be able to celebrate her "favorite kid" through a couple texts we resolved that from now on we would do a Denja-Ekblad get together every December 30. The first one was a total blast and I look forward to many more to come!!
We don't really do birthday parties for the kids. With 8 birthdays in 8 different months of the year, fancy parties can get expensive so we usually just celebrate with a friend sleepover or maybe a family party or outing. But sometimes with a summer or holiday birthday you have to miss out on celebrating with friends, so I decided to make an exception and offered up an "open skate" to any 3rd grade girls (and a couple boys and other friends of Mateo) who wanted to come skate and were willing to pay their own admission. It was really fun (at least for me! Mateo only made it around one lap and then had to be cut from his skates...ugh ridiculous!). The girl in the green shirt is Paulina's friend, Colleen and the kid in the Red Wings jersey is Max.
Just two besties and their home birthed babies and mutual godsons.
(Apparently no one thought to tell me I was wearing a unicorn horn for this momentous picture LOL)
Isabel used to babysit for Ana when she was 4yo, both she and Paulina became classmates this year!
Mateo has made friends not only with kids in his class (Isaac, far right) but also kids in the 7th/8th grades at HVCS too. Ian and Lily Everts are in 8th grade (left and right) are little sibs to Eli who plays football with Mikey at FGR and Lexi (top left) is in 7th (and is the younger sister of the freshman kicker on Mikey's team). Lots of FGR and HVCS overlap which is great for making family friends like the Everts :)
I made this baby busy box (no pattern TYVM!) for baby Frankie who is the first Kendzicky grandson out of Dave Kendzicky's polo shirts and shorts. Maria is making a t-shirt quilt for the family as well. My mom is making 5/8 quilts for the kids and I've got the materials for the other 3/8 kid quilts. It's been fun to get back to sewing and surely feels like holy work I'm truly honored to take part in.
Mom is better than I'll ever be! She's making initials in her quilts, the J is for Joe who is the oldest. B is for Ben. He's the third of their six boys and two girls.
I wanted to make something for James to give the three kids who were still living at home when Dave passed a "gift from dad" - I was stumped. I had a gift for the two girls but nothing that seemed right for a teenage/high school boy. When I made Frankie's busy box it occurred to me whatever I made for Jimmy didn't have to be something for him now, it could be something for him to pass on to his own kids one day. So I made him a small football. Again, no pattern, I just took a small football from my parents garage and did my best to recreate it with a couple shirts and some stuffing :)
Girls are easier. I made two pillows that could also function as a small pouch for a bible/journal/rosary.
Mateo almost smiling with Isaac on the left and with his friend, Kellan, on the right.
I couldn't believe it - on New Years Eve in my parents' van - My Dingaling came on the satellite radio! This is a picture of an entirely different song that came on when I had a van full of kids heading to our second party of the night on Paulina's birthday! Also me and Elijah chatting :)
Several moms stayed to skate with their girls.
I feel bad I couldn't get a better picture of Sonia and her mom!
So a very big Catholic social media thing for New Year's is your word generator or saint generator or bible verse generator or prayer generator for the new year. What the heck, I participated in so many this year so I've got the Surrender Prayer, Luke 2:19, Listen and Cross as my words and Saint Gianna Molla as my saint. Sounds like a recipe for a good year!
Owen Ekblad hams it up for me :) He's pictured below with his girlfriend (from Malaysia!), Hanissa. Above are his best friends and their son Dean, who came to celebrate as well!
