Reese is 15!

Reese had a great birthday, this year. There was a lot of anxiety and sadness leading up to the day. She kept remembering the way her special day last year tuned into a nightmare of standing in the street watching her house burn. This year, she had a few requests, waffles and a huge party. She was adamant that we celebrate fire day and all that we’ve recovered from AND have a Quinceañera. Scheduling around finals week and the holidays was tricky, this year.  Since the NYE dance is right around the corner, we opted to scale down from a dance/DJ and just do a big gathering with games, food, and a bonfire.  And even though a lot of her people couldn’t come because they were traveling or had family in town, she still ended up with 18 high schoolers congregated for fun and feasting. 

On the morning of Reese’s Birthday, I got up crazy early and made lussekatter buns (cinnamon instead of saffron) and dressed up like Saint Lucia.  Reese woke up to the lullaby of Sankta Lucia and breakfast in bed. Sainf Lucy’s day is traditionally celebrated on Dec, but we bumped our celebration of light to Dec 14, because Reese is truly a light to the world. She has a charitable heart and a force for good.  After the most difficult year, she still shines and radiates love and light to everyone around. 




The day of Reese continued with picking up get bestie, Finley S to join the fun. A smoothie date, shopping, lunch at Big Orange (Dad, Quincy, Corbin, and Soren joined in, too!), then the girls went to see Jumanji 2. The day rounded out at home with presents, ice cream sundaes, and games. 

Reese was thrilled that Grandma and Grandpa found the Reese’s advent calendar they’d bought her the day after  Christmas, so she could open all the tiny doors up all at once 😂


Her party was a success with a waffle bar, MarioKart, games, ping pong, foosball, the “salad bowl game”, and a bonfire that got big enough to make me pretty nervous.  The kids played horse and corn hole and did teenager things like dance along and lipsync to music, toss a football around, and do backflips off the picnic table. Reese was surrounded by great kids and had a fun night.

Sloane’s Preschool Program

Sloane’s school hosted a Christmas program that was as cute as it gets. Sloane finally got to sing the “He he haw haw thank you lord for baby Jesus” special night song for us! Her other favorite part was shaking a set of jingle bells. This was piggy backed onto a Primary performance in sacrament meeting today, where Sloane realized mid-song that she didn’t know all of the lyrics and silently wept dramatic crocodile tears through the rest of the song. And if course she was standing right on the front row of children in the chapel while she cried, and Esme also stopped singing to pat Sloane’s back and comfort her.  I was in the hall with a disregulated Adrian, but from what I hear, it was quite a little show 😂.  So we were both delighted and a bit surprised that Sloane was so cooperative in the program with her preschool class. It’s always nice to see your children behaving themselves at school. Phew! 😅 oh and the singing was SO darn cute I am already looking forward to the preschool graduation program in the spring! 

Quincy Cello Recital

Quincy had a cello recital this weekend. She performed the Suzuki book 2 variation of Long Long Ago in a duet with her private instructor, Mr Finch. 

It was beautiful!  Great work, Quincy! 

Corbin Choir Concert

Corbin has joined the Bruin Singers at the middle school!  I love me a choir concert and was probably the most excited of the Willardson family (including Corbin lol) to be there. I came armed with all the things to help the little ones sit quietly. 2/3 of them did well and 1/3 was a mess for most of the program. 🤷🏻‍♀️ luckily, we were at the top of the bleachers in a corner, surrounded by families with small children, so we weren’t the only loud family!  Corbin and the Bruin ssounded great, and the singers had fun. Corbin and Aaron has an ice cream date at the square after the concert.  

December Fun! Live Nativity and apolar Express Train

Oh I sure wish I could share pics of the twins because Saturday was a day of triplets delight. They loved the magic of it all!  Doing things with all of us can be tough if the twins are out of sync emotionally that day, but this weekend’s activities were things everyone could participate in and enjoy, so it was a winning day- even with the intermittent trauma and sensory processing meltdowns that hit like bricks 

A and E’s OT clinic hosted a sensory safe Polar Express Christmas train for clients and their families. All Aboard, Willies! So fun! We hadn’t been on this train since Corbin was a baby, and this was our first experience with the Christmas theme. 


Corbin bravely volunteered to be the first to give a solo on the train. 











 Determined to be the fun mom, but also because waiting is hard for little people, I packed an elf stuffie and started a game of catch with the children. Reese was mortified. Who throws things on a moving train, mom?!  We do! Several other families on our car joined the fun and everyone loved it! Well...everyone except Reese, haha.  But really, I think that keeping the   triplets visually and physically engaged every single minute of the train ride was the key to it being such a successful outing.  The sugar free, dye free, gluten free, egg free, nut free cookies were seriously good. I mean...maybe my expectations were lower than low (Reese said they tasted like cardboard and lemon essential oils 😂) but I really think they were surprisingly satisfactory. And I’m a super tough judge when it comes to cookies.  The sugar free candy canes were devoured as well on the way home, and we took our sticky, amped up, ugly sweater wearing clam of “Herdmans” to the Bentonville stake center and tried to keep the children reverent enough to see the live nativity. No one smoked cigars or shouted “Hey! Unto you a child is born!” So I’ll call it a success. But I wish we’d been able to do the two activities in opposite order. We opted out of staying for the Noel concert and went home for dinner and Christmas movies.  But since we missed the Hallelujah Chorus sing along, I made everyone listen to “Unto Us a Child is Born” on the way home, and had Quincy play the theme from Judas Maccabaeus  on her cello so we could get our Handel fix.  

I taught relief society on Sunday, and we ate the most incredible HalBQ smoked ribs with the missionaries at my parents’ home for dinner. We tag teamed (I went home with the triplets and watched there while Aaron watched with the older crowd) and warched the First Presidency Christmas devotional broadcast. It was a busy and wonderful weekend (Quincy’s Party was on Friday and the twins had a visit on Saturday morning) and life appears to be full speed ahead until January. All good things, all good things!  

Also, I want a nap. 

Quincy is 13!

Oh Quincy Brooklyn, we sure love you. 

🎶 “On the first day of birthday...” 🎶 Q began with cake for breakfast. 

 

Things got a little weird when the smoke from a large structure fire in Bentonville billowed up into the sky. Quincy texted that they felt an explosion and the power was out at the school. Located near the junior high, and knowing that some birthday/fire trauma might shake her up, I asked if she wanted to be checked out. She said “nah I’m fine and we aren’t doing anything. It’s fun.”   (Reese on the other hand was texting me doomsday cries and saying “I wish Spider-Man was here.” 😂😂😂)  

I left the children in school, knowing they were safe and sound...and maybe a little uncomfortable.  

An hour later, Quincy’s friend Cadence called to tell me her mom was checking her out and asked us to let Q play hookey for the last hour of school.  So off Q went to get bday cake flavored frosties from Wendy’s with Cadence and Mardee. Not a bad bday at all. 

“On the second day of birthday.” We left the house 20 minutes early so we could pop in for a pre-school bagel date. Quincy’s been asking to go to Ozark mountain bagel co for a while and bday week made it happen.  

“The third day of birthday...” was party time and this party was pretty epic. I became buddy the elf and “got a full 40 minutes of sleep” but I had time to throw together a fun scavenger hunt for Q and friends. I split them into teams and they matched a map with clues that led them to say movie quotes at the houses of Primrose Lane to collect the four basic food groups for elves: candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup. They also did some sneaky elf guerrilla decorating, caroled, made holiday cards for the missionaries serving in our ward, added their names to Santa’s nice list, took selfies with the Primrose Lane porch carolers, and performed a 1 minute “son of a nutcracker ballet.” 

Ok maybe Kasey and I needed  a selfie with the carolers, too! 😂😂 I’m so thankful for Kasey! She shows up. Every time. I cannot even count on one hand—-not even one FINGER a time this girl has bailed. On anything! She shows up, abd shows up big, at the right time, in the right way.  Plus she’s fun, but serious when I need her to be. She’s basically the ultimate sister friend and she’s so loyal she could be a hallmark movie series that everyone would watch and drool over what a perfect friend she is.   I called her with my disorganized mess of ideas for a fun party for Quincy, and she messaged back minutes later with what I needed to make it a vision. AND she tracked down and delivered candy corn after a half day wild goose chase of my own failed me.  It all turned out just right for Quincy and she was so happy. 





Also, my parents are the best. I don’t say it enough. They really are. As I made the rounds prepping the Lane for the scavenger hunt, the neighbors all said the same thing, “where did you come with this stuff?!”  

It’s in my blood. 

W wanted a boy AND girl party. But not just an awkward party. She requested I pull something together that would help them create memories and have a bunch of fun together. Junior high is cruel. These kids need to know they can count on each other to be friends outside of the Sunday school classroom, too. “A circle of friends can always get bigger.” Is something my mom would say to me and we say it to my kids. It’s fun teaching kids who all know each other, but have been in different “circles” that they can all have fun together. And that’s just what they did. 

My parents were known for pulling together awesome shenanigans like this for my siblings and I abd our friends.  Scavenger hunts, group dates, lots of fun and random silliness. They created a home and a where teens and young adults were always gathered, all of the time.  Lots of my own friends called my mom “mom” too. Reese and Quincy’s teenage years look very different from mine, because I was the youngest and they’re the oldest, so we still have preschoolers and bedtimes and tantrums around here. Not ideal for a cool teen hangout place. But I can throw an awesome party. So they’ll always have that! I think Quincy really loved her fun night. She is already talking about a game night over winter break to bring a crowd back over soon. 

Look how fun my parents are! They put elf on the projector so it was playing loudly and doreaduong Christmas cheer in the neighborhood as the teens passed by a dozen times on their scavenger hunt.

We had a nacho bar for dinner and the party ended with Elf worthy candy loaded ice cream sundaes. 


“On the 4th day of birthday”  we crashed dinner at my parents house because they were feeding the missionaries and I make it my life mission to show up any time my dad smokes ribs. I have never liked any ribs anywhere ever. But HalBQ smoked ribs are my #1 favorite thing in the world to eat, and my Quincy favors them as well. We brought her gifts to to their house and they watched the Christmas devotional together. (The little ones were DONE) by then so Aaron and I tag teamed and  I watched at home. But first we watched Q open her gifts: a calligraphy/hand lettering book, a new weighted blanket, a Sherpa style sweater, and a gift card for a sushi daddy daughter date. 


12 was quite a year for you, Quincy! You’ve overcome many obstacles. You work hard and you think big.  I love you big. Bigger. Biggest.  

Can’t wait to see what 13 has ready for you and what you’ve got for 13!