May 2025

 Skylar celebrating Ivy's 16th Birthday

Skylar's 15th Birthday

Skylar had a pretty quiet 15th birthday, mostly just hanging out with her best friends — exactly how she wanted it. The highlight of the day was definitely the morning surprise: her best friends showed up unexpectedly and burst into her bedroom to wake her up. It was such a fun and special moment she’ll never forget.
 

That day, Skylar took her crew to brunch before they headed to the beach. She totally lucked out with the weather — sunny and perfect, which is always hit or miss in May. It turned out to be such a fun and memorable way to celebrate her 15th!

We wrapped up the day with gift-opening and, of course, our birthday tradition: ice cream in a margarita glass. Can’t believe our girl is 15!

FNL 🏈 UC Davis Aggies (Spring 2025)

Madden had another incredible FNL season. It’s hard to believe he’s been playing twice a year since kindergarten—and still absolutely loves it. This season was especially meaningful because we managed to build a strong team made up entirely of boys from Madden's Pop Warner squad. Jake claimed he was going to step back from coaching, but we all knew that wasn’t really going to happen.

The boys had a great regular season, finishing 8-1 and taking second place in their division. Honestly, they could have gone 9-0—they just had one off game. For most teams, it wouldn’t have even been considered a bad performance, but for them, it was below their usual standard.

When playoffs started, they locked in. Keep in mind, this is the 7th/8th grade division, so to reach the finals, we had to go through several tough 8th grade teams. The boys played some of the best football we’ve ever seen from them—every single player stepped up.

We made it to the championship game against a huge 8th grade team. And when I say huge, I mean the other team looked twice the size of our boys. But it didn’t matter—our team simply out-skilled them. It was one of the most intense games I’ve ever watched. The game went into overtime, tied at 32-32. Our defense held strong, and then Madden scored the winning touchdown to bring home the championship. It was an unforgettable night.

This marks Madden’s fourth FNL Championship win—with just one more season to go.

April 2025

Skylar celebrating Anna's 14th Birthday 

Madden's 13th Birthday

We officially have another teenager in the house with Madden turning 13! In typical Madden fashion he kept his birthday really chill.  Requested steak dinner with the family and a margarita glass full of cookies and cream ice cream.  We did take him and 3 friends to conveyor belt sushi (which of course I forgot to take a photo) and that was how he wanted to celebrate.  

Dance Team Banquet

 Skylar had her end of the season dance team banquet.  Skylar really wasn't super thrilled to be on the frosh team her first year but in the end she had a great time and made really sweet friendships.  

Spring Break 2025

    It had been almost three years since our family took a trip to Mammoth. I’ll admit, I wasn’t too excited about spending spring break in the snow—I was craving something more tropical—but the kids and Jake were all in on a snow trip. In the end, I’m so glad we went. This turned out to be one of our best Mammoth trips yet.

Madden started snowboarding, and for only his second time, he absolutely crushed it. We also got to spend a lot of time with our friends, the Mirkin family. I honestly had one of my all-time favorite ski days with them—just nonstop fun!

Skylar was lucky enough to have her best friends up there too, and she got to ski with them for a couple of days. One of the biggest highlights was the kids conquering the challenging Cornice run—we couldn’t have been prouder.

All in all, it was such a great trip, and we’re already looking forward to making ski vacations a more regular tradition for our family!

Ernest and Mirkin's do Mammoth

The view from Corness.

Skylar with her crew..Miles, Grace, Anna and Skylar