Jake and I went to see Ludacris in concert. It was such a BLAST!
Another school year in the books!
7th grade definitely had its ups and downs for Madden. He made a great group of new friends and we even got a few sweet notes from teachers saying he was a pleasure to have in class — though they also mentioned he might be just a little too chatty. 😅 Academically, it wasn’t quite the year we had hoped for. We tried to help him build better study habits, but let’s just say... that often led to more battles than breakthroughs. We're really hoping 8th grade brings a bit more focus and fewer struggles in that department.
On the upside, he had a major growth spurt this year — it feels like he’s grown inches overnight — and we’re curious to see if that continues into next year!
Skylar’s first year of high school was a major success! She did an amazing job with her grades and study habits — we never had to remind her to prepare for a quiz or test. All her hard work paid off with straight A’s! She was also a total social butterfly, always out and about with friends. There were weekends where we’d drop her off at school on Friday and barely see her again until Sunday!
She loved being part of the school dance team and is excited for another year representing her school in that way. Next year will definitely come with more challenges, but we have no doubt Skylar is ready to take them on.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Skylar with all her friends at Dance Team Nationals Preview
Celebrating Emma's Birthday.
Skylar and I got to attend out first music festival. It was a quick mother/daughter trip to AZ to listen to some county music. I knew all of one song the whole night but it was still a great time. It was also Skylar first live music concert and being able to experience with her best friends was the best.
