Despite our demands to "stop growing so fast," Hallie turned 7 years old in September! Her birthday almost always falls over Labor Day weekend, so she not only gets an extra day off; she also gets to have an amazing time at our annual family reunion in Texas!
My parents, the girls, and I took a day off and flew to Texas on Friday. Dan school doesn't allow staff to add an extra day to holiday weekends, so he had to wait until Saturday to join us.
After arriving in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, our first stop was my cousin, Tricia's, house. She fed us lunch, took Hallie and I shopping for birthday decorations, and let Emma play with all her pets. Emma spent lots of time with Marshall, the calmest dog in the world.
Don't let this picture fool you - Tricia's other dog, Scout, was INSANELY hyper, jumpy, and all over us. Hallie understandably gets nervous around unpredictable animals that jump high in the air and lick her forehead. She literally climbed up on the pool table to get away from Scout.
However, she was ready to pet Tricia's son's snake. It probably had a name, but I forget. Snakes are unholy and don't deserve names.
Emma wanted to cuddle it. *shudder*
We met several of the relatives for dinner that night at a Mexican restaurant, and then headed back to the Ranch House, where we have our reunion each year.
The kids mooed greetings to the cows, so they'd know we were here. The cows mooed right back.
Now that the kids are getting older, we give them long pants (to protect their legs from brambles and poison ivy), work gloves (to protect their hands from only the Good Lord knows what they decide to touch), and send them off in a golf cart to explore the ranch wilderness.
We do make them take walkie talkies in case something serious happens. And sometimes we send my Uncle Brian with them to supervise. For some reason, he is accepted during Kid Adventure Time. I asked if I could go and was unapologetically rejected.
Emma remembered all her driving tips from last year, and was an excellent golf cart driver this year. Hallie was tall enough to reach the pedals for the first time this year, and I have no doubt that she'll be driving with the best of the cousins soon.
On one of their adventures, the kids went searching for more animal bones to add to their lovely bone pile sculpture. Welcome to Texas!
All those skulls on top - Eeew!!
Staring into those eye sockets clearly drove the kids insane. Especially Hallie, who just touched DEAD THINGS and is now putting her hands on her MOUTH. She's still alive today, so I guess it boosted her immune system.
I still can't understand why they didn't want me to come. haha!
Another exciting event happened when "those who shall remain anonymous" (not us) drove the go cart as fast as they could over very dry grass and caught the engine on fire. We're thankful we have Firefighter Jeff in the family to handle these incidents.
It's always 100 degrees when we visit over Labor Day weekend, but this summer, Texas had an insane heat wave where the temperature was above 110 degrees for weeks on end. It cooled down to "just 100" when we came, and everyone said we were so lucky!
We swam in the pond to cool off in the afternoons. They have a floating mat that the girls like to stand on and jump off. The boys like to have wrestling matches and throw each other off. One kid got a seriously bloody nose after picking on a cousin half his age who excels in every sport, including jiu-jitsu. The adults just count heads every now and then to make sure everyone's still alive.
Emma decided to explore the banks of the pond, and learned that you do not win a battle with Texas mud.
She lost a shoe in the mud and gained black mud stockings. One of the cousins eventually found and rescued her shoe, thankfully.
Both girls tried a little fishing, but unfortunately didn't catch anything this year.
It was good practice, though.
Hallie had a 3-year-old shadow all weekend. Shiloh LOVED playing with her cousin, Hallie!
Shiloh also terrorized us with a disguise she found at the Ranch House. That little, tiny body paired with the mask and long fingers was extra nightmarish.
Now let's replace the image of the skeleton baby with this lovely, peaceful, view of the pond, and pray that we don't have bad dreams. In Jesus' name, Amen.
On our last full day at the Ranch, Hallie helped set up the Ranch House for her birthday party with the decorations she chose with cousin, Tricia. This girl is not shy about throwing her own party! She's been counting down the days until her birthday for about 6 months!
Happy Birthday to our beautiful Hallie!!
The cake to the left is an extra-large cupcake that Hallie was determined to eat by herself. The larger cake was a unicorn with lots and lots of frosting hair. The ears, horn, and eyelashes were made of candy. It's a 7-year-old girl's dream!
On our last evening together, we had our traditional egg toss competition; kids against kids, and adults against adults.
We had some serious egg tossing amongst the adults. It looked like the finalists were tossing those eggs a quarter of a mile to each other!
I didn't get a picture of the whole group, but it was so wonderful to see everyone! We look forward to the reunion every year.
We flew home from Texas on Hallie's actual birthday. We got home in time for dinner, and Hallie had her traditional birthday pancake.
I'd normally make a "6" shaped pancake for her the night before her birthday, but this year, she got "6 + 1," since she had already turned 7.
She also got to open some very fun gifts that evening!
This cute Barbie set came from Uncle Steve, Aunt Sheila, Meera, and Rowan in Boston!
Hallie returned to school on Monday and got to share donuts with her class during lunchtime. Her teacher, Mrs. Learn, led the whole cafeteria in singing "Happy Birthday" to her.
Just a few days later, we met Grandpa and Grandma at Build-A-Bear in Williamsburg so Hallie could choose her own birthday gift from them.
She chose a sweet rabbit, and got to help stuff it, name it, and choose clothes and accessories for it.
Hallie and Emma posing with the giant build-a-bear in the store
Hallie had another party with all the Jester family a week later!
She asked for a "brownie cake" this time, which she helped me make. She was fully responsible for the decorations.
More awesome presents from her cousins and Nana and Papa!
Hallie and Dan's sister, Robin, shared the September family birthday party. Hallie's birthday is at the beginning of the month, and Robin's is at the end of the month.
Robin and Hallie have a lot in common. Robin also threw her own backyard birthday party, and we had a great time with all the family, coworkers, and friends who came out.
Hallie, we love you, and pray that the Lord will bless you abundantly this year! You've brought joy, enthusiasm, and laughter to our family since you were born. You have a kind heart, and you're compassionate and forgiving toward others. You enjoy helping and being involved in what others are doing, and you're always looking for someone to play with you. You're happy doing a variety of activities, and always have suggestions for how we can make our days more exciting. We have a feeling that your life will never be boring! We hope that your 7th year is full of many great adventures!
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