a Saturday adventure!

jack and Ellie's lacrosse coach from last fall has started up a new LAX club for all of our county. there isn't a LAX program available for any of the surrounding cities or towns in our county and he felt the need to make it available to all kids. this will allow our middle school and high school teams to be more advanced and be able to keep up with the surrounding school zones in Columbus. right now, a lot of the kids on the middle school and high school teams are learning the basics because it just hasn't been available to them. we are 100% behind coach bob and his mission. we are so thankful for the love he has for the sport and the time and energy he has spent with jack and Ellie, helping them learn to love this sport too. all this to say, there is a large group of people in our town of Granville that feel like they need to stick with our town's rec teams and not worry about the surrounding areas. so there has been a division and not many of jack's teammates from the fall will be playing with him this spring. the girl's teams are small anyways, so Ellie was already used to it.

well, Licking County Lacrosse Club has had a lot of support from the community and have provided the club with some pretty neat opportunities. later in the season we will be working with some food banks and serving food at homeless shelters. the kids will all be given mentors from the high school teams to spend time with on a weekly basis. they will be held accountable for their grades. the middle school and high school teams will be working with kids one on one at practices. 

this past weekend Ohio State University men's lax team had their opening game and our club was invited to come watch! they got to stand in the high 5 tunnel and cheer the team on as they ran out at the beginning of the game. during half time they got to go out on the field and scrimmage a bit. and then after the game, the kids and their families were invited down on the field to talk to the coach and one of their main players. it was really cool! I can only imagine how special that was for some of the families that are from here that love Ohio State.

IMG_7126 from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

MVI_4828 from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

of course, we had to stop and grab something yummy to eat on our way there! we stopped at a little breakfast place called A Fox in the Snow that offers pastries, breakfast sandwiches, and coffee. it was amazing!!! because we needed to get to the stadium we got our food to go and then ate in the parking lot at the shoe.

croissants filled with chocolate cream

brioche cinnamon rolls

blue berry and cream cheese gallettes

not pictured but also incredible was the donut filled wit vanilla bean custard. im still dreaming about it!

afterwards Chris changes into Sunday duds in the car while we buzzed to New Albany and dropped him off at a stake auxiliary training, then I dropped the kids off at home in Granville, went back to New Albany and went out to dinner with Chris before attending the adult session of stake conference. it was a fantastic Saturday and man am I grateful for a 12 year old son that is willing to babysit his siblings (especially because he had already babysat for an eye appointment in Columbus for Charlie on Monday, which as a day off of school, and then again on Thursday night so Chris and I could go to a temple session). we decided that we needed to pay him some actual cash and not just in ben and jerry's Tonight Dough like I had earlier in the week haha!

our girl turned 11!

although Ellie wasn't born until 6:30 in the evening on February 11, 2008, we decided to let her celebrate her birthday all day long... and then some!

we blew up 45 balloons and stuffed them all in her little room to start off her special day. when she made it to the other side of her room she found a note letting her know that school was delayed 2 hours due to icy roads and also that her birthday cards and gifts were hidden around the house and she had to go hunting for them!

she had so much fun opening up cards and gifts from relatives far away before a breakfast of orange rolls and sausage biscuit sandwiches.

cousins Lou and olive sent her a few gifts including a bean boozled game and a craft kit, so she spent most of her two hour delay playing and crafting before the bus arrived.

after school she opened gifts (lacrosse gloves, new fine point colorful pens, a new pair of earrings, and the game one night ultimate werewolf). after, we had an early dinner with all of the birthday girl's favorites: daddy's wings, tater tot casserole, rolls, fruit, and broccoli.

Ellie's cake request this year is proof of her Florida roots: a coconut key lime pie cake.

layers of coconut lime cake, salty graham cracker crust, homemade lime curd, toasted coconut, and a coconut cream frosting, topped with a flamingo beach scene of course!

it was a fun cake to make and I learned that green food coloring is much more potent than blue, lol :)

MVI_4727 from Lisa Brower on Vimeo.

after cake and ice cream we all headed out to a mandatory lacrosse meeting. although it wasn't super exciting, I think she still had a great day feeling loved and remembered by so many!

the following Saturday she and two of her best friends, Evie and Payton, went ice skating! besides a few falls (and probably plenty of bruises!), they had so much fun

Ellie is everything an 11 year old girl should be. she is adventurous, strong, smart, beautiful, creative, fierce, fearless, happy, athletic, and caring. she is also diligently reading her scriptures each night, anxious to talk about the things we are studying as a family, and regularly talks about going on a mission some day. we are so proud of this amazing girl. its crazy to think of who she will be in another 11 years. right now her goal is to be a marine biologist with Jack and go to college in Florida. I think it's awesome that she thinks about her future, a topic far from my mind as an 11 year old. I hope she will continue to be a force to be reckoned with, as long as it is a force for good. I know it will be!