The Biggest Birthday

Ceci has been waiting for her 10th birthday for years; as she puts it, it is "The biggest birthday".  First and foremost, it is when you get your ears pierced in our family, and she has watched two older sisters wear their earrings with envy.  She has worn sticker earrings and clip-ons but now has the real deal.  She got her ears pierced early, so she could remove them for soccer this fall, but it was still "The biggest birthday" because at 10 you get to choose when you go to bed and you get an email!  She planned a day to fit the occasion.  Here's how it went:

6:15 Woke up to the Beatles, Birthday
6:30AM breakfast of crepes with Nutella, cream and strawberries.
8:00 soccer game
9:00 soccer game (Adele's team, she plays on both teams)
To Goodwill to choose something to take apart and put back together again (a fan and a cassette stereo)
A treasure hunt for presents
BBQ Chicken Pizza for lunch (she chose the menu for the day)
A matinee to see Dolphin Tale 2
Pick up cousin Bailey
Drive to Provo and meet family at Brick Oven for a birthday dinner

A Happy Birthday serenade from Brick Oven employees

A photo with Cosmo

A balloon guy added to the party

A magician was visiting tables

Bowling at BYUs Wilkinsen Center

We have bowling names in our family.  Can you guess who is who?

BYU women's soccer game

In bed at 11:15PM

She obviously had a great day!

Secret Lake

Last Sunday afternoon Geoff and Ceci did a little explore to Secret Lake. 

Meanwhile, Tennie, Adele and I went to Em's to prepare for a casual surprise birthday dinner for Geoff with extended family.

China

Last Friday Geoff returned from China where he attended a Young Global Leader/World Economic Forum conference.

The first few days he explored Beijing on his own.

The YGL conference was at an eco-resort near the Great Wall.

One of their outings was to a monastery where they did a guided meditation.

They got some lessons in Thai Chi from the Chinese Thai Chi champion.

One night a group did yoga on the Great Wall at sunset. 

The World Economic Forum was in Tianjin.

Geoff entertaining the YGLs while waiting for their speaker to arrive

Welcome to the Forum

This was his last official conference as he graduates from the Young Global Leaders this year, but alumni are still welcome at all the events so maybe he'll attend a few more...

Soccer Season

We decided to try a new league that is closer to home this year, which also means teammates that live closer.  It is a much smaller, less skilled league that is pretty unorganized overall, but I'm still happy to have practices and games only 5-10 minutes away!

Ceci is old for her team which gives her a little advantage.  Yesterday she scored four goals, although one didn't count because she was off-sides.  She was on fire and floating on cloud nine.  This will be a good year for her.

Adele's team desperately needed a coach so Geoff and I volunteered to step in.  Geoff is a great coach (and I'm really good at getting the administrative stuff done...) When everyone showed up for the first practice we quickly realized we had the "misfit" team, all of the girls who hadn't played soccer, came from another league, etc.  And after losing our first game 15-1 we knew we were the only team who hadn't played together before!  Not only that but we only have enough girls on the roster to fill the field for a game and other teams have enough to sub in several girls.  We are definitely set-up for a hard season!  BUT, these girls work hard and play with heart.  It inspires me.  

Ceci has been practicing and playing with Adele's team, it gives us a person to sub-in (although yesterday we didn't have enough players so she played the whole game).  She is tough out there with girls twice her size and 2-3 years older than she is!  I think she'll really improve because of it!  So every Saturday that little energizer bunny plays two full games, usually not subbing out.

More pictures to come.

Avenues Street Fair

Adele, and her friend Celeste, had a booth in the Avenues Street Fair yesterday.  Adele sold little market and make-up bags, aprons, and scarves she has made in her sewing class, and magnets and earrings, as well as glitter tattoos.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of her cute items, except for a few of the magnets.

Tennie and her friends Kate and Hadley at the street fair before their all-day Harry Potter Movie Marathon

 

Luckily Geoff's sister Emily took a few pictures when she, Bailey, Nikki and Britt stopped by the booth (Geoff and I were at Ceci's soccer game).  They generously bought several things, which made Adele's day.

Adele has a natural business sense but is very risk adverse so Geoff and I made the initial investment this time; she'll pay us back for those costs if she made them, which I'm pretty sure she did (tomorrow we're doing the accounting).  We looked around at other booths and noticed some things she could do to improve sales if she decides to have a booth next year.  It was a great experience overall.

Movie Extras

Geoff and the girls were movie extras a few weeks ago.  They were told to wear cowboy/cowgirl attire and that is about all we knew about the movie.  When they showed up Geoff thought the director looked familiar.  It was Robert Duvall!  We looked up the actress who they were in scenes with and it is Matt Damon's wife.  

They had a lot of fun.  The movie is called, Wild Horses.