Poor Tatum. She's the only one of my kids that I still force to do recitals--and she had to play in 2 quartets because of a last minute recital dropout:) But she's a good sport AND a pretty darn good little pianist. Way to go baby girl. CRAZY proud of you!
So Carlie did a little something CRAZY this year and asked a boy she barely knew--who goes to a different school even!--to her Winter Formal at Heritage. Going to a smaller school has its advantages and disadvantages for sure.
*Advantage--you are 99% likely to be asked to all school dances--which does NOT happen at the bigger schools.
*Disadvantage--there are more girls than boys at this school so the girls go crazy and start asking in September for this December dance!
So Carlie refused to be a "crazy" girl and asked someone outside her school to this dance. This boy she asked is actually the son of my husband's boss:) They've kinda known each other over the years--Chris has been working for the same boss for over 20 years now--they follow each other on Instagram and stuff like that.
So once again, I forgot to take a picture of the cute poster Carlie made for Docker. Her school mascot is the "Heritage Hero" so it was something to the effect of "Would you be my Hero for a night?" She delivered it in person and everything--I went and sat in the car and watched:) It was fun.
He responded with the Wonder Woman cape:
She was in a big group this year with 9 couples--4 other girls had asked guys from other schools so Docker was not the only outsider:)
She's likes TALL guys:)
See what I mean?
Carlie and her BFF Kayleah who FINALLY made the switch to Heritage for her Senior year. Carlie just LOVES having her there!
Another softball season in the books! And it was a GREAT one! One of our most favorite coaches decided to come back this season to coaching and we were THRILLED! Scott V. is so passionate about this sport and he puts so much energy and effort into it--which makes a HUGE difference. We've had other coaches in the past just there to get through the season.
Chris was a coach as well this season. Tatum likes having him there so it works out really well--the boys never liked him coaching their teams:)
Scott was gone the day of team pictures and so I had his wife send over a picture of him which Chris then blew up and cut out to put on a stick to make sure his face was seen in the pics:) We sure had a good laugh over it all--the best part was that Chris posed with Scott's daughter for the Coach/daughter pic. So it was Scott's huge head on my husband's body with Chloe at his side!
Tatum caught again this season. She is absolutely FEARLESS at these pitches coming at her--her best friend, Chloe V., has become quite the pitcher. Her pitches come crazy fast at you for a 10 year old girl--she chipped her dad's tibia bone with a pitch. But Tatum had no problem catching for her. Chloe prefers Tatum behind the plate too--it's somewhat of a comfort to her and she just pitches better when Tatum is there.
The girls had a great season and came in 4th out of 14 teams so we were thrilled with that outcome. Can't wait to jump back in next spring!!!
All the parents were invited to watch their child perform a monologue that they had prepared and worked on in their drama class. I had NO idea what I was in for. Max was the very first one up and he was definitely the LOUDEST.
He is performing a highly-edited version of a monologue of Josh Gad in the movie "Pixels." This is actually my most favorite part of that movie so it's probably my fault that he chose to do this one. Thank goodness his teacher helped him with the editing.
Way to go Max. Super proud of your ability to entertain a crowd. You've definitely got a gift.
Halloween always stretches out to at least 3 different events around here it seems. It's the BEST day of the year as far as we're concerned.
We had to get really creative with Max's costume as he wanted to be the new "Pennywise." So I hit up Pintrest for a few ideas and BAM! Another awesome costume was created! Max is usually the only complicated one every year. The other 3 pull something together pretty much on their own.
WARD PARTY:
Max filmed the entire day before our ward Halloween party. We picked him up from the film shoot and headed straight for the party. Carlie and I did his make-up in about 5 minutes outside our car:) Turned out great. He was definitely the hit of the party. He had the best time running around scaring everyone--even the adults:) He had a crowd of kids that followed him around ALL night! CRAZY KID!
Tatum invited her very best friend, Karisma, to the party. It's always a party when these two are together. Tatum is a dead movie star and Karisma was a Monster Softball player. Tatum and her little group of 5th grade friends left the party a little early to go to Ellie's house nearby to just hang out "away from little kids" and exchange candy. Funny how 5th graders feel bothered by "little kids:)"
I somehow missed my Ethan and his friends at the ward party. Ethan seriously rode his bike over to the Goodwill store down the street on this very same day (in the morning). His met up with his good friend, Courdrey, there and they each picked out their Halloween costumes in about 10 minutes. Ethan spent a total of $6 for his cool biker jacket and hat. Such an easy, simple kid--LOVE him:)
PUMPKIN-CARVING WITH THE PARKS:
I think we decided this was our 6th year doing this. The kids look forward to it every year and the carvers (Chris & Kevin) just keep getting better and better!
HALLOWEEN AT HERITAGE:
Heritage Academy allows the students to dress up for Halloween. So here are my 3 kiddos--Ethan as a biker guy (I LOVE how the hat sits on his ears:), Max as Ralphie from "A Christmas Story" (because the Pennywise collar is way too itchy to wear all day). And Carlie as "Agnes"--one of the 3 sisters in the Despicable Me movies (she had 2 other friends at school that dressed up as the other 2 sisters).
Kalissa, Carlie, & Kayleah as Margo, Agnes, & Edith
HALLOWEEN NIGHT:
We had our neighbors (the Thurmans) come over to our driveway. We set up all our pumpkins and eat dinner together as the Trick-or-Treaters come by. This is the best part of Halloween for me--spending time with our neighbors that we don't see everyday. Ethan and Max had a great time going out with Brandon and Tyler. Overall, just a GREAT night. We LOVED it!
Max was contacted by an ASU film student to star in his upcoming short film called "Under-Bed." It is a movie about a 12 year old boy who is bullied at school and befriends the monster under his bed for comfort.
His character name was "Toby" and he spent about 16 hours over 3 days shooting it. The movie was mainly just him--the monster will be computer generated--and 3 bullies. And I can't wait to see it!!!
On the last day of the shoot, they had an actor not show up. He was supposed to be one of the bullies. The shoot was less than a mile from my home so I quickly called my other son, Ethan, to see if he would be willing to jump in as a bully last minute. Ethan is such a great guy and agreed. All he had to do was sneer at Max and make mean faces at him:) He did great!
He had his own dressing room!!!
The make-up artist created this!
Aww! Poor Toby:)
This guy thought I was CRAZY!!! I just had to get a picture of everything going on!!!
Max now gets his very own IMDb page because he had talking lines in a filmed-movie! Max had such a great time doing what he absolutely loves. It was an amazing opportunity for him and I'm sure many more will be coming his way soon.
This is the Meeker family residing in beautiful, sunny Chandler, AZ. Chris and I have 4 beautiful kids: Carlie (23), Ethan (21), Maxwell (18), and Tatum (16). Thanks for stopping by:)
