Valentine's 2026

Our Valentine weekend kicked off Thursday night when Sadie & I had a mother/daughter NCL Galentine meeting:

We had snacks, the girls made flower bouquets to take home & we made Valentine's to pass out at a Retirement Center:

It really was a fun evening & the perfect way to kick off the long weekend since the girls didn't have school on Friday or Monday:

On Friday, Sophie's volleyball team had a Valentine's party:

They had a volleyball tournament all day Saturday & Sunday, so it was a good way to bond & kick off the weekend together. 

My parents came to visit for the weekend & watch her play volleyball, so we had a few sweet treats to celebrate. I found these cute heart shaped Valentine macarons at Trader Joe's:

When I went to the grocery store on Friday, they had a huge tent set up with Valentine goodies, including a ton of chocolate covered strawberries. I saw these covered in nerds & knew my family had to try them:

Sophie also made homemade sugar cookies that she had fun cutting into heart shapes & decorating:

Finally, this is the first year Sophie had a Valentine. She had a friend from school ask her & her best friend got asked by his friend, so they kind of had a double date. One of the moms had them over so they could exchange gifts, have lunch & hang out. Sophie was so shy but secretly excited at the same time:

She didn't want to do anything too romantic or girlie, so we came up with a sports themed basket. A little salty, a little sweet - we even included a protein shake:

He is a Longhorn also so he got her a Longhorn warmie stuffed animal that is weighted & can be heated up in the microwave. She LOVED it!

I think 12 is a good age to practice - it's not like they are dating at this age, but it was super sweet to see these 2 be Valentine's for the first time.

8th Grade Lady Gator Basketball

 I haven't posted much about basketball, but the season started in November. I always feel like it is the longest middle school sport because of the holidays in between. Sadie made the A team & it was mostly the same group of girls that played together last year. Out of all of the girl sports for their grade, they definitely excel at basketball!

They kicked off the first weekend of December with a tournament, The Collin County Hoop Fest, where they dominated the competition & easily won the championship:

We lucked out & hosted the tournament which also meant we were in charge of the hospitality room so that was my job for the day. Sophie had fun because she had friends come up for certain games:

The girls had a break between games & since the tournament was at our school, they were able to go back to someone's house in between games to hang out & rest:

Fast forward to January, when they only had 2 games left but that's when Sadie broke her wrist so unfortunately her basketball career was over. I think Bryan & I were more disappointed than she was because we absolutely love basketball & know she won't get to play in high school. She still went to every practice & game & got to sit on the bench & take stats:

Last week was our final game, against our rivalry school at our high school where both schools feed into. It was a lot of fun and secured our spot into the FISD district tournament this past weekend. Thankfully it was a quick tournament - we went in, won all 3 games & took home the championship trophy again:

She still got to celebrate with the team even though she didn't play:

It was the perfect way to end the season. This group of girls played 28 games in 2 years during middle school & only lost 1 game! And not to be petty, but that game they lost Sadie didn't play because she had a broken toe & 2 of our players had the flu so it was a hard loss. So proud of these girls & I cannot wait to watch most of them play at Wakeland next year!

Winter Storm Fern

In case you haven't heard, it had been an unseasonably warm winter until this past weekend when winter storm fern decided to blow through. This was some of the coldest weather we have had since several years ago when we had out last big ice storm so this time, I was ready! I went to the store early in the week & stocked up so we were ready for a few days at home. The temperatures started dropping on Friday & it rained all day but somehow overnight it turned from regular rain to freezing rain/sleet/thundersleet - whatever you want to call it! It looked pretty when we woke up the next morning, but it wasn't the pretty fluffy stuff, it was ice I heard it hitting our windows all night long:

The girls wasted no time getting ready to head outside to meet their friends! In fact, they have spent the past couple of days walking back & forth between each other's houses:

There has been lots of snacking, lots of hot cocoa, lots of late nights & multiple sleepovers:

Of course, with cold weather come lots of gear:

Ha! I had a few old towels on the floor to collect ice/water, but this slowly became their dumping ground every time they came home. Thank goodness we only get this a few days a year or this would drive me crazy! 

The first 48 hours were full of precipitation & mostly ice. And since I hate the cold, I stayed inside the entire time & only took pictures through the window:

That's the advantage of having older kids who can go outside & play by themselves now! By Sunday morning, we finally had the fluffy white snow:

 

and then it finally moved on by that afternoon. So here we are a few days later & we haven't had any precipitation since Sunday afternoon, but nothing has melted either, so the girls had school cancelled Monday thru Thursday. They are loving life & I am over it. Ha! I hate to say that I am ready for basketball games & volleyball tournaments again. A few days at home is fun but I think we are all ready to get back to life as we know it. 

D-Now 2026

Every year our church hosts D-Now in January on the long holiday weekend. 2 years ago, we hosted the 6th grade girls at our house so Sadie could go but she had a soccer tournament that made it a little harder hosting while she was out playing. Last year she went again, but another family hosted because again, she had a soccer tournament. This year she had to miss while we went to Orlando, but this was Sophie's first year she is old enough, so she was SO excited:

I had her all packed before I left so her & Bryan went to dinner Friday night, on a gluten date to Raising Cane's of course before he dropped her off:

She has a pretty close group of friends at church & they stayed at one of their houses. We didn't talk to her much all weekend until Bryan picked her up on Sunday afternoon but thankfully, they sent pictures & clearly, she had a good time:

They spent about half of the time at the church & the other half at the host home:

They had 2 college leaders from UT that the girls loved! And Saturday night was themed night, so their group went with Barbie:

Sophie was beach Barbie!

I love our church & say it all the time, but we have the best youth group! I think it speaks volumes that Sophie chose a youth retreat at home with her friends over a private tour to Universal Studios. Ha!

Hopefully next year it will work out so they can both go together. 

Universal Studios, VIP Experience

When we heard we were going to Orlando, I immediately started thinking of what we could do. We have done Disney numerous times, in fact we have done Disney World in Florida 4 times already, but we have never done Universal Studios. I had always heard it was better for older kids so that was my plan, of course we couldn't make plans until we knew our schedule. Thank goodness they posted it back in December, so I was ready. Friday night she had the latest game time so I knew that was our best choice, but I didn't want to waste too much time at the park since I knew it would be busy on a holiday weekend, so I discovered their VIP guided tour & booked it right away:

They pretty much promise you can do 2 of their parks, Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure in 7 hours. That included valet parking, buffet breakfast & lunch, plus skip the line passes & behind the scenes access. The park didn't open until 10:00 but we got in at 9:30 & was amazed to have the park to ourselves!

They took us straight to Cafe La Bamba where we had breakfast:

And I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had plenty of gf & df options for both of us, just like Disney:

After a quick breakfast, they loaded us up with water bottles & we headed out. Out tour guide was Abner & we were in a group with 12 of us. I had booked the tour for our family of 4 but instead of cancelling Bryan & Sadie's tickets, we invited her friend Reese & her Dad, which Sadie was even more excited about:

We started at Universal Studios & walked from Los Angeles to New York, where we did the Jimmy Fallon attraction:

Then we walked through San Francisco 

to get to London so we could visit Daigon Alley from Harry Potter:

We had free time to walk around the stores, shop, do a few attractions & then we got dessert:

Sadie went for frosted butter beer while they got ice cream:

Once we finished this park, we took the Hogwort's Express train from Universal Studios to the Island of Adventure:

This is where the adventure really began. Universal Studios is based on movies and has more 3D attractions/virtual reality, but Islands of Adventure is based on books & is definitely more adventurous, mostly thrill rides! We stepped off the train & landed in Hogsmeade: 

We went straight to my favorite ride of the day: Hagrid's Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure. The wait time was 140 minutes, but our tour guide took us through the exit, straight to the front of the line & he literally put Sadie & I in the very first cart. We literally walked in, rode it & were out in 10 minutes. SO worth it!

We quickly went through Harry Potter, Jurassic Park & Skull Island. Before we knew it, it was 4:30 & we had already finished both parks! Our tour guide was amazing & did a great job teaching us about the parks, explaining all of the rides, making sure we had the best seats in the house & showing us a great time. We all agreed if we go back, we will request him again:

We had never done a VIP tour before, & even though it wasn't a private tour, it was worth every penny. The valet parking had us so close to the park, we didn't have to walk far & surprisingly, there wasn't a line when we went to pick it up. And by the time you factor in the cost of parking plus our buffet breakfast & lunch, the tour itself didn't cost much more. I would highly recommend to anyone going! Next time we'll have to go back with Bryan & Sophie so we can try Epic Universe!