Donovan's 13th Birthday Update
Donovan is a teenager! Aaaaaaaaaack. Well, he’s the best, funniest, sweetest of teenagers. He’s got a sly sense of humor that we all adore, and he loves playing games the most. He plays chess, tons of other strategy card games like FAB, he joins in on Pandemic and other complicated board games, and of course enjoys tons of video games from Brawlstars to Valorant. He asks me sometimes how I find all the best books, and it’s because the books he likes are my favorites too. He’s loving band and is improving so much on the saxophone, and has made lots of great friends in school this year! He’s truly a kind, sweet person and so much fun to be around. Here’s a year of pictures of Donovan!
June 2023: Birthday dinner at Ted’s! Donovan’s long time favorite restaurant, and he asked for the birthday sombrero too. I love it!!! We must go on his actual birthday though so he doesn’t feel like he’s lying when they sing to him.
June 2023: Donovan’s 12th Level Up Birthday! 12 different gifts to help him and Hatcher level up through his birthday sleepover! Plus all the green decorations.
Dropping DZ off for his first sleep away camp experience in Colorado! We took a road trip with Papa and the girls, waited around for him to finish, and experienced some awesome National Parks on the drive! Great Sand Dunes National Park, Mesa Verde, and Four Corners
June 2023: Donovan’s special pick for the trip was Four Corners… he loves visiting new states and being in four at one time seemed awesome to him!
July 2023: Giant Chess at the City Museum in St. Louis. We had a fun road trip on the way to our flight to Sweden, and the kids LOVED this museum. All the climbing and exploring was awesome, and giant chess is perfect for the guys =)
July 2023: Sloomoo Chicago. Giant buckets full of slime! So much fun!
Viking for a day! We saw an ad in the Tunnelbana for this museum, and we all had a blast learning about Vikings and Swedish history.
July 2023: Donovan still pokewalks with me periodically, and it was even more fun in Sweden!
Our first trip to Europe as a family! We found the Dalahest =)
August 2023: 6th Grade! His teacher was SO awesome! She loved Star Wars and Darth Vader, and she was the advanced algebra teacher too. Such a great year!
September 2023: Donovan did several chess tournaments this year, and he especially loved it if Hatcher or Daniel were there to hang out with! He even had us drop him off at the tournaments instead of staying with him the whole time.
October 2023
October 2023: Jenks Wild! Eric took Donovan to Jenks Wild, where the entire Sixth Grade goes camping together! They had an absolute blast, catching crawdads, shooting arrows, ropes courses, all the crazy camping fun. Donovan was the first to risk one of the tallest challenges on the ropes course!
November 2023: Donovan broke his arm! He was playing basketball barefoot and just fell wrong. But it’s all fixed now and healed well.
December 2023: Undefeated at a chess tournament! What a day!
December 2023: We love card games! DZ and Hatcher are actually reasonable opponents now.
December 2023: DZ is randomly addicted to snowmen. I love it as it led to many fun pictures for me =)
December 2023: Christmas Around the World! We added Krampus, a tradition from Germany, to our favorite snowball fight activity.
Stockings 2023: Lightsaber chopsticks. After sleeping by the tree Christmas Eve, of course.
Christmas 2023: Taco cat, a really cool new fidget, Swedish pajamas, yoda squish, and a saxophone squish! It was a great Christmas, and a fun end to our Christmas Around the World Advent calendar.
January 2024: Snuggling with some of his favorite squishmallows on his giant blue bean bag. We upgraded to a larger one for his level up birthday present.
January 2024: Playing Skylanders and drafting with his sisters. They also love playing IPAD together still! The games may change but when they find one they all like they go all in!
February 2024: Diaversary. I got everyone fun diabetes related shirts for Donovan’s Diaversary Yes Day.
February 2024: FAB trip for Eric and DZ! They didn’t win, but they had a blast traveling to Connecticut for the tournament! And a new state for DZ!
February 2024: Eric warned the kids that we are considering Life Skills boot camp this summer, and DZ got into the spirit by learning to cook grilled cheese. He made a meal!
March 2024: Spring BREAK! We had fun mini activities at home for Spring Break, and one of them sent us to Cherry Street for Rose Rock where we found this cool photo op/mural. Fun fun! We also went to the climbing gym, had game nights, ate brunch at the Metro Diner, and lots of other fun family favorites.
April 2024: Tina and Ann came to stay with Sera and DZ while we took Maia on her 10th birthday trip! They went to Turkey Mountain and played lots of cards!
May 2024: Donovan at his first band concert! He loves the sax! He even asked for private lessons, partially so he could catch up after breaking his arm. I love it so much!
May 2024: Color run at school! An excellent finish to 6th grade! DZ went for as much green as he could! We were finding green powder days later!
May 2024: Electronics are still a fave =)
June 2024: Sneak peek of his Lucky 13 birthday party!
