I've been dreading this for a year, but Joey turned 18 this past weekend!

He had some friends over for a little party on his Birthday Eve. These are the same guys that have been coming to his birthday parties for years. His other group of friends that we loving refer to as "the nerds" are coming over next month when marching band is over and their weekends are free again.

On his birthday, I searched for old photos of Joey, and this new AI search came up in Google photos. It was a pretty cute summary of Joey.

Sunday morning, it was official. 18!

My parents got Joey this funny Trump mug to celebrate his birthday and first election that he can vote in.

Getting some unsolicited birthday love on the way to church.

After church, we had the Meisters over for hamburgers for lunch. Then the kids had Shooting Stars that afternoon (hence the matching t-shirts). After evening service we picked up Mr. Taco for dinner and had creamy cookies for dessert. All of Joey's favorite things in one weekend!

Joey hasn't gone to a Homecoming dance since his freshman year, but he decided to go for his last year. He had water polo practice, ran home to shower and get dressed, and then took off to meet his group for pictures. I forced him to take a couple of quick pictures before he ran off.

Hannah had her good friend London over so that the two of them could get ready together. Ellie and I made them a charcuterie board and virgin strawberry margaritas.

We took a few pictures in the backyard.

Mother daughter picture!

After our quick backyard photo shoot, I drove the girls over to meet up with this huge group of mostly sophomore girls.

I love this picture where the girls stood in rainbow color order.

We also took a few small group pictures.

Meanwhile, Joey met up with a big group of mostly seniors. I couldn't be there, so my friend Amanda took some pictures for me, including one of Joey and Abigail (her daughter).

This is the only high school dance that Joey and Hannah will attend together, so I told them they HAD to get at least one good picture together at the dance. Thankfully Abigail came through and got this sweet picture.

It's weird that every sports season for Joey this year will be his last! After a bumpy start due to his arm being in a cast, Joey enjoyed his last season of water polo.

His senior night was a few weeks ago.

After the game, the coach said a few words about each of the seniors.

Bryce has been the Varsity coach for a couple of years now, and he's such a great guy.

He's clearly passionate about water polo, but he also really cares about his players.

Someone had these cute leis made for the seniors, and the moms presented them to each boy.

After all of the nice things Bryce said about each of the seniors, they decided to throw him into the pool.

He did put up a fight.

But he didn't last long.

This fall has been busy, busy with school and sports...mostly sports...

Hannah was on the JV volleyball team this year. She really loved her team and her coach.

She loves playing middle and blocking shots.

Ellie was on her middle school volleyball team again this year. 

She also loved playing, although her season was a lot shorter.

The high school had a "middle school night" where they invited the middle school volleyball team to come and cheer on the high schoolers. It's always a fun night.

Joey was on the varsity water polo team (that will be a separate post), but he also played some preseason basketball with his high school team. He's a varsity captain, so he was leading the warm up.

Zachary is a freshman this year, so we're so excited that the boys will be playing together. Papa J got to watch them play in a preseason game together.