School Pictures

The girls' school pictures were so good this year; love these cuties!

We love Mrs. Grote!

 We love Mrs. Barbulescu too!

Such a wonderful school with amazing teachers.

Tis the Season!

I love getting ready for Christmas!  One of my favorite activities is putting up our Christmas tree.  We pick up ornaments from our travels during the year, and we have a log book where we record them, so we'll always know where they came from.  It's such a wonderful walk down memory lane each year as we pull out the ornaments; we reminisce and dream of future trips.  Here's this year's tree along with the new ornaments from 2015: Ryan's mission trip to India, Spring Break trip to SeaWorld and Clearwater Marine Aquarium, US Space and Rocket Center ornament from our Memorial Day weekend trip to Huntsville, Adler Planetarium ornament from our Father's Day weekend trip to Chicago, Ryan's mission trip to Tunisia, two ornaments from our recent trip to London: the crown from the gift shop at Westminster Abbey and a Kensington Palace ornament from our time there.

The girls always enjoy decorating their tree with their special ornaments: ones from trips, gifts and ones they have created.

This year, we gave Mia a bat/glove/ball ornament to mark her first season as a softball player, and we gave Lily a bat to commemorate her role as Bonnie the Bat in "Goldilocks and the Curse of the Porridge."

 I love putting out our different nativity scenes.  Mine was a gift from Meme from her trip to the Holy Land about 25 years ago; Ryan's was a gift from his Grandmama who we both loved.  The girls still like to put out and play with their Little People set.

 We've hung our stockings and put some of the girls' artwork up by the fireplace.  The anticipation is starting to build!

 I bought this piece off of Etsy last year, and I still love it.

We also decorated the girls' rooms a little with putting colorful lights around their windows, setting up their past Christmas artwork and placing fun holiday themed Kleenex boxes out.  Once the countdown calendar was hung up, it became official - we're ready for the Christmas season!

Wonderful November

We needed November.  Ever since school started, our lives have been a little more hectic than what we want them to be.  Each week, the girls had piano lessons, acting and softball in addition to their school work.  While it was fun, there wasn't much downtime, and our family needs it's downtime.  Finally, November arrived.  We've had things to do, but we have been hanging out at home a lot more which has been wonderful!  Here are some of the things going on recently.

Mia's softball team had their end-of-season pizza party, and each girl received a trophy.  When giving her the trophy, coach noted that Mia was a little slugger which made her smile so big!

 I had told the girls not to play with the new little brush I bought to curl Lily's hair under.  Mia didn't heed my warning.  We spent about an hour before bedtime one evening trying to get it out without having to cut it out.  Thankfully, conditioner did the trick.

 Lily and Avery represented 3rd grade in the school wide spelling bee.  She made it through several rounds before being eliminated.  Spelling has always been difficult for me, so I was super proud that she made it this far!

 We got to bring the school's parakeet home for the weekend recently.  His name is Reepicheep (from the Chronicles of Narnia), and the girls enjoyed having him here.

 Mia let Lily style her hair for church one Sunday morning.  She rocked the side ponytail!

 The girls found time for face painting which is something they always enjoy!

 Lily's art class made Google Doodles to submit.  Lily's had a travel theme which I loved.

 Both girls submitted art work into the "Rivers of Art" competition.  We'll see how they do, but I thought both of their pieces were lovely.

Mrs. Grote told her class to write a poem one day, and gave no further direction.  She displayed Lily's and Emory's pieces because she liked them so much.

 Grandpops and Grandma Jan sent Mia a lot of art supplies for her recent birthday.  The girls used them to set up a space downstairs that they called "Operation Art."  We all had a fun time painting and making art together one morning.

 Lily and I had a mommy-daughter date night at the Marriott Marquis in Atlanta one evening.  We had a great time swimming, ordering room service, watching a movie and spending time together.  We were both excited when the check-in gentleman sent up milk and cookies to welcome us.  I love one on one time with my girls.

 The girls have been having a great time with the games Mia received for her birthday.

 I took the girls roller skating one afternoon during Thanksgiving Break while Ryan was working on his thesis.  We always have fun here!

 The Wilkinson family met us at Sparkles which added to the fun.

 The girls had a good time assembling some Thanksgiving 3D crafts this week.

 Thanksgiving Day was beautiful!  We had a wonderful time over at Sid and Elaine's house.  We're so blessed, and this is a wonderful day to remember that.

 On Friday evening, we joined a lot of our cousins at Robert and Judy's house for a bonfire which was a lot of fun.

 Theyloved going on the girls-only hayride!

It's been a great month!

Happy 7th Birthday Mia!

Mia has turned 7!  I simply can't believe it!

 We love this girl to pieces and couldn't wait to celebrate her.

Her birthday was on a Wednesday, so we had three of her best girl friends come over after school for a Miles from Tomorrowland party.  Mia was thrilled that Sophie, Eliana and Sarah were able to come.  She is such a fiercely loving friend; they mean the world to her.

After playing several games all around the house (4 Corners was a big hit), we took a little break for the girls to watch one Miles episode.  I think it's safe to say they enjoyed relaxing for a few minutes for that.

 While they watched the show, we got dinner together: Supersteller Sammies (star shaped grilled cheese), Galatic Grapes with Stars (grapes and yellow tomatoes), Star Fruit, Tomorrowland Trail Mix (popcorn, pretzels and Reeces Pieces) and Cosmic Cocoa (hot chocolate).

 Enjoying dinner.

 After dinner it was time for dessert.  Mia was so excited about her ice cream cake!

 Singing happy birthday to the birthday girl.

 Make a wish!

 After dessert, Mia opened her presents and was very excited at her friends' thoughtfulness.  Then they all piled together for another sweet picture.  I love these girls!

 Everyone left about 6:45, and then my parents came over about 7.  They wanted to wish Mia a happy birthday and give her their presents of two board games (Monopoly Jr and Life Jr).  Our whole family has had a lot of fun playing them!

 Lastly she opened our present (she opened Lily's gift of a color-your-own umbrella first thing that morning).  She was beyond excited to see a Ripstik!  She had borrowed a friend's a couple of months ago and loved it.  She is thrilled to have her own now, and since she is so athletic, she's getting the hang of it pretty quickly.

 We had a lot of fun celebrating our sweet girl!

I also asked Mia her birthday questions, and these are her responses of favorites:

Color - Black

Movie - Hotel Transylvania 2

TV Show - PJ Masks

Book - The Ninja Book and Who is Lily Hooks? (Lily's writing her autobiography)

Drink - Hi-C Raspberry Lime

Memory from the year - Going to London

When she grows up - Inventor and Rock Star

Best Friend - Sophie Mausz

Bible Verse - 1 Timothy 4:12

School Subject - Science

Food - Watermelon and my Honey Salmon

Activity - Operation Art (lots of art projects in our basement) and Ripstik riding

Game - Double Trouble

Restaurant - Miyako which she still calls "the Pinocchio Restaurant"  Lily used to call it "the Tokyo Restaurant" and when Mia was little she couldn't say "Tokyo" so she has always said "Pinocchio."

Animal - Jaguar

Most Thankful - Jesus died on the cross for us

Goal this year - Make as many friends as possible

We went to the doctor for her annual check-up a couple of days after her birthday.  She is now 3 feet, 10 inches (26 percentile) and 57 pounds (78 percentile).  Overall, she's a very healthy girl.  She is having some hearing issues that we're seeing an ENT about; she will have corrective surgery in the new year.  Thankfully there were no shots at this visit since she had the flu mist a month or so ago.  She had a great visit.

Mia is such an amazing child.  The first three words that come to mind when I think of her are "joyful" "determined" and "generous."  Joy just spills out of her; sure, she has moments where she is sad, angry or hurt, but she has an inner joy that most don't have.  She has such a determined attitude when tackling a new activity.  You can see it in her eyes.  She will give someone the shirt off her back if they need it.  She sees a need of another and wants to help make it better.  On top of that, she gives joyfully.  I love seeing these qualities in her, and I look forward to seeing how they are used to glorify God's Kingdom down the road.  She amazes me.

Mia is so funny and loves to make others laugh.  She loves art projects; she has fun drawing on our white board, painting and coloring.  She is starting to really get into Legos, and she is starting to tackle harder sets.  She is naturally athletic, and she wants to utilize that whenever she can.  She is always happy to be outside running around, climbing trees, bike riding, Ripstik riding or playing games.  She has a blast roller skating.  She tries going way faster than she should; when she falls, she gets back up and tries again.  She thoroughly enjoys playing board games with the family.  She likes watching movies.  She has fun singing along to music even when she has no idea what the words are.  She is an all-around amazing girl with a bright future.  I can't wait to see where she goes!