Lily's Space Camp Adventure

 Stonehaven is such an awesome school!  Each spring, each of the middle school classes takes a really cool multiple day field trip.  Sixth grade gets to go to Huntsville, AL, to take part in space camp.  Wednesday morning, I dropped Lily off at school.  She and her friends (Zaya, Pame, Raegan, and Avery) were excited to go!

 Upon arrival at space camp, the girls and the boys took a picture with the welcome sign.

 Waiting on the camp counselors to arrive.

 They did a walking tour and history lesson around the campus where they learned about the space program's history, and the different animals that have visited space, and they got to try out the space rover.

Thursday morning, and Mrs. Wilkinson sent this picture saying "most of the group was up and happy to get going."

 The class got to complete a full space mission.  Each person was assigned a different job.  Lily was assigned the GNC (global navigating control) position, and she sat next to the flight director (Danae) and eecom (Eliza).  The first picture was just the practice run-through so they could learn about their jobs and computers, but the second picture was during the live mission.  Thankfully, it was a successful mission!

 Avery and Cameron on their space walk.

 Learning about the ISS during a different history lesson.

 Getting ready for training with the MAT simulators behind them.  Lily had a headache and wasn't able to do the MAT, but she did do the g-force spinning ride.  She said it was awesome and scary at the same time.  It was a good scream.

 Thanking their counselor, Lauren.

 Waiting for their graduation ceremony.

 Waiting for formal picture and lining up by height.  Lily's in the middle!

 Mrs. Wilkinson sent me this picture of Lily trying out the space capsule.

 Showing off her souvenir hat and diploma.  She's officially a graduate!

What a great adventure for the sixth graders to go on!

Happy 40th Birthday To Me

Hard to believe it, but I turned 40 on March 14th this year.  Of course, our major celebration was our trip to Italy at the end of last year.  I appreciated that family and friends didn't let the day totally slip by though.  When I walked in to my office Thursday morning, I started laughing to see how my employee had decorated.  Lots of balloons and crepe paper everywhere; it certainly brightened things up!  Since I don't take any clients appointments on my birthday, it was fun to have this floating around.

 My employee, Sandy Betts, makes the best homemade cookie cakes and fudge icing.  Who can resist M&M's too?!  It was sooooo delicious!

 The beautiful flowers arrived during the day too.  David and Jan sent me the white and yellow arrangement.  I couldn't get over the yellow calla lilies.  I had never seen these before; they were stunningly gorgeous!  Doug and Julia Rohan sent this bright rose bouquet too; they have been special friends for many years now.  These brightened my office for over a week.

 On Thursday, I left work at a little after 5, and our family went to OK Cafe for dinner.  I love their veggie plate (cause they let me count mac and cheese as a veggie), and it was delicious.  This was a fun treat.

On Friday, Mom and Dad treated my family to dinner at Canoe.  This restaurant is always very special treat.  It sits right on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, just across the river from Lovett.  One of my favorite memories from here was Valentine's Day of my senior year of high school.  Dad came and checked me out of school and took me to lunch here.  We've been many other times too, and it's always a great treat.  Our meal was top-notch.  The head chef is Australian, so we shared a peppercorn kangaroo appetizer; it was really delicious!  Mom and I each had a bowl of their squash soup which is always on point.  Dad ordered a beet salad with goat cheese to share, and it was fantastic.  For dinner, Mom and I both had their nightly special which was a panko crusted skate with zoodle salad side.  Yum is all I can say about it.  Ryan ordered their strip steak, and it was amazing.  I was a little jealous!  Dad enjoyed their lamb chops, Mia gobbled up their grilled salmon, and Lily ate up a charcuterie plate.  We all enjoyed it and could have stopped there, but you can't go to Canoe and not have dessert.  Ryan and I both had the pistachio creme brulee, Mom and Lily each had their famous popcorn ice cream, and Dad and Mia both enjoyed their chocolate grotto.  At the very end, our waiter took Ryan and the girls up to walk by the kitchen line (he had learned that Lily wants to be a chef), so they could see all the different stations and everyone hard at work.  This was such a wonderful evening with my parents.  I am so thankful for them!

I had to work on Saturday, but Lily worked hard to make me a birthday cake to surprise me on Sunday.  She knows I love the look of ombre cakes, so she made me one with my favorite shades of blue!  This was such a fun (and truly delicious) cake!

I am a very blessed woman.  What a great 40 years I've had so far.  I can't wait to see what's coming!

Miscellaneous March

It was Move conference week at Johnson Ferry the last several days of February and first few days of March.  We always love these few days as the church focuses on mission work around the world, and we can hear firsthand from many who serve overseas of the things God is doing in their area.  It's such an encouraging time to hear these stories, and it's challenging in reminding us that the work is not done.  We were excited to host two of our friends who have been serving in East Asia.  We loved catching up with them and hearing from them what's been going on since we were there a couple years ago.  Security has tightened a lot around them, so per their request, I will not mention their names or specific location.  There's a lot going on around the church during conference week, but most of Saturday is a free day.  Our family took the two of them to Suntrust Park for a behind-the-scenes tour since they (especially the husband) are baseball fans.  We have done this before, and loved it, so we were excited to go again and hear new things and see what's been updated.  It was a beautiful day and a great way to enjoy our great city.  Lunch at Antico was the perfect way to top it off.

 I always love the bat memorial to Hank Aaron.

 There were a few pieces of art that were made by a local artist, and they are filled with spots.  You can see the picture when you are simply looking at it, but when you put it through a camera lens, it comes together even better.  Hard to describe, but so cool to see!

 Giant bobbleheads are always fun!

 Lily's class surprised their math teacher with a half-birthday celebration.  Mr. Rickman was quite surprised and appreciative!

 This just made me laugh.

 Every year the school has a gala fundraiser, and part of the auction items are doing something special with a teacher.  This year, we won Lily going to see the new Fantastic Beasts movie with Mrs. Jackson, and time for Mia to go fencing with Mrs. St. Hill.  Mia's friend, Charlee, won time at the Botanical Gardens with Ms. Keesee (their 4th grade teacher).  While that's awesome in itself, they went during the school day which is even better!  Ms. Keesee let Charlee bring two friends with her, and she picked Mia and Layne.  These girls had a great time exploring the gardens with Ms. Keesee, having lunch together at Chick-fil-a, and then playing for a bit at Tumlin Park.  What a fun Thursday!

 Friday was crazy hair and silly sock day for Mia's class a reward for raising a certain amount of money for Boosterthon.  I was happy to help Mia get lots of little ponytails going in her hair. 

Most of my time is spent at work right now, but it's fun to see life continuing too!

Quiet February

It's been a pretty quite February (at least 24 days in to it) which is rather nice.  Of course, work is really starting to pick up, so it's nice to have life running smoothly!  Here are some of the things going on.

Lily joined Nate and Liam to represent Cambridge House in the school geography bee.  These three sixth graders were up against older kids, and they represented well.  Way to go Cambridge!

 Mia has started to learn how to cross stitch which is an old favorite hobby of mine.  It was fun to teach her and watch her grow to enjoy this.  I couldn't resist snapping a picture of her first creation.  I hope this is something she'll continue to have fun with!

 We always enjoy time with friends!  Danae came home for a playdate with Lily one afternoon, and Ryan treated them to bubble tea first.  Lily also enjoyed going to Flourish, a middle school girls' retreat at our church.  She invited Zaya to join her which made it even more fun.

 Ryan treated us to homemade pasta again, but this time he made us bowties to make carbonara.  This was definitely a labor of love, but they sure were tasty!  I love this new hobby he has picked up.

 Lily taught Aberle how to make some yummy cupcakes for our little super bowl party.  We were glad to have Brandy and Aberle join us that evening

 We continued our tradition of putting hearts up on the girls' mirrors each day from Feb 1-14 describing an attribute of each that we admire.  We have a couple of amazing girls.  I'm so proud to call them my daughters.

 A fun little Valentine's dinner of pizza pot pie shaped like a heart, heart strawberry jello, and a red apple.  I rarely do themes but this was fun one to make.

 Mia had absolutely fallen in love with this hedgehog that she saw at CVS!  Ryan couldn't resist giving it to her as a Valentine's present.  Needless to say, she was thrilled!  She named him Ryan.

 Mia has picked up reading the Harry Potter book series, and I'm thrilled!  We read the first one together as a family a couple of years ago.  Lily then picked up the series and read it through.  Mia didn't seem too interested, but suddenly, these books are all 4th grade can talk about.  It's great to be able to talk with her to compare the books and movies.

 I love when she reads to me.

 I enjoy reading with Lily too.  We were reading part of "Lily in London" on this particular evening.

 Lily's view of Decker while she ate a little snack in bed one Saturday morning.

 Now that she's rearranged her furniture, he loves to sit in her room and stare outside.  He stays like this for a bit then jumps up to bark at or watch a squirrel intently.

 The middle school adventure group called Pathfinders was supposed to go walk The Beltline and picnic at Piedmont Park last week, but since it has been raining non-stop, they had to change plans.  They ended up having a blast at Cumberland Community Church where they did group challenges with Highlands Camp. 

 Ryan had a great opportunity recently.  From Feb 10-18, he was in Spain with Ron Hughes, our friend and Sunday School teacher.  Ron is on staff with Johnson Ferry, and he leads some teaching at a seminary in Spain once a year.  He asked Ryan to join him this year.  We were really excited for Ryan to teach again; he's a great one.  He thoroughly enjoyed teaching each day and then getting to explore Madrid and the surrounding little towns.  They also spent the weekend in the Canary Islands leading an intensive study.  The pictures he sent were absolutely beautiful.  I'd never really thought about visiting Spain before, but now it's near the top of my list!

It's been a cold, rainy month so far, but we're all doing pretty well.  I'll give thanks for that!