Other Spring Happenings

I love after tax season Spring!  I feel like a new person each year with a renewed sense of freedom.  I get to cook more, be up at the school more and simply enjoy life more.  It's wonderful!  Here are a few pictures of the end of May.

My company is celebrating it's 10th year of business this year.  Can you believe it?!  I hardly can.  It's been an interesting, stretching and mostly wonderful 10 years, and we are so incredibly blessed by it.  I wanted to do something a little fun to celebrate, so I rented a suite at the Braves' game.  We beat the Reds which was an added bonus!  I decided to make the evening even more celebratory by having both employees and friends there.  Ryan and I had a great time celebrating with Mary, Heather and their husbands, Adam and Alex (unfortunately, my two other employees, Larry and Sandy, were unable to make it), along with our friends, Jamie and Alan (Jamie also worked as a season preparer which was fantastic), Brian and Jill, Chris and Denna, Elizabeth and Jeff, and Heather and Andy.  In this picture with me are Jamie, Elizabeth and Heather.  This was a fantastic night!

 The girls always love face painting; they spent a couple of hours one morning painting each other's faces with the set Mia received for Christmas.

 For Christmas, David and Jan gave Ryan a gift card to buy this outdoor inflatable screen and projector.  We are loving it!  We set it up on our back deck in the evenings and enjoy watching shows (like Downtown Abbey, pictured here) or movies.  The World Cup just started this weekend, and we watched a game of that on it too.  We can't wait for football season this Fall!

 Mia had such a great time at Noah's "Mad Scientist" birthday party where she got to make slime!

 Poor Lily was wiped out one afternoon and ended up napping on the couch; it's very rare for her to take a nap, so I had to snap this picture.  She's all curled up and sucking her thumb; other than the size difference, I could have taken this same photo almost 8 years ago.  She hasn't changed!

 I was treated to a Mother's Day breakfast in bed of waffles, Greek yogurt, blueberries and milk.  Yum!

 The girls had made some crafts to give me which was very sweet.  Mia's class made these heart-shaped pins with different buttons on it.  The one on the top right has some sort of Chinese or Japanese writing it on, so we decided it probably says "I love you Mommy" on it.  Lily made me this rainbow loom octopus from my favorite band colors.  It's quite impressive.

Mia filled out this at school.  I couldn't stop smiling!

I love these two so very much!

 After church we came home and Ryan grilled hamburgers for us; they were awesome as always.  For dinner, we went over to Wayne's house which was a nice treat.  I was glad to have a picture with my Mom.  I love this lady to pieces, and I'm so grateful for her!

 Loved that we got a picture with Wayne too!

 Snaggletooth Lily here missing four teeth (two on top, two on bottom) at once.  Oh so super cute!  Hard to tell here, but Mia is missing her bottom two middle teeth too.  The tooth fairy has been busy!

 We always love when Grandpops comes to town.  In addition to getting to spend time together, he treated the four of us to dinner at Rathbun's which was fantastic and appreciated!

 The school held a carnival since the kids did a great job raising money with their Fun Run.  Take a wild guess what the girls were most excited about...

We surprised the girls and took them strawberry picking at a nearby farm after school one day.  We'd never tried it before, and it just looked fun; we were right!  It was a pretty warm day, but we had a lot of fun together.  When we got home, we couldn't wait to sample our goodies in milkshakes.

After a wonderful Spring, we're ready for Summer!

End of the School Year

It's hard to believe another school year has come and gone.  Lily has finished 2nd grade with Mrs. St. Hill and Mia has finished Kindergarten with Mrs. Keesee.  It's been wonderful years for them both!  We have loved these two teachers!  Here are a few things that were going on the last couple of weeks of school.

I was thrilled to help chaperone Lily's class trip to the Renaissance Festival. I remember going once when I was a kid, and I thought it was really cool.  I truly was looking forward to going back.  Even after all these years I enjoyed it!

Lily with some of her friends as we walked in (Emory, McClendon, Lily, Avery and Raegan). 

 Preparing for the joust!  This was everyone's favorite event.

 Lily and Emory choose to spend their souvenir money on making sand art.

 It was a lovely day!

 Mrs. Hobson's 6th grade class also went, so here's a picture of both classes together just before we headed home.

 History Day is always a fun celebration.  The kids love to dress up and enjoy a school-wide feast.  Each class has a different time period: Lily's was Renaissance-era and Mia was Biblical times.  Lily choose to dress up as Christopher Columbus while Mia went as Mary.

 The last day of school is always a half-day and ends with a picnic on the playground.  The last 1.5 hours of the day are the awards ceremony and 8th grade graduation.  It's always a fun event filled with joy and excitement.  At the awards ceremony, Mia received a certificate for winning the poetry contest recently, and she was recognized for excellence in art and music.  Lily was also recognized for excellence in art.  It was so fun to see them receive recognition for their hard work!

Before the school-wide awards ceremony, Mrs. Keesee recognized each child in her class with a character award.  Mia received one for Compassion, defined as "feeling the hurts of others and doing something about it."  We were so proud of her.  What a wonderful characteristic to have.

The girls had lots of fun getting their friends to sign their yearbooks.  Mia was ecstatic when she saw this picture in the yearbook.  In case you can't read it, the caption below says "Yearbook theme inspired by Mia Hooks' spaceship.  Thank you Mia!  Mrs. Rodriguez."  This was Mia's favorite piece of artwork she had created all year, and she loved that it inspired Mrs. Rodriguez in her yearbook production!

It's hard to believe the school year is over, but I'd say it's been a success!

End of April

 A few miscellaneous items as we wrap up April...

 

Mia's class took a field trip to Whole Foods which they found fascinating.  I love this sweet little class!

Mia was one of the Kindergarten representatives for the school-wide Poetry Competition.  She presented "Vegetables" by Meesh Goldish.  I'll be honest, she was absolutely adorable.  She ended up winning the Pre-K to 2nd grade award!  She can't wait to see her name engraved on the Longfellow award.

Sweet Lily wanted to get her hair cut short for summer.  She was using American Girl Kit Kittridge as her example.  She looks so stinking adorable like this!  I threw in this picture of her cutting strawberries to show the back.  Adorable!

Last week, our family joined Wayne and his kids at the Cobb Youth Museum.  He had won this evening at a charity event.  We weren't sure what to expect but it turned out to be so much fun!  There were about 4 ladies who work the museum, and they were dressed in Colonial America attire.  They prepared a delicious dinner for us using recipes from that time.  We had the choice of a mushroom/spinach broth (which Mia got and it was very tasty) or a salad with a buttermilk dressing (I had it - yum).  Our entrée was pork stuffed with apples, onions and celery with a side of green beans and mashed potatoes with gravy.  After dinner, we had a tour of the museum.  The kids got to dress up and reenact the Boston Tea Party; they loved throwing the tea bags from the side of the boat!  Then we moved on to seeing the generals strategize over the war efforts.  Lastly, we saw the colonists come together to sign the Declaration of Independence which looked just like what we saw in Philadelphia last year!  After that, we came back for dessert (apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream) and watched a puppet show on Ben Franklin which was pretty fascinating.  I think we all had a great time and learned some new facts about American history!

As I'm writing this particular update, this is my view.  I am very thankful that Ryan has let me take a few days to come down to Gulf Shores.  As one friend said, this has been good for my soul.  I've done this before, and each time, I am so grateful for this opportunity.  While here, I am able to completely relax, read, pray, worship God, think clearly and simply rest.  What a blessing.

Spring Break 2015

As always, Spring Break fell the week before tax season ended.  Knowing that I would be extremely busy at work and that they couldn't hang out at home since it's undergoing some renovation work, Ryan decided to take the girls on a little road trip to Lakeland to visit some family.  Needless to say, the girls were super excited!

They left on Monday morning and arrived at Emily and Kate's house that evening.  It was Hamilton's birthday, so everyone had dinner together to celebrate.  These three quickly bonded.

 On Tuesday, Ryan, Lily, Mia, Emily and Kate all headed over to Sea World.  Other than an afternoon downpour (hey, it's Central Florida), I think they had a lot of fun!

 The girls were so surprised that Ryan had spoken with Mia's Pre-K teacher, Rachael Hanson, who now lives in Orlando and arranged for her to come to Sea World too (with the little boys she nannies). They were so happy to see her again!  They saw the Shamu show and tons of awesome animals.  This was a wonderful day.

 On Wednesday, Ryan and the girls went over to Clearwater Marine Aquarium.  Both girls love the movies A Dolphin Tale and A Dolphin Tale 2.  They were fascinated by Winter and Hope, the dolphins, and they couldn't wait to see them in person!  They watched the dolphins for awhile, saw sea turtles, watched Rufus the pelican and held Winter's prosthetic tale.  They also took a trolley over to see where the films were shot not too far away.  While there, they got to meet Nathan Gamble, the actor who played Sawyer in the movies.  They thought that was pretty awesome!

 The underwater view of Winter without her tale.

Look how cute the pictures from the entrance turned out!

On Thursday morning, Ryan, Emily and all three girls headed over to Legoland.  We had gone over the summer and the girls absolutely loved it; they were thrilled to go back.  It didn't disappoint! 

 After spending the morning and early afternoon at Legoland, everyone decided it was time to head back over to Lakeland.  While Kate went to her dance class, Ryan and the girls went over to Hollis and Debbie's house for a swim.  I believe Ryan said they swam for about 4 hours and had a great time!

 Little Mia was tuckered out.

 Lily taught Mia how to float.

 On Friday morning, they packed up and headed home.  There was lots of traffic, construction and a few accidents, so while it should have taken about 7 hours to get home, it ended up taking 11.  That wasn't the best way to end the trip, but other than this, everything went great.  Even though I was a little jealous of all the fun they had, I'm so glad they went!  I love that my girls know how much their daddy loves them.  Ryan is such a great dad!

On the Wednesday of Spring Break, I was surprised by this amazingly gorgeous tulip bouquet that was delivered to my office.  It was a sweet note from Ryan and the girls encouraging me to get through the last week of tax season.  It definitely helped!

On the last Sunday of the break, our family went to Turner Field to enjoy a game.  It was a beautiful, though slightly chilly, day.  We had a lot of fun cheering for the Braves though we realized just how little the girls know about baseball.  It was amusing (to us and the few people around us who could hear) to hear their commentary and questions.

This was a great break!

Easter 2015

I love Easter Sunday, and all that it represents.  It is the day our Lord overcame death and rose from the grave.  Nothing can beat that news!  How can you not celebrate?!

 

Our Easter weekend was a little different this year.  We were living in an extended stay hotel due to some renovations at our home and it was almost the end of tax season.  One of my favorite Easter activities has always been egg dying but that just didn't happen.  I've promised the girls we'll do it this summer because we all love it.  Anyway, we all were looking forward to a wonderful morning of worship at JFBC.  This was Mia's first time to join us in service.  She and Lily both listened and sang.  It was great to all four worship together.

 After church we surprised the girls with their baskets.  They were both pretty excited about the assortment.  Swim skirts, sunglasses, flip flops, swim goggles, books, legos, movies, jump ropes, flash cards and writing pads were a big hit!

 They both set right to work on the new little Lego sets.

 Mia tried on her goggles; how adorable is she?

 Early afternoon it was time to head over to Robert and Judy's house for a delicious and fun afternoon.  It was great to see everyone and catch up.  Lee brought a dunk tank this year, and the kids loved it.  Mia reminded me multiple times that we need to bring her swimsuit next year so she can get in it!  They also had fun playing on the jumpy, playground and four wheelers.  Of course, we took a kids' picture just before the egg hunt; somehow Meme snuck into this one, but we were just fine with that!

 Both girls had a blast with the egg hunt!  Lily found a $5 bill in one of her eggs which led to lots of excitement.  Of course, they loved the coins and candy filled ones too.

 Showing off their loot!

 Meme with her boys.

What a wonderful day filled with worship of our Lord and family!

A Quick March Update

So here we are at the end of March, and I haven't posted in a month.  All I can say is tax season is in full bloom around here!  Here a quick post to catch up a little bit.

Last Friday, the school had their annual Boosterthon Jog-A-Thon.  Both the girls ran the maximum of 35 laps; they did great and had a ton of fun!  Here's Lily making one of her laps.

 Mia was excited because she got to hold the American flag for the national anthem and lead her class in holding their sign.

 Ryan took the girls to Moe's for dinner one night and snapped these cute pictures to show me the fun I was missing out on.

 Lily's after school junior cotillion club had their year end dance on the 14th.  It was so cute to watch!  They showed off the manners they had learned and all their line dances.

 There was a class full of Stonehaven (formerly known as ACCA) students!

 One of my employees turned 40 this month, and this was the cake we surprised him with; how awesome is it?!

 I laugh just about every night I go in to check on Mia.  She was rolled up in her sheet with her leg in the air.  I watched her for a couple of minutes thinking she would put it down; nope, it stayed like that!

 Mia is learning to read and spell which is so fun to watch.  She had a playdate with Eliana one afternoon and she made this chalk drawing beforehand.  I loved that she wrote "I'm gowen to Elian's house tomorrow" and then drew their pictures.  What a sweetheart who is "gowen."

 Eliana's mom took this picture, and I just thought it was a sweet one.  Mia wants to move in with them because "they have the best climbing tree!"  She had a blast over there!

Only other noteworthy March happening that I can think of is we celebrated my birthday on the 14th.  I took the day off from work (celebration enough right there) to be with my family.  We went to see Cinderella at the theater since it had just been released.  It was wonderful!  Then I took Lily to her cotillion dance which was lots of fun to see, and I saw lots of friends there.  Lastly Ryan grilled some amazing steaks for us.  It's nice to have a "real" meal here in the middle of tax season when we rely so much on fast food and super quick dinners.  It was a fun and relaxing day!