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!    

Happy Halloween

What a fun couple of days!  On Friday the girls celebrated Reformation Day at school. Lily dressed as an English Queen and Mia was excited to be a Knight in her costume from the Tower of London. 

Our excellent photographer friend, Elizabeth, sent a few great pictures that she captured. 

I love the sweet kids at our school!

Today we joined our neighbors for a chili potluck and trick or treating. It was a lovely evening. Lily couldn't wait to be a peacock. 

Mia was excited to be a knight again. She absolutely loves this costume!

Love these cuties!

Happy Halloween!

Lily Turns 9!

I cannot believe it.  Lily has turned 9 years old.  The last year of single digits.  Time slow down!!!

I always like to ask some of her favorites each birthday, so here is this year's list:

Color - Lavender

Movie - Tie between Hotel Transylvania 2 and Bears

TV Show - PJ Masks

Book - Grace Stirs Up Success (an American Girl book)

Drink - Dr Pepper

Memory from last year - Seeing the Henderson family in London

Wants To Be When She Grows Up - Own a school with her friends Avery and Nate

Best friend - Avery Hobson

Bible Verse - 1 Timothy 4:12

School Subject - Latin

Food - Macaroni and Cheese

Activity - Tie between reading and playing Legos

Place to Go - AMC Theater

Game to Play - Blah (apparently that's a game she and Avery made up)

Restaurant - Crafty Hog

Animal - Bat

Most Thankful for - Jesus saved us

Goal for the year - Meet as many new friends as possible

We were actually in London on her birthday, so that was a pretty fun celebration.  We asked what she wanted to do to celebrate, and she decided on riding the London Eye and seeing the Crown Jewels so that was what we did.  Not a bad way to celebrate, right?

We went to the doctor a few days after we returned from our trip for her annual check-up.  Other than realizing she had bronchitis, she is a very healthy girl.  She is growing right on track with where's she been in the past.  She's now 50 inches tall (15th percentile) and 61.5 pounds (41st percentile).  She is doing great!

I can't even find the words to say how much I love this girl.  She amazes me every single day.  She is so smart and loves academic endeavors.  She is finding 3rd grade pretty awesome.  Latin is her favorite subject and it seems to come so naturally to her.  She also enjoys math (she goes up to 4th grade for this), science, history, Bible and spelling.  

She loves arts and crafts too.  We gave her a scrapbook kit for her birthday because she wants to start that hobby.  She did an art camp over the summer and thoroughly enjoyed it.  She has ventured down a new artistic path recently by trying acting.  She has said for awhile that she wants to be a Broadway actress one day.  She saw our cousin, Francie, in a play this summer and wanted to give it a try herself.  She is having a blast being "Bonnie the Bat" in "Goldilocks and the Curse of the Porridge."  As Bonnie, she is part of the Creepy Critter Brigade which is made up of bats and spiders.  She's had so much fun!  Here's a picture from after a performance.

She's done so well!  What made this even more fun is getting to perform with Molly (my niece) and Francie (our cousin).  They play two of three pigs who run the village restaurant.  It's been fun to have lots of family on hand to support the three girls!

She loves to read.  I can't count the number of books in her room.  She usually is skipping between 3 or 4 different books on any given day.  In addition to the American Girl books, she loves the Whatever After series.  She anxiously awaits the release of each one!  Building and then playing with Legos is always a fun time for her.  She considers herself to be an expert at them.  She's great at following the directions to build them, and they turn out nice that way, but I really love when she uses her imagination to build something.  She often comes up with elaborate sets and stories with them; it may be a zoo, a city or a fairyland, but it's always interesting.  I love when she has whole days to just sit around and construct these.

She learned to ride a bike over the summer which was a major accomplishment that we were all very proud of.  She enjoys riding that or her scooter.  She also loves jumping on our trampoline and performing shows on it.  When she's outside though, she's just as happy to sit in the sun on the deck and read as she to go on a nature hunt and see what insects she can find.  She's fascinated by nature.  Her big school project this year was "the bug project."  Over the summer and into early fall, she had to collect at least 25 different insects, identify them by their scientific and common names, list where she found them and then creatively display them.  She did an awesome job with this (with just a little help from Ryan; I despise bugs so I had nothing to do with it)!

I love simply talking with Lily.  She has lots of interesting observations on the world around us, she asks great questions and she's pretty insightful.  She enjoys hanging around our home and just being together.  Family movie nights are always a hit with her.  She still loves to cuddle up in a chair or on the sofa with us.  She prefers to keep a few close friends around than have a big group together.  She is fiercely loyal to family and friends.  She always seeks to do the right thing in a situation, even if it's not the popular choice.  She's an amazing kid, and I'm so thankful she's mine.

London Trip, Part 6

The kids enjoyed eating breakfast together each morning.  Renting this flat ended up being a great idea; it was wonderful to have everyone together.

 We made it over to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard.

 We knew we needed to arrive early to get a good spot, so we waited about 45 minutes before anything started happening.  Finally, the guards started moving around and eventually the band joined them.  Really though, we all found this to be a little boring.  It wasn't what Ryan and I remembered, and everything seemed to be a lot more slow than we hoped for.  Glad we saw it, but we were all ready to leave when it was over.

 When we left Buckingham Palace, we went over to the British Museum.  It was a gorgeous day which made sitting outside to enjoy a food truck lunch better.  Having waffles from the food truck (mine with Nutella and the girls with marshmallows) made it even more fun.

 The museum has a fantastic antiquities section which works great with Mia's studies at school.  We were glad to introduce the girls to the Rosetta Stone which was really neat to see.  There are tons of fascinating areas here; we weren't even able to see it all. 

 The girls were getting pretty tired after so much walking so we paused for a few minutes.  I had them making lots of different silly faces which perked them back up.

 One of my favorite parts of the trip came at the end of our time at the museum where we enjoyed a traditional afternoon tea.  I ordered the full service which came with this tray of goodies.  Ryan and the girls both ordered a smaller service which had scones, clotted cream and jam.  It was all delicious.

 Of course, we all got tea to enjoy as well.  The girls both had a berry variety while Ryan and I had Earl's Grey.  I think they really liked putting the sugar cube in their drinks.

 We finished out our time at the museum in the gift shop which was filled with all sorts of interesting and fun pieces.

 Our feet were so tired that we decided to take a bus back, and boy was that the right decision!  It was rush hour so everything was quite busy.  One of the tube stops was temporarily closed to allow traffic inside to die down some; this was the crowd outside!  We were very grateful for the bus that drove right on past.

We got the kids in bed when we got home, and Ryan and Brian went down to visit the pub for a bit.  Jill and I had some packing up to do but we enjoyed a little time together too.  None of us could believe this was our last evening!  We had such a great time this week with our friends; we didn't want it to end!  We said our goodbyes that evening and headed on to bed.  The next morning, the four of us got up between 6 and 6:30; a taxi picked us up at 7, and we headed back to the train station.  We took the Express back to Heathrow and waited for our plane.  We were all sitting next to each other which was nice.  It was a smooth and easy flight home; the girls handled the 9 hours remarkably well. They mainly watched movies on the plane or on their iPads.  Dad picked us up from the airport and brought us home.  As much as we love to travel, coming home is always nice.  This was definitely a trip to remember.  We have so many great memories with wonderful friends; we are so thankful we were able to take advantage of this opportunity.  Until next time London, cheers!