August 2018

This month has both felt incredibly long and incredibly short.  I'm not even sure how that's possible!  Here are some happenings.

Decker loves sitting on Lily's trundle bed and looking out the window.  He was watching Mia and Aberle play like this for quite awhile.

 One of the most exciting parts of 6th grade is getting your own locker!  Lily couldn't wait for the back to school night to go decorate her locker.  She loves her little chandelier, mirror, and lots of pictures.  Now that school has started back, she has also filled this with books and binders.  Watch out middle school; she's ready for you!

 We love our local library.  Mia was determined to find a Lemony Snickett to read!

 It's that time of year!  We are all looking forward to a great year.  The mom of one of Lily's best and oldest friends (Avery) is her homeroom, history, literature, and grammar teacher this year.  Ryan and I have been looking forward to Mrs. Hobson being her teacher for years!  Lily will also have Mr. Proffitt as her Bible and science teacher, Mrs. Jackson as her Latin teacher, and Mr. Rickman as her math teacher.  Mia is so excited to have Miss Keesee as her 4th grade teacher this year.  She's amazing!  The school has started a new Natures Study program for K-5, so she's looking forward to starting that class.  Of course, they always love having Mrs. Rodriguez for art and Mrs. Johnson for music.  We're looking forward to getting to know the new PE teacher, Mrs. Barile, as well.  This is going to be another wonderful year at Stonehaven!

 Big dreams!

 Our family has recently rediscovered the fun of Clue Master Detective.  It's a great family game!

 Our next door neighbor, Andy Lutz, is on the coaching staff at Georgia Tech; he's the head of recruiting and player personnel.  He let us come early to the Tech fan day experience which was so cool!  We got a backstage tour of their new locker room; it's unbelievable!  Then we got to meet the Coach Johnson and the players before all the other fans got in.  This was a fun experience!

 The girls are enjoying their new instruments: violin for Lily and acoustic guitar for Mia.  Neither have picked up the electric guitar like these yet, but who knows what will happen down the road.

 The girls had a fun time with Ms. Brandy and Aberle at the rabbit adoption home.  This is where Aberle got her bunny, Sadie.  They like to go visit and play with the other bunnies.

 The middle school takes an overnight retreat within the first couple of weeks of school.  They go up to Camp Highland and enjoy time away and bonding with one another.  Lily had a wonderful time! 

This year is just moving right along!

Lily's Middle School Adventure Party

Lily had the great idea to host a party for all the kids getting ready to enter 6th grade at Stonehaven.  She loves these sweet friends and wanted to have some catch-up time before school started.  We told her that sounded like fun, but she would need to plan the whole thing.  She gladly accepted!  

Everyone arrived about 6:30 and had fun playing and talking out in the front yard; the parents enjoyed this too as it's been awhile since we've been together!  The Dominos man arrived at 7, so that brought the kids in pretty quickly.  Everyone grabbed some pizza and breadsticks and headed outside to enjoy the beautiful evening.

 After dinner, everyone hung around talking some more and jumping on the trampoline.  Lily also arranged a scavenger hunt.  She divided everyone into three teams and they each had five clues to find.  The winning team received tickets for VIP seating on the couch for the movie later in the evening.  For the record, they didn't redeem them as all the boys crowded on the couch while the girls spread out around the deck.

 About 8:30 it was time to grab some popcorn and the mix-ins...mini marshmallows, pretzels, plain M&M's and goldfish.  There was also Hershey Kisses and Oreos for our braces-wearing friends (and those who simply like them).

 Just as the sun set, everyone found a seat and we started National Treasure.  Such a fun movie that everyone seemed to enjoy!

 Hard to believe, but 6th grade, here they come!

Florida 2018

It was so nice to get back to New Smyrna Beach with the family this year after missing out last year (granted, it was for an Alaskan cruise, so I'm not complaining!).  This was a lovely week.

 The crew gathered round the cornhole arena.  This competition is almost as big as the family tennis tournament, nicknamed the Sandpiper Open.

  Just hanging out with our toes in the water.

 My favorite picture from the whole week!  These two had a blast on their boogie boards this year.  They spent hours in the ocean learning to ride the waves!

 They always appreciate Randy's birthday money game.  This year it included Easter eggs, so that's always fun.

 Of course we always made time for a little summer reading and snacking too.

 Mia made these beach-themed cupcakes to share at Hot Dog day.  She made vanilla cupcakes then iced them with blue-tinted cream cheese frosting.  She added swedish fish to the ocean, and then added crumbled graham crackers to make a beach.  There were only 20 so they got snatched up pretty quickly!

 Hot Dog day!

 The 69 of us who made it out this year.  We were only missing a few!

 One very rainy afternoon we decided to skip out for a bit, and we headed over to watch Hotel Transylvania 3; it was a cute movie.

 We also discovered there's a Bob Ross gallery in New Smyrna that he opened in the early 90's.  We had fun visiting this and watching the class that was going on.  Maybe next year we'll be able to participate!

 A beautiful sunset over the intercoastal and a fun playground to visit.

 Cousins' dinner night out at Garlic.  We sat down near Jason and Jill and Lee and Jaime; it was a hot evening but fun to catch up with them.

 Mom and Dad with their five grandkids.  They are such fantastic grandparents.

 Sweet kids.

 All of us.  I love my family!

We actually ended up leaving on Friday and drove over to Orlando.  We were looking for a fun way to avoid the Saturday mass exodus of everyone leaving Florida.  We checked in to the Animal Kingdom lodge which we really liked.  Our room had this great view over the savannah.  It's difficult to see in this picture, but we could watch giraffes, zebras, gazelles, wildebeests, cranes, pelicans and such.  It was really cool and peaceful.

 Of course the girls favorite part was the bunk bed in our room.

 The hotel itself was really cool, and we had a good time exploring it.  The gift shop had all sorts of fun stuff in it, like these masks.  We watched a man work on carving a walking stick too which was fascinating.

 On Friday evening we headed over to Disney Springs for dinner and exploring.  The Lego shop was a big hit, and miraculously, we didn't buy anything!

 Dinner at Rainforest Cafe is always a treat too.  We enjoyed our meal and the girls loved getting these souvenir cups.

 After dinner we stopped by Goofy's candy store where Mia got a Mickey Mouse chocolate chip cookie that was literally as big as her head!  With her new dental appliance (the precursor to braces) she can't have her typical gummy favorite desserts; this was a great alternative.  Disney Springs has changed a lot of the last few years, and they have a ton of new shops and restaurants to explore.  They have a fabulous gourmet chocolate shop now that I thoroughly enjoyed.

On Saturday, we enjoyed several hours playing in the hotel pool.  It was a great way to cool off and have fun.  After that, we showered and went to a cookie decorating party in one of the restaurants.  Cute cookies, bright icing, and lots of fun candies made for a fun and delicious time.

 We once again went to Disney Springs for dinner Saturday night which was fun.  We stumbled across the little Winnie the Pooh area from 10 years ago and couldn't resist taking this picture.  Where has the time gone?!

What a great week!