April Fun

I can't believe it's already April!  

One of the best parts about April is it means the end of tax season - yes!!!  My family gave me this beautiful bouquet of flowers to celebrate.  They also gave me an awesome "end of tax season" basket of goodies.  It had some of my favorite candy treats, a Life magazine about Queen Elizabeth, an Apple gift card, a float for the beach, a paint by number picture, and a balloon.  What a fun surprise!

My office closed for a few days after tax season ended to give us all some downtime.  I have enjoyed getting some extra rest and catching up on a few items that I just didn't have time for previously.  Ryan treated me to lunch at Canoe one day which was absolutely delicious. 

Also, it's the start of baseball season!  It's quite fun to have the world series champion Braves down the road.  Ryan was very excited when Brian offered him a ticket to go to the second game of the season.  Welcome back to Braves Country!

Lily got to go with Lauren Martin to a game a few days later.  It was the night the giveaway was replica world series rings.  Look how huge they are! The Martins also took Lily to an escape room with their family recently (they unfortunately did not make it out); we are so thankful for these friends.

Decker got a new ball recently, and he loves it.  It cracks me up when he uses it as a pillow.

Lily had the opportunity recently to go see Chris Tomlin and Hillsong United in concert with Lucy Elrod and her family.  She said this was a lot of fun.

Lily and Addison Corley went to see another friend, Katie Brooks, in her Aladdin ballet performance.  Lily and I went to see her in The Nutcracker back in December, and it was beautiful.  I saw some of the costumes from this performance, and they were gorgeous.  Lily said Katie did a great job, and this was a fun evening.

We had the opportunity to celebrate our risen Savior on Easter Sunday recently.  We enjoyed going to Sunday School and then church service.  We are so thankful to be a part of First Baptist Smyrna; Jeff Pennington leads so well and faithfully preaches from the Word of God each week.  What a blessing this church is.

The girls enjoyed getting a few treats in their Easter baskets too.  Both received some cute new spring/summer pajamas, a new t-shirt, a candle, some candy, and an Apple gift card.  Lily received an otter warmie and a face mask while Mia received a new hairbrush and small caramel bunny.

Egg hunt came before lunch this year as the sky threatened a downpour.  There's only a few small ones left in the family, but they sure had fun!

My office closed for a few days after tax season ended to give us all some downtime.  I have enjoyed getting some extra rest and catching up on a few items that I just didn't have time for previously.  Ryan treated me to lunch at Canoe one day which was absolutely delicious.  

Mia and her team of Judson and Will made it into the science fair with their project on cloud experimentation.  She enjoyed getting to go to the Lower School one afternoon and teach the kids what she's been learning.

Back in March, Ryan and I enjoyed the Stonehaven gala where we won a few items.  The girls absolutely adore their teachers, so we were excited to win teacher experiences for them.  Mia had a great time doing archery lessons with Mr. Rickman a couple of days after school.  Her friends, Rylie and Selah, joined her for that.  Lily got to take her friend, Lauren, out of school for an afternoon of fun with Mrs. Hanbury. They enjoyed lunch at Taquiera Tsunami and then antiquing on the Square.  They thought it would be funny to tell us they made one other stop at this store too!

The school celebrated Grandparents, Family, and Friends Day at the end of the month.  Ryan enjoyed getting to go.  He saw Lily's choir perform, and they did an amazing job.

Mia's improve class also performed which was fun to watch.

These girls are so fortunate to have the best dad!

It's a busy but wonderful month!

Washington DC and Charleston Trips

Overnight field trips are back at Stonehaven - woo hoo!!!  The school had trips planned in March, 2020, that were cancelled about a week in advance thanks to the beginning of the pandemic; things were still too iffy in 2021, so they didn't go anywhere last year either.  We were so excited they came back this year!  While they usually send the grades to different areas, they combined them into two trips this year to help everyone catch back up.  7th and 8th grade went to Charleston, SC, while 9th and 10th grade went to Washington, DC.  

Some of the highlights for Mia's trip to Charleston include going to visit the SS Yorktown, Fort Sumpter, a ferry ride, an architectural tour, a dungeon tour, some time at the beach, and dinner at Melvins BBQ.

Lily had a great time in Washington, DC.  Some of her highlights included the Spy Museum, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Capital Building, Arlington Cemetery, Museum of the Bible, and several of the Smithsonian Museums (National Portrait, Natural History, Air & Space, African American History & Culture)

Travel is always fun but putting some great friends in too makes it awesome!

March Madness

March is always such a busy month! I'm at work (a TON) but here are a few snapshots of some of the happenings.

Our church had their D-NOW weekend.  The kids seemed to have a lot of fun.  They were split into groups and spent the weekend at host houses with volunteer leaders.  They also did a fun activity park one day with climbing challenges and such.  We were happy to have the high school girls staying at our house; the middle school girls weren't too far away.  They managed to snap this picture of lots of the kids on Sunday morning before too many of them got away!

Ryan and I were so glad the Stonehaven gala came back!  It's been since Oct of 2019.  We always enjoy this evening with friends.  We loved sitting at a dinner table with the Elrods, Teagues, and Schultzs. We were pumped to win a few auction items too: archery lessons for Mia and two friends with Mr. Rickman, an afternoon playing hookey for Lily and a friend with Mrs. Hanbury, and a long weekend getaway for our family to Lake Oconee.

Mia made this awesome picture of Spiderman!

I always appreciate getting encouraging messages like this from Lily when I'm working late.

Lily received a gift card for her birthday from Grandpops and Grandma Jan for an escape room. She was so glad that Mary Preston, Lauren, Liam, Trip, and Timmy could join her for the Art Heist.  They escaped in about 40 minutes (of the 60 minute limit).  We knew this was a smart bunch!

Mia gave an awesome presentation at school one day about her Great-Grandpa Hooks, and his role in WW2. Ryan took Grandpa's medals up to the school so the kids could see them. He was such a neat man, and his stories from this time were pretty incredible. I'm so glad Mia was able to honor him in this way.

Mia got the chance to play with some of the baby chicks at the school one day.

One of my clients gifted me with this toilet paper one day that says "who gives a crap." We were all laughing pretty hard at this one.

Mia went to The Escapery with her acting group one evening for some escape room fun.  They escaped too!

Of course my birthday falls in March too.  My family surprised me with a very fun breakfast sampler from Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen in NC via Goldbelly.  We enjoyed their chicken biscuits for dinner one evening, country ham biscuits for breakfast the next day, and cinnamon rolls the day after that.  I loved this! David and Jan sent me a beautiful floral arrangement which helped brighten my office, and it also came with a box of amazingly delicious chocolate truffles.  The four of us went to dinner at Melting Pot over the weekend near by birthday too which was a lot of fun.  Mom and Dad took Ryan, me, Wayne, and his friend Kristin to Bones for dinner to celebrate Wayne and mine's birthday; that was a delicious and fun evening too! For a middle of tax season birthday, this was a good one!

All sorts of busy things going on in life these days, but it's a good one nonetheless, and I am thankful for it.

February Fun

 February has been a pretty cold month, but that hasn't stopped us from having some fun!

Our most amazing travel agent, Jackie Briggs, sent us a fun Mardi Gras set as a thank you. It came from Gambino's in New Orleans, and man that King Cake was so good! None of us had ever had one before, and we all thought it was tasty. We shared it with the high school girls' discipleship small group that meets at our house. Amanda Evans found the baby!

I was honored to host a baby shower for my friend Rachel Cowart. It was a lovely time to help her (and Jonathan) get ready to welcome their first little one.

Rachel's two sisters hosted with me which was helpful.

Doesn't everyone play the piano with their dad's slipper on their head?

I ordered some Goldbelly for our Valentine's dinner. We started with Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza from Chicago. It was good, but Giordano's still has our heart.

Dessert was courtesy of Elle's Belle's Bakery in Bozeman, MT. These were huckleberry handpies, and they were absolutely amazing, especially with vanilla ice cream. These are one of my favorite things that I've ordered off Goldbelly to date.

I love our family tradition of putting hearts on the girls' doors each night from Feb 1-14 telling them an attribute we admire in each of them. This year we matched it up with Bible verses too which I thought was neat. We are so proud of our girls!

Mia has started playing tennis for Stonehaven's middle school team, and she had her first match recently. She played doubles with Leah Umberger. They lost the match, but it was so cool to watch Mia play! She is a natural athlete with fantastic eye-hand coordination. It's very clear she has a talent at this sport. I hope she'll enjoy it and play for a long time.

Ryan and I enjoyed an Italian evening recently. We just sat in the quiet room talking by the fire while we had the Vin Santo from the San Gimignano farm from our cruise with some biscotti. It took us right back to that wonderful trip and delicious lunch. This was a great evening!

We also had a date night to see The Beatles' Get Back movie which was really cool (just no pictures).  It was so neat to see them actually produce their famous music on the rooftop in London and watch their interactions. So glad we had this chance.

Lily helped Cambridge win the Upper School geography bee recently!

Lily participated in Stonehaven't first mock trial team. She was one of the prosecutors and seemed to enjoy learning this process and competing. It was an interesting event that I'm so glad she tried.

Our family went to see the ASO perform Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I love going to these events. The ASO is so talented, and it's always cool to see them perform to a great movie. What a fun family afternoon.

It's been a good month!