Ashebrooke Drive-in (way) Movie Night at the Steinamanns

There is really never a dull moment at our house, never. In the midst of chaos, work and life as we know it, we always find time for fun. This Sunday night we threw a party for all the families in the neighborhood. It was family movie night and we played Wreck it Ralph for all the kids. We had about 60+ people over. Everyone brought a lawn chair and some bug spray and planted themselves on our drive way for a movie. We projected the movie above our garage and it was just as big as going to the movie theatre. I went to the movie theatre  and picked up a HUGE trash bag full of popcorn and filled all the containers. We had cookies, tons of glow sticks for the kids, bubbles, popsicles, squirt guns. You name it, summer fun was covered!  The adults had their own table of summer fun with beer, wine, and some veggies and chips! Equally as popular!

Everyone came over around 7:15 and hung out and played outside with kickball, baseball, checkers, hula hoop etc. The parents had fun just hanging out. The minute the sun started to go down, Todd yelled, "movie is starting" and all the kids came running over and sat in their chairs and never moved again until it was over. Every parent was pretty much in schock! We all set up our chairs in the grass and could actually have uninterrupted conversations?!

Here they are in the dark in the middle of the movie. Hard to see, but lots of glowing lit up glow sticks in the crowd!

Our neighbors told us it was the best party in Ashebrooke's history. We got lots of kudos at the pool today too! We are just glad it was a success and everyone had a nice relaxing time. It was so fun for us just to see everyone enjoying themselves, and see what great friends both Hannah and Drew have already made in the 2 years we have lived here. We are very very lucky we moved into such a great neighborhood meeting so many nice people!

Hannah's Last Day of Kindergarten 2013!

Last Thursday was Hannah's last day of kindergarten. I am a little late on the update, but working my hardest to keep up!! Here is the picture of the bus stop kids before school in the morning. They have pretty big smiles, all excited for their last day, so cute! I have never seen them all so giddy in the morning before!

Drew went to the bus stop too, just so he didn't miss anything. Hannah wrote a cute little thank you note to her bus driver, Ms Mona who she just loved.

The best part of the day was the early dismissal at 12 noon! I took a half day off, as did most all the moms, and when the kids got off the bus, we had a sign ready for them cheering, but what they didn't know was that we had about 100 water balloons waiting for them. Did they ever have fun!! Big water balloon fight with the kids and parents at the bus stop. I think we just started a new fun tradition :)

Finally, after the water balloons were cleaned up. We headed to the pool for the end of school year pizza, ice cream pool party. The kids all had a blast. With a little over 50 kids there, and parents happy to celebrate with them, it was truly an enjoyable day. Above is Hannah, Lila, and Mackenzie ( Mac n cheese).  

What a great end to a great year. Hannah absolutely loved kindergarten and is already excited about 1st grade. I can't get over how quickly she is growing up. We are finally excited, and ready for all the summer fun that lies ahead, as Drew says.. "bring it on"! :)

Atlanta Braves vs the Minnesota Twins!!!

As Todd put it, 3 years ago this picture would had been taken at a Twins game. 3 years later he is at the Braves game, but playing the Twins. Win win. Todd took a half day off and spent some good quality time with Drew yesterday. I think they had a pretty fun day together. Ate hotdogs, popcorn and watched a little baseball in between. Drew came home with all types af Braves goodies, and at night, went straight into the front yard to practice batting and catching. We have a little baseball player in the making.   So happy my boys had a fun day together! I promised Hannah we would do something special together this weekend too.

Gators & Neighbors = Weekend Fun!

This weekend was action packed with a lot of fun! Friday night pool party, saturday morning was Hannah's last softball game of the season with a pizza party to follow. After that we drove to Athens and watched the Gators play the Bulldogs in baseball. The kids didn't really know what to think so we live in Georgia, and we were definitely in the minority at the game. Ultimately, they cheered for both teams and we had a lot of fun. It was fun to drive through the campus as it was really pretty. Parts reminded me of Ohio State, just a lot more southern style. I was quite jealous of the porch swings and rocking adirondak chairs on the front of the KKG house. Thought it was a nice touch!

Family photo before we left the game, and yes, Todd bought Drew the neon light up Bulldog cup. Kinda his favorite thing right now !

Later that night, we headed over to a neighbors house who is unfortunately moving to Houston in a few weeks being transferred with work. They are a wonderful family and will definitely be missed in the neighborhood, specifically their 2nd grade boy, Daniel, who every little girl in the neighborhood has a crush on. They all scream and run when he is outside. It is really funny to watch.  I left the party early and brought a bunch of kids back to our house to play so the others parents could spend some time not running after kids and actually finish a conversation.   Above is Hannah, Lila, and her new friend Mackenzie also known as Mac n Cheese. They are all in kindergarten and are so cute together. Hannah and Mac N Cheese played on the same softball team this spring and she is a little sister Lundy 10 days older than Drew. They are ADORABLE together and we are already hoping they go to prom together.

Above is Drew and Lundy, love them :) 

All the kids set up tents, blankets, and chairs outside and we brought the movie projector out and watched a movie about the garage on the big wall. It was actually pretty cool and was like being at the real movies the projection was so big. Nothing like watching the Muppets on an early spring summer night with friends, super fun. 

After that, Hannah got to have her first away sleep over at Lila's house with Lila and Mackenzie. Hannah's favorite part was that their dog Hailey slept in bed with them. Lila's mom sent me a picture of the 3 girls and dog sound alseep all snuggled up to eachother. It was really cute.

Now we are on the count down, 2 full days and 2 half days until school is out. Hannah will be a rising 1st grader in just 4 days. I am amazed how quickly this school year has flown by. I am so excited for her and her summer ahead. I have so many fun things planned for her including swim team, gymnastics camp, vacation bible school, drama camp, and tennis camp. She has a good balance of home time and half day camps a few weeks of the summer.  Even Drew gets to go to gymnastics and tennis camp. Cross fingers that works out!!

Happy Mother's Day 2013!!

Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there, Happy Mother's day to my mom! Thank you for all you do! No one every told me I motherhood was so amazingly wonderful, and so hard all at the same time. I am grateful for each and every minute I spend with these two little kids, I feel like the luckiest mom in the world.

Today was perfect, and beautiful gorgeous spring day. I went for a run this morning and Todd took the kids to Sope Creek to get some photos. He says he was really really careful, but I pretty much freaked out when he downloaded the pictures and showed them to me. In the background of each picture, just a foot away from the kids was a 4ft brown snake with it's head arched up, eyes open, mouth open.  Ummmm, lets just say I would had FREAKED out if I were there, and I think we won't be using these photos until there is a some good photo shop work done!   I won't even post the ones where you see that icky scary snake in the background. OMG! ICK!!!

Beyond that, a great day spent having a little alone time to run and relax, and quality time at the pool with the kids and their friends and parents, then played tennis for a few hours with friends while ordering pizza at the park for the kids. Kind of a perfect day if you ask me.

The kids made me a bunch of home made cards and mother's day gifts which are adorable. Drew sang me a little mothers day song and I got a lot of hugs. Todd got a cute bouquet of flowers and some new shoes!  I feel blessed just to have them part of me life.

I look at Drew and think, hmmm. He is strong and willful and there are moments I wonder if he will be in jail before the age of 10. He over powers his 6 year old sister knocking her down and punching her, he looks me in the eye and shouts " I no like you". In those moments I wonder where in the world he came from ( clearly not my personality right?) and what in the world to do with my little boy with his olive skin, bright greenish blue eyes and a funny little laugh that can melt away every little bit of frustration in 2 seconds. For each moment he is more like a tyrant that I know what to do with, there are  at least 100 more moments where he is sweet, gentle, caring, loving and just plain hilarious.   When he is a tyrant, he is Todd's child, when he is sweet and caring, clearly my child. It's just the way it works.

And Hannah. She is caring, loving, sweet, gentle, smart, funny, silly, and sassy. When I look at Hannah, I know exactly where she came from. She is the perfect combination of both Todd and I. She has Todd's emotional nature, his sensitivity, and artistic abilities and love for life. She somehow, not sure how, picked up a little sassy from me with some attitude when she wants it to come out. I am still in awe how that could had happened?? :)  I can't believe I am going to be a mom of a 1st grader in a few short months. We are about to have a kindergarten graduate here soon. I couldn't be more proud of her strength, perseverance and hard work at school over the last year. She amazes me each day with all she is learning.

I can't help but to be a proud mom. I have two of the most amazing kids on earth, and an amazing husband that gives 110% each day to being a great dad and mentor to both of them. I love you all. Thanks for making me a mom, and making each and every day special.