Ashebrooke Tennis Camp Day 2

Day 2 - He's Back! He really wanted a visor like all the big kid tennis players. I told him if he was good at camp, he could earn him a new visor. Indeed he did. Back to another day!!!

Hannah, who is becoming quite the little player, back at it for day 2, who also by the way enjoys picking out her little tennis outfits. Half of the fun is right there!

My two sweet hearts, couldn't love them any more if I tried.

A big thank you to Tess who took pictures for me since I couldn't be there.   Drew and Hannah not just looking good, but working hard. I have all kinds of video of them hitting balls, doing games, and all kinds of sweaty.

Future tennis player in the Big Ten! :)

Apparently the minute Drew walked off the court he asked Tess if he could take his nap, cause he was really tired.  :)

Not sure the weather looks too promising for the next 2 days of camp this week, but Friday should pull through for them. I love that they are having fun with their friends. I can't get over that school starts one week from tomorrow. 1st grade! Seriously, can't believe it.

Ashebrooke Tennis Camp 2013

Yesterday was the start of the annual Ashebrooke Kids Tennis Camp. It is Hannah's second year attending, and Drew's first, with special permission to allow a 3 yr old in camp.   I can't help but to think they look adorable. Drew was so excited about being able to go to camp with the big kids, he has been looking forward to it all summer!!

Hannah, Camden, Drew, and Alexandra ready to take their lessons!

Drew - tough as it gets. He was really excited to wear his dad's wrist band "for when he gets sweaty: and his hat on backwards " like the sports people do". Oh, and his little shirt with the arms cut off like the "basketball and tennis players do"

Our angel Hannah, who is becoming quite the good little player. I saw video of her today hitting back hand, which is better then mine! Way to go Hannah

I was told by Tess that Hannah and Drew were two of the best little players out there for their age. And not suprising, Drew was team captain and named his team the "lions". Apparently he won some races and was doing a great job hitting the ball and never complained with full energy! That's my Drew

After camp, the kids came back and set up a lemonade stand, which they have wanted to do all summer. They made $9.00 with a little help from Tess and Abby. Quite Cute!!

Grandma and Grandpa Camp!

I failed, totally failed taking any pictures this last week with Grandma and Grandpa here. There was so much chaos with the kids the last thing I was thinking about was taking pictures. Per Hannah and Drew, Grandma and Grandpa have been re-named "Fartie" and "Barb-B-Que"  The kids think they are real funny when they say that!

The kids had a good time with Grandma and Grandpa, definitely gave them a run for their money, and it was definitely survival of the fittest in this house, but all in all a good time. They got to eat out, go to Chucky Cheese, swim at the pool and just spend time together. Hannah was sad when they left saying it is just too much time in between when we see them.  I promised we would try to visit this fall or Thanksgiving!

Thank you Fartie and Barb-B-Que for making the trip to Atlanta and hanging in there all week with wild and rambunctious Drew. We really appreciate all the help!!

Summer Drama Camp

Just what Hannah needed this summer, some drama camp. As if she isn't enough drama all on her own, we sent her to Blake Cooper Productions with 3 of her little friends for 4 days. The camp was actually quite cute. They put on the show Aladdin, and helped create the set too. Hannah and her little friends were the towns people.  Her line in the show was "hi" :) Honestly, probably perfect for her. She gets to shy in front of people.

Here is Hannah and her little friends Alexandra, Camden, and Kate. Kate was a guardsman and had a lot more speaking parts.

I just think this lil picture of Hannah is kinda cute. Hannah must had spotted Todd in the audience to get that smile on her face!

Never to be left out of anything, Drew came and watched the final show and got a kick out of it.

I think Hannah will probably do it again next year. She like learning all the songs, the dances and spending time with her friends. It was such a cute little camp.

Drew ?!?!?!?!

This morning I was standing in the kitchen talking to my friend Kimmie, while she was picking up Mac N Cheese from the girls sleepover and Lundy and Drew were playing. Drew announces he is going in the garage to get a toy. Kimmie and I continue to talk. A few minutes later Drew walks in covered in beige paint. The same paint used to recently paint Drew's new sandbox. He is covered. I immediately do that "DREW! What did you do??" His response " I painted the garage".   Kimmie and I go outside, sure enough, Drew took a paint roller and painted the stairs, hand rails, bike tires, garage floor, garage cabinets, part of the driveway, and his little baseball plates.  All in a matter of 5 minutes. It was like a paint roller tornado hit our garage.

He had a look on his face like oh boy .. I'm really in trouble. I honestly had to try not to laugh. I did the whole "just wait til your dad gets home" because I honestly did not know what to do with him. Poor Kimmie, who has two adorable sweet little girls, and is pregnant with a boy due this fall had a look on her face, like..."can I exchange my boy for a girl". I said, you just wait..... just wait.

Luckily, it was really wet and humid so we get the paint off the stairs and cabinets. We told Drew he had to scrub all the paint off the garage floor. He didn't even get upset or complain. He went right to work scrubbing his little heart out for over an hour. Barely even looked up. Finally after an hour he said " my arm is so tired and I need a nap, can I finish after a nap?" So napped he did, 2 hours later he got up and we didn't have the heart to keep making him scrub more. He has apologized all day long.

The reality of life with Drew is that you really cannot take your eye off him for a second, and if its too quiet, than that generally means he is up to no good. He is the kid that has taken the sharpie marker to furniture, gets naked and sits in the bathroom sink with soap and water overflowing, paints the garage.. and many many more things I don't even want to remember. And I used to think Hannah was hard... what was I thinking. Angel, complete angel.

Happy 4th of July 2013!

Happy belated 4th of July! We hope everyone had a nicer one than we did. It was one soggy wet day here in Atlanta where most of the festivities were canceled. Here is Hannah and Drew's sad faces as they watched the rain come down :(

Even with the rain, they decided to decorate their bikes and scooters "just in case" teh neighborhood parade was going to come back on the calendar. They had fun blowing up balloons in the garage and putting streamers on their bikes.

Typical Hannah and Drew. Hannah her sweet self, Drew the photo bomber :)

Drew wanted to wear his "hot dog eating champion" medal in honor of joey chestnut :) Drew couldn't believe that guy put down 69 hot dogs in 10 minutes. OMG, disgusting to watch. I kinda wanted to puke, but the kids got a kick out out it.

We played at home most of the day, then met up with our friends the Whitman's and went to Marlow's for dinner and then went to the movie Despicable Me 2. Hannah and MacKenzie ( Mac n Cheese ) and Drew and Lundy had a great time at both dinner and the movie. The movie was really cute.

After the movie, Mac N Cheese came back to our house for a sleepover. The girls were super cute together. Around 9pm we walked through the neighborhood and in one of the cauldesacs one of the neighbors put on a big firework display, the kids loved watching it. Finally, Hannah and Mac N Cheese made a bed bahind our couches in the family room down stairs with books, blankets, pillows, nightlights, and even a little bed for Murphy and feel asleep around midnight. These little sleep overs are more exhausting for me than the kids. I was ready to go to sleep at 10pm, but wanted to kids to have their fun.   And wouldn't you know it, the kids all came running in our room at 7am blasting Katy Perry's Fireworks song dancing and singing on our bed to wake us up, ugh!

I am just glad they have fun together, and they even let Drew play with them and he was pretty excited to be included in the sleepover activities.

Hoping everyone else got some sunshine this weekend. It was a soggy one here in Atlanta, but at least you don't have to shovel rain :)

Grand Opening: Drew's Sandbox

Todd and Drew worked hard over the last week. Todd built Drew a little sandbox for our back yard, and Drew was quite the little helper too. He helped nail boards, paint, and made lots of trips back and forth to fill the box with sand. After a lot of hard work, Drew finally got to play in it today and had a great time. He made ramps and set up his little monster truck course. It was pretty cute. He told us he wanted a sign that said " no girls allowed" next to it :)

It didn't take long though, Hannah and Lila greeted the sandbox shortly after it was usable and Drew was ready to show it off!

Hannah and Lila had a fun morning together. I was on a walk and saw Lila playing outside her house while her dad was doing yard work. I scooped her up for a few hours and surprised Hannah with her little friend when I walked in the door. Hannah was so excited!

Another busy weekend, yet we never have much to show for it lately. We never sit down, kids are busy and active as ever. Lots of pool time, friend time, work, life etc. Ugh.. I need a vacation from myself I think :)

We are sticking around here for the 4th, catch up on life around the house and get a few things done. I look forward to some time with the kids!  Hope everyone has a happy 4th of July!

Superhero Run!

Well, it's not everyday you can dress up at Batman on a June saturday morning, but given the opportunity, we take full advantage of it! This past Saturday we took part in the Atlanta Superhero family run raising money for Children's Hospital of Atlanta.   Jason, Susan, Claudine and I headed out early in the morning for a 5k run, then shortly after Todd and Jonas showed up with the kids so we could all the do family / kids 1 mile sprint.  The event was held at Piedmont Park, and it was a gorgeous day!

Here are the kids pre-run, ready for take off!

We think they all make pretty cute little super heroes! Pictured above left to right is Hannah, Alexandra, Lila, Camden, Caitlin and Drew.

Two super mans and a flash Gordon!  Left to right is Jason, Todd and Jonas

Finally, the 4 of us. We had such a wonderful time, and we were so impressed with Drew. He took his race very, very serious, winning for team Ashebrooke, and winning the little kids run. Drew sprinted the one mile, and I mean sprinted. Drew was in the lead, I was chasing after him yelling "slow down" so I wouldn't lose him in the crowd. About three quarters way through he turns back and looks at me and says " mom, you think we can do this?" I said for sure little buddy, go get em... so he did. I managed to pull some random hip muscle while chasing him. At night as we went to bed, he said "mom, I am sorry I ran so fast I hurt you and people laughed at you". I thought, well, how do you get any sweeter than that, feeling bad about an injury and the people watching laughing at me as I chased him :) Just another Satuday with Drew.

Hannah had a sleep over party the night before for her friend Mackenzie's bday, Hannah wasn't the most wide awake for the event and walked most of it, which is fine, as long as everyone had a good time that is all that mattered.

I think we will take some time off from doing races with Drew until we can get in better shape to keep up with him, in the mean time, we will stick to tennis :)

Hannah's Dance Recital 2013

A busy week for Hannah last week, as Thursday was her final dance recital for the year. And thank goodness for that. Hananh did NOT enjoy dance and tap this year. We made her stick with it for the school year as we though she would come around, but she never did. We had signed Hannah and Maddie up together thinking they would enjoy dancing and seeing eachother every week. They surely enjoyed seeing eachother, but neither of than are future ballerinas, which honestly is fine by me. I met some pretty crazy dance moms over this recital, all of which make we want to avoid anything dance related. Regardless, what Hannah did enjoy was getting her little pink dance costume and performing on stage.

hannah and dad before we left for the recital!

Hannah and Maddie before they went on stage, and before they had to sit through a long night and 2.5 hours of performances for their 2 - 3 minute performances. OMG?!? Long night.

In the back on the right, there is Hannah on stage during her performance. She smiled, and seemed to enjoy it, but as we left made me promise her she would never have to take another dance class again. So, I promised :)

Ahh, finally, summer in full swing, we are down to just swim team and fun camps for Hannah.

Both Hannah and Drew have been at the pool nearly every day at some point. They are both really, really tan, and Hannah's hair keeps getting lighter each day. They are so cute, and having so much fun at the pool this year so far. We are loving it.

Hannah's 1st Swim Meet - Go Pinecrest Pirates!

Last Monday night Hannah had her first swim meet. She is part of the Pinecrest Pirate team this year, which is just right behind her elementary school. All the kids in the neighborhood swim there, as well as some of Hannah's friends from East Side Elementary. I raced to the meet as fast as I could from work, nervous I was going to miss her first race! I got there in the nick of time, and Hannah was so excited. It was the first time I have seen her with such determination. The night before at bedtime she looked at me and said "mom, I am going to win, I want a blue ribbon". I said, you just swim your heart out and have fun. In my mind I was more or less expecting her to freak out at race time and hang onto a lane line for dear life or chicken out of the race all together.  In Hannah fashion, he amazed me as always. Apparently she was more determine than I ever realized, because she did amazing. Her first swim meet race ever, 25 freestyle, wouldn't you know it, Hannah took home the blue ribbon and got first place. I was so happy for her, she was so excited and happy. It just warmed my heart to see how proud of herself she was!

Here she is in full swing, literally. Cinching the 25 freestyle, and her only competitor close to her was her little friend Lila. I asked Hannah what she was thinking about during the race, she said she was nervous that she didn't see anyone else's bubbles and wondered why she was the only one swimming. I laughed, and said.. well, they were all behind you!

My proud Hannah!

Hannah and Lila! They had so much fun at the meet, so cute!

Not only did she take home a first place ribbon for the 25 freestyle, she also won the freestyle relay for 6 and under girls at pinecrest too. Hannah was the anchor on the team, with a half of length behind the other team, Hannah swam her heart out, caught up and won! The whole crowd was cheering, super fun! I actually got a little choked up, I couldn't believe she pulled it off.   She ended up with a second place in backstroke and she kept running into the lane line :) I remember doing that too :)

Our next meet is tomorrow night. Now lil Hannah has quite the cold so hopefully she can still swim tomorrow and have fun.