Summer Fun!

Summer is going so fast already! The kids got out of school 4 weeks ago and I feel like summer is already half over!! So much already and yet so much more to do!!! It's been a simple, yet buys and fun summer so far. Drew had a little soccer camp, but kids went to Vacation Bible School last week and this week.... we'll Todd surprised them with a little trip! He left yesterday morning and took them to Florida to a little water park hotel and Disney. Then they are heading to see Scott, Amanda , Gracie and Lauren, then finally heading home on Saturday! I was in Charlotte for work so we were all going different directions.  I have a feeling there will some pictures of blog updates from the trip, coming soon!

The rest of the summer so far has been about the simple things. Pool parties, swim meets, BBQ's, bike rides, walks, and playing outside.   Hannah has finally outgrown her Barbie Jeep and we decided to give it to Lundy. Drew spent quite a long time washing and scrubbing it down before giving it to her to make sure it looked nice and shiny. It was pretty cute. Lundy loved it.

Here is Drew and Lundy later that day at Lundy's big sister Mac N Cheeses "Mackenzies" bday pool party. Hannah and Drew both had a great time.

It is starting to get really hot here, which means we with either spend more time at the pool, or more inside here coming up :) Next weekend we are going to a friends lake house on Lake Hartwell, the kids are so excited to go tubing!! And finally 4th of July we are heading to Ohio to see the Dice family, the kids cannot wait!!

I am going to work on taking my camera out with me more often and capturing some of the best moments of summer!!

Drew's Soccer Camp!

Finally after 2 years of begging " when I grow up can I go to a camp" Drew got to go to his own soccer camp this summer. It was a little 3 hours a day for a week soccer camp at our church. It was super cute as the camp was lead by a bunch of European soccer players. They were from a bunch of different countries and Drew thought it was pretty awesome.

The last day of the camp was the "world cup" tournament. Drew's team was the Ivory Coast. The kids made flags for the parade, and Drew made the little name stickers for each player on his team that looked like their flag. He was soooo excited.

Here is drew getting his little award from his coach on the last day for being the most " enthusiastic" per say during the camp. He was really proud of himself :) I am just glad that he had a good time and met some new little friends he was really excited about.

Murphy's Recovery

It's been a long time since I did a blog update!! Too long. I have not forgotten to update, just have not had a lot of free time to sit down! Memorial day weekend was a rough one for us. Murphy, Hannah, Drew and I took a walk to the park in our neighborhood and long story short, Murphy got attacked by a huge dog that was part Rotwieller and part Lab. It was over a 100 lb dog, and pick Murphy up by the neck and starting shaking him back and forth. Needless to say, the kids and myself were hysterical.  The parents of the other dog jumped on their dog to free Murphy and from there we got him straight to the dog hospital. Murphy wasn't walking and we didn't know what would happen. He spent the night there and was able to come home the next day to start his recovery.  Below is Hannah laying next to Murphy, never leaving his side that first day home.

That first night home was rough. Real rough. He still wasn't walking or moving and it was a wait and see situation.  I stayed up all night with Murphy as he was having breathing problems and shaking all night. My little alb dog laid on my chest all night like a little newborn. While I loved the cuddles, my heart was breaking for our little guy.   The next morning full of tears I asked Todd to bring Murphy to the vet and decide what to do. I couldn't even be there for what I thought was going to be the inevitable. Sure enough, Todd brings him to the vet and starts sending me pictures of Murphy getting a massage and acupuncture. I laughed and smiled thinking ok, we are not giving up.

 Sure enough, a little massage and acupuncture helped our little guy. He has been on the road to recovery every since and gets better each day. His walking is still not 100%, but he seems to get around well for the first half of the day and definitely starts to wear down by late afternoon and evening and the limping starts again. We are going to keep making sure he gets rest. We got out the kids old pack n play and put a huge pillow in it. He stays in there a lot to keep him from walking too much, doctors orders.

We love our little Murphy and cannot imagine life with out our little Murph.   Hannah cried herself to sleep the first few nights so upset with what happened. Drew cried for the first day and by day 2, Drew looks at Hannah and I as I am hugging Hannah as she cried and says "Mom, I have an idea. Lets go get another white maltese and name him Murphy, then we can just act like this never happened". I looked at him in awe. Hannah starting laughing and I thought hmmm, he is just a typical guy or just creative. Not sure which.

For now, Murphy isn't going anywhere. He will be 10 years old this fall and we hope he has another 10 years in him. We will nurse him back to health and love him like no family has ever loved their dog :)  Keep fighting Murph!

Hannah's Last day of 1st Grade!!

WOW! I am way behind these days and have barely gotten the camera out recently. But, I did remember to bring it to the bus stop on the last day of school this week. Wednesday was Hannah's last day of 1st grade. I now have a 2nd grader on my hands, and can hardly believe it. This last school year went so fast. Hannah learned  to read, her basic math, and made a lot of good little friends at school. She became buddies with Lucy in her class, and always seemed to get into trouble with her little friend Sean that never stopped talking. Mrs Bicking, her 1st grade teacher said she was a joy to have in the class and was always nice to everyone.  Hannah seems to get invited to all the birthday parties in the class, and I find a little notes in her backpack from little girls I have never heard of saying "hannah you are my very best friend". It is cute to see. I think Hannah managed to become friends with just about everyone. I am happy to say she graduated to 2nd grade and we will be looking forward to another fun year at East Side Elementary next year!

Our second annual water balloon, water gun fight at the bus stop was a big hit again with the kids. There are 3 bus stops in our neighborhood, and everyone got out  the water balloons and squirters at each stop and soaked the kids. They had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. After that, pretty much all the kids in the neighborhood headed to the pool for a potluck lunch, lots of cookies and snacks, and a whole lot of fun. We picked Drew up to head to the pool and he was right in the middle of it all. I don't think he stopped swimming and running from 1pm to 8pm when we finally headed home. And, yes both kids fell asleep about 5 minutes after getting home too.

The kids both have a lot to look forward to this summer. Drew has a soccer camp next week, Hannah and Drew will both be attending Vacation Bible School for a week, and golf camp for a few days as well. Hannah will return to her favorite camp from last summer at Chatahooche nature center as well. And, thank god for Tess! She is our full time nanny that gets them from place to place, swim practice, camps, and makes sure they have a lot of fun each day. I have no idea what I would do without her.

We are excited for summer and all that comes with it! I promise to get my camera out a little more often again and do more updates!!

Happy Easter 2014!

 

Happy Easter! We had one long day here and we are tired! The kids had a great Easter and it was a gorgeous perfect day today. They woke up to their easter baskets and some goodies, and the bunny had hid eggs throughout the house. The kids had so much fun on their little easter egg hunt.

A very happy little 7 year old girl. Instead of a bunch of hay, the easter bunny left bundles of yarn in Hannah's basket because he must know how much she loves making friendship bracelets. I love watching her make them as I remember doing the same thing when I was little!

Drew is happy with about anything. In his basket he got a dinosaur movie, jelly beans, and a chocolate bunny soccer player.  They both got little stuffed animal bunnies too! Later in the day, we went to our neighborhood easter egg hunt at the park. All the kids were there and they had races and little crafts set up for the kids with a whole lot of eggs to find in the park. The kids all had a great time.

Here they are with their little stuffed bunnies to add to their stuffed animal collection. Todd spent the latter part of his day making a "cage" for all the stuffed animals they have. It was starting to get to the point there was not going to be room for humans in our house, we were getting taken over by stuff animals!

When we were walking back from the park today, all I could think was what a genuinely perfect day it was today. Absolutely gorgeous weather, and the kids were full of smiles and fun today. Hannah is finally riding her bike, Drew is hell on training wheels on his bike cruising through the neighborhood like it is no one's business, and well Todd and I are just watching them peddle through the neighborhood, so much more grown up now. We are just so lucky to be there parents. Love these little ones!

Happy Easter Everyone!!

Siesta Key Vacation 2014!

We finally went on our annual Siesta Key Vacation last week. Spring Break 2014!  This year it truly was "spring break" a we were there during peak week with all kinds of spring breakers. Watching all the those teenagers on the beach brought back a lot of memories!

This year we had about the most chilled out vacation we have had in years. It was filled with much needed rest and relaxation. The start of the vacation was a little bit rough. I ended up with bronchitis and Todd got a stomach bug. Once we got better, vacation got a little more fun. Of course the day we left I finally starting feeling back to myself :) 

This year the kids did not sit down, ever. Hannah was obsessed with playing paddle ball on the beach, she loved it. We went a lot of time hitting that little ball back and forth. All. day. long.

We all know Drew never sits down. He got right to work with Todd and built some serious sand castles. He even brought his dinosaur onto the beach to "protect" the castle.

Mid week our friends the Palms arrived to stay with us  for a few days and relax with us. The kids had so much fun together as always. Here are the three musketeers!

I just thought this picture was cute on evening when they were searching for little sea creatures. Wouldn't you know it, they caught a little baby octopus. I have good video of it I will try to post later.

So last year Drew was totally obsessed with the team of workers in the evening that pick up all the lawn chairs off the beach.  He calls the 4 wheeler a "5". Makes perfect sense. 4 wheels + 1 steering wheel equals 5.  The worker let him sit on it for a second, and was he ever happy!

Some people on the beach rented a kayak. Drew was not shy to walk right up the vacationers and ask if he could sit in it. His little friend that he met on this trip, Lily, was right there with him. He found a new little girlfriend from Chicago that was pretty much the girl version of him with all her little energy.

Two days on the trip we rented a paddle board. It looks so easy with these perfect little models on the covers of magazines. It is NOT easy. Not at all. I think I was able to spend all of about 10 seconds ( or less) in a standing position. The rest was spent on the knees, with some serious paddling.

Drew - taking the paddle board by storm!

This photo is a little out of order. But the last night in siesta key we took the kids to putt putt golf.  The loved it. I think it was actually one of their favorite parts of the trip. They even had baby alligators you could feed off a fishing pole. Highlights of Drew's night!

This is one of those pictures that is more like Mom: "Drew, hey don't make a mess, try to stay clean" and then Drew" " hey mom, look at me, I just splashed sandy water all over me"

   My two little loves....

My angel

And my favorite time on the beach, sunset with the kids while they play soccer, run around and just have the time of their life. I love it.

Hannah wore her Atlanta Braves hat 90% of the trip. He looked like she was 7 going on 16. I think she caught eye of some of the teenagers wearing hats and wanted to imitate them :)

Drew spent a lot of time filling up his bucket, bringing the bucket back and building all those drip castles and sand castles. He worked hard and was exhausted at the end of each day!!

Paddle ball, paddle ball, paddle ball, paddle ball. Hannah's favorite past time.

I love getting my annual photo of the kids in their white and khaki, in the same place each year. So fun to see how much they grow each year.

Cute right?

More cute

Absolute cuteness. Love them

On my birthday Todd booked a boat ride down Casey Key, Siesta Key and then to Sarasota. It was a gorgeous night and incredibly relaxing. The kids were so excited as we were able to see a ton of dolphins really close up. It made their night!!

The Steinemanns and the Palms!!

Mom and Drew!!

Overall, a wonderful trip. So relaxing and lazy. Which is exactly what we needed. Time away from work, and time together. At the start of the trip we got to spend time with Aunt Andrea, Cash, Ashley and Drake, and at the end of the trip we got to see Scott and Amanda. So fun to be able to see everyone and live to much closer that too much time does not go in between visits.

We have already booked for next year! Its our one week of the year we can check out, relax and spend quality time together. We are already counting down the days until next year!!!

Mt Bethel Season Opener!

Spring Softball and Soccer season openers were yesterday. Hannah is on the Purple Panthers this season. And of course, with her little friends Camden and Mackenzie. They did a good job, and starting to understand where to throw the ball and are becoming good little hitters. It is cute to watch!

Alexandra is on a team called the Black Widows. They hung out after her game so they could watch some of Drew's little soccer game.

Drew's cheering squad. He was one lucky little boy to have a bunch of little girls that stayed to watch him play :)

And it's kick off for the Red Skeletons"!!! They play 4 on the field, and one goalie in this age group. It is kind of nice to give them all a chance to get in the game and play. Drew started kickoff with the best play of the game! I was so proud. He just started dribbling down the field, the ball got a little ahead of him so he ran in front of it and kicked the ball back with his heel, turned and made a pass to the center in front of the goal. I about passed out with pride. I know it was a fluke, but it was almost too perfect!

And our little stud played goalie the second quarter. He had about 10 shots against him and never let one in. He was awesome, and it certainly helps that he has no fear and would just go for the ball!! Overall he did awesome and we were so proud of him. More than anything it was fun to watch him have such a great time. He absolutely loves playing soccer lately and it definitely helps get his energy out. He never stops running on the field!

Here is little Drew and his friend Marshall on the bench taking a break. Marshall is not quite as enthusiastic about soccer as Drew, not sure if he will be coming back or not, but Drew is all in and begs to play everyday!


Finally, the Red Skeletons won their first game 3-1