A Birthday Visit

 This little lady dazzled us all by turning four on April 21st. {sigh}--Our baby girl is 4!! Eliza Kate requested pink and purple cupcakes to share with her Weeschool friends. She decorated a pink crown to wear for this occasion and I loved hearing her classmates sing to her. 

Of course she appreciated her girly, butterfly party plates and stuck her four year old fingers in the lavender icing before we got a single note of the birthday chorus out of our mouths. Her teacher put candles in a play dough replica of a cupcake for her to blow out. I'm still confused about this maneuver, but I think it had something to do with less of a mess?

I love how Eliza Kate's friend,  Aditi is practicing her blowing out skills in the dark! It was pure sweetness on this drop by birthday visit. I wrapped up my visit with a read aloud to the class during circle time. Eliza Kate chose one of her nighttime favorites-- "Emma Kate" by Patricia Polacco . How fitting that the title closely resembles her name. I also got a little teary reading "On the Night You Were Born" reflecting on the night God blessed us with our darling girl.  Basking in the preschool classroom visits with my girly is a pure delight. Happy Birthday, Eliza Kate!

1st Grade Performance

This stage loving mom woke up in the early morning hours of the big first grade performance with a disgusting stomach bug. Luckily, I held it together long enough surviving only on Saltine crackers and tiny sips of water to witness the most precious of concerts put on by all of the first graders

Songs included Animal Crackers in my Soup & I Love You a Bushel and a Peck.  One slow song was pinned as embarrassing with its nursery rhyme slow sound. The crowd cheered for America the Beautiful. Miller did get into it as much as a first grade boy could. Although, he did refrain from creating his own choreography like the cutest blond friends next to him. Leave it to a little girl to provide her own dramatic hand motions to the songs--love it!

The big surprise was the kazoos popping out of pockets rendition of Take Me Out to The Ballgame.     They used kazoo blows to replace different words in the song. 

Mrs. Swan the music teacher retired this year, so the grade presented her with beautiful flowers. Miller volunteered before the event to be the one to present her with the bouquet. I was so proud of his confidence to be able to say, "Thank you, Mrs. Swan for teaching us." I have to admit, I didn't know what that boy of mine was going to say. I was just surprised that he wanted to be the one to do it!

Landon and Eliza Kate attended this family event with standing room only back at the classroom for a Writitng Portfolio morning back in Mrs. K's class. I am continually impressed by the parent and grandparent involvement in Miller's class. These firsties don't even know how blessed they are to be supported & celebrated!

We sat and combed through all of his writing pieces from the beginning of the year until spring inside of his decorated, portfolio organizer. He read aloud selected pieces for us to enjoy. Even though writing is not his favorite academic area, his gains were evident. He has wonderful creativity, but doesn't enjoy the handwriting element. Eliza Kate made herself cozy in  the reading nook while we soaked in every word Miller was reading. He was so proud.

Luckily, my bug was just a 24 hour deal. I was well on my way to recovering the next day with only happy memories of our special morning together. 

At the Cross

Here are a few stolen moments of  Easter pictures at my parent's church. The grounds are so beautiful this time of year. Unfortunately our timing was off for the cross pictures in direct sunlight. But, the littles loved viewing the floral arranged cross. It truly is a beautiful display of what Christ did for us. This is one of the traditions that refocuses the meaning of Easter. We've been capturing these moments since the littles were wee ones:)

 I know these photos will be treasured for years to come.

Easter 2014

Omi and Papa drove into town to spend Easter with our family. It went down in the books as one of the craziest prep weeks getting ready for an upcoming trip and Eliza Kate's birthday. It's always something, isn't it? Since it had been since December since Omi and Papa laid eyes on the littles, it was time to enjoy the weekend as a family. Our baseball game and practice were a complete wash out, so we did have a wonderful time of togetherness.

Omi and Papa just happened to catch our color vibe for Easter morning. Can you believe we didn't plan these details? With the azaleas and dogwoods in full bloom, we snapped a few photos on our front walkway. Easter was later this year, but still surprisingly chilly:) 

Easter dinner was at our house with both sets of grandparents. We dined on the traditional Honey Baked ham with  a few sides including my favorite Better Homes and Gardens scalloped potato casserole. Grandmama brought over an oval shaped Easter egg cake for the family's rendition of the birthday chorus for our four year old cutie pie. Her birthday just so happened to fall on the day before Easter this year. Birthdays turn into a week long festivity at our house. 

We sure do love every ounce of sweetness she adds to our home. It's tempered with a bit of four year old sass. 

There was an Easter basket sugar fest being consumed on this day. The kids received these adorable lollies that resembled bunny faces--hilarious! I made sure to oversee the kid's meticulous tooth brushing before bed. Not one tooth was overlooked:)

Thankful for the cross that gives us a reason to celebrate on Easter. Praying that it was a blessed Easter in your homes celebrating the HOPE of our salvation.

Easter Party {Preschool Edition}

The preschool party is something that I absolutely adore about this season of life and one of the many reasons I will mourn when this stage of life is over. My month long break in April from my tutoring job came just at the right time to attend a flurry of school events in both kid's classrooms. I planned the Easter party with another sweet mom in her classroom.  The egg hunt soaked up most of our allotted time. These three year olds had a wonderful time hunting for the colored , plastic eggs on the playground. 

One thing that I never want to forget about this age is Eliza Kate's face when she spots me coming to her school. Her arms fling wide open and she shouts, "MOMMY"!! with a surprise hug. Where's the pause button?

And, it's simply adorable seeing her interact with her school  aged friends at the class parties . Her teacher said that she is a sweet friend and the class cheerleader. We are working on playing in a group of three. When EK is involved playing with one friend, I'm coaching her on how to include another little girl when they ask to play.  This social dilemma is something I've observed on her playground after school. I'm thankful for the time after school each day that we gather on the playground to witness her sweet friendships. To me, this is the main benefit of preschool at 3 years old--social education!

Eliza Kate could barely get her eggs in the bunny bag before the mystery of what's inside made her stop to open up her oval shaped treats.  Her friend Caleb pulled up a seat to look for candy too.

With our time running out, we only managed to decorate Easter basket Peep cupcakes. It takes some searching to find an age appropriate activity for three year "peeps". They did enjoy decorating their cupcake treat sbefore faces and fingers were covered with lime green frosting goodness.

I treasure just watching her creative mind working on a masterpiece.  Eliza Kate is into details and when she has her mind set on a certain way, she carries it out explaining her reasoning. She just had to have three PINK jelly beans inside her peep basket:)

 There's always something to celebrate in the 3's room. We left the cross art supplies with the teachers for another day. I'm sure they love a pre-planned activity to fill in the gaps. Even if they get to it after Easter, cross art can be done at any time of the year. 

Thankful for mornings filled with preschooler activities with my girl! Easter blessings to all!

Stone Mountain Adventure

 One of Miller's birthday gifts from us was an outing of his choice with a friend.  Miller soars with individual attention at a special outing. We purchased the all day Adventure passes for our family and planned a special day at the Mountain. Eliza Kate spent the day with Grandmama and Poppy since some of our plans didn't accommodate the preschool age.  Our outing fell at the end of spring break & it was the perfect opportunity for a staycation activity.

The boys were super excited about the Skyview gondola ride to the top of the mountain. As we waited in line, the boys were studying the motor and cable system. 

This is the look of wonderment as we climbed high above the Georgia pines. It was a great bird's eye view of the park. I won't lie, I breathed a sigh of relief when our gondola pulled into the drop off on the mountain.

This was Miller's first trip to the top of Stone Mountain. It was just a little windy at our new elevation. The wind was whipping through our hair! Miller commented that the granite top looked like the surface of the moon.  It brought back memories of when I visited the top of the mountain as a girl. Visiting Stone Mountain during the summer months was always a tradition when my grandparents rolled into town.

I had just a touch of anxiety as Miller scooted as close to the edge of the mountain as possible. The fence isn't always visible at all vantage points. So, it gives the illusion that they're going to take a tumbling trip down the steep slope. 

Here's their fake out photo clinging to the mountain for dear life:) BOYS!!

Grant is so much more cautious and stayed with me whenever I called his name. Miller's our adventurous, risk taker and I have to inhale deep breaths with all of his stunts. 

The views around the city were gorgeous on this spring Saturday.

Have you noticed these two like to hug? They're the hugging type of friends. Here we are loading up for the quick decent down the mountain.

We set our sights on the Stone Mountain Express train as our next adventure. This was basically a chill out, relaxing ride around the park. Miller, our train enthusiast loves riding on the tracks. 

Sweet buddies with their wrist bands. Park goers kept giving them special notice trying to figure out if these two were twins or brothers really close in age. 

So, we really came for this one activity--the SkyHigh ropes course. We chose the beginner course 12 feet up. It doesn't look like it's a hard rope's course, but it felt a little exciting once we stepped out with nothing to hold onto but our overhead harness. I kept coaching the boys that they weren't going to fall because they were strapped in. Psychologically though, you feel like one mishap and you're toast. Miller needed no vote of confidence to sail through the different obstacles. And, Grant did AWESOME conquering his fears on the 4 by 4 balance beams. I did agree to bring him back in one piece!!

G and I set our sights on the zipline while Miller and daddy climbed up the stairs for a harder challenge up top.

This was the perfect outing for active boys looking for adventure. I was so happy to afford him this opportunity with a friend. Of course, he soaked up every minute without his little sister tagging along for the ride;)

The rock climbing challenge was to push the buzzer once you reached the top of the wall. Miller conquered stepped on fingers and a few failed footholds to find the button.  They slowly managed to use their strength to climb the wall. Around this time of the afternoon, Miller wasn't feeling so hot--yikes! Turns out that he spiked a fever on the way home and zonked out. Strep visited our house that weekend, but we're so glad we squeezed in our much anticipated birthday outing before things went sour. You're only turn 7 once!

spring break 2014

 We stayed in town over spring break and soaked in some gorgeous Atlanta weather. Our community garage sale started off the weekend with absolutely dreadful gloom and rain.  The sun finally made an appearance with warmer temperatures by the start of the week. It ended up being a great week weather wise to be outside. Between a park playdate and library time we managed one activity a day. We met up with a new friend in Eliza Kate's class that just moved into town from Nashville mid week. We gave her the official tour of the Atlanta Zoo. We've gotten good use out of our membership pass this year.

We met up at the zoo opening time at 9:30 a.m. It was a great time to observe the animals eating their breakfast. Most animals were awake and alert. Miller joined us as both kids had spring break at the same time. He was on his best "girl approved" behavior.

 He even took on chaffering duties between exhibits. 

 The girls chose to bob up and down on the carousel with Mrs. Sheryl and I promptly dropped Miller off on the zoo train. He was tall enough and old enough to ride solo. With no stops around the zoo, I felt confident that he'd make it back in one piece.  And, this boy has all the confidence in the world to rise up to more independence within reason. This was definitely a step in trust. Sure enough, he met me again at the station:) {with a BIG grin on his face}

We rushed to change into swimsuits to enjoy the splash pad. All the kiddos cooled off in the shooting sprinklers. It was in the 80's and more than warm enough to get soaked from head to toe.

I felt like we were a good 1/2 hour ahead of the other spring breakers. Once we settled in on an area, it took about 30 minutes for the swarms of crowds to follow suit. Spring break can be a busy time to make this day trip. We were pleasantly surprised that we could enjoy the exhibits with an unobstructed view.

 Thankful for a break with both littles this week. Everyone needs a little R&R with the family from time to time.

We played on our block with neighbors two nights in a row hosting an impromptu pot luck cookout. Dueling green eggs between neighbors added to the spring break spirit of community on our driveway. Eliza Kate asked when the next party was by the third night with our friends. 

Grandmama and Poppy met our family at the Marietta Square on Thursday evening. This seems to be our meeting place when we're in town for spring break.

Eliza Kate begged Poppy for some "monies" She usually bends his ear with her requests and flipped her coins into the fountain with her wishes announced.

Miller showed off his mad, robotic dancing skills on top of the train playscape. I mean, really? Whatever am I going to do with my extrovert. He craves attention as if we don't pour enough into him already. He did have us all laughing. Spring break 2014 right there.

And, no visit to the square would be complete without a group shot for memory's sake.