Toothless!

Lukey has always had the best smile...now it's even better!  Love that toothless grin.

Soccer

Look at this game face!  Four year old soccer is no laughing matter.

Seriously, look at the intensity on this girl.

Finally a smile and a hug for teammate and buddy, Amanda.

Addison was super intense on the soccer field, we were surprised with her tenacity.  You go, girlie!  So far- two games, two goals.  

Music City with Mimi

Amelia's 10th birthday present was a girl's trip to Nashville culminating with the Taylor Swift concert!  The day had finally arrived and we arrived in Nashville midmorning ready to experience all Music City had to offer.  

Amelia's birthday trip meant Amelia planned the itinerary.  First stop- Broadway Street to see some of the famous stops where country music stars got their start and more importantly to Amelia-shopping.  She had her trusty Vera Bradley purse and her savings and she was ready to spend it.  (She shopped and shopped and bought nothing, which is typical Amelia.  She will be a millionaire by the time she is 20 because she saves all of her money.  The ultimate looker but not buyer.)  So we continued to look in every tourist shop  despite my helpful comment that each store really has the same selection of tshirts, shot glasses, cowgirl hats and magnets.  After we were sufficiently shopped out we headed to lunch at Puckett's and ate enough for a family of five.  As we walked around the city, Amelia and I quickly learned that Tennessee is MUCH hillier than Mississippi.  The biggest hill in Mississippi is a curb so our legs had to get used to hoofing it up and down hills.  

The next stop on Amelia's Nashville tour was the Adventure Science center.  It was a great stop because we were pretty much alone to explore there and Amelia got to enjoy all of the displays without little siblings pulling us ahead to the next thing and "mama, mama, mama'ing" me to death.  In Amelia's words, "It was fun because I actually got to read the displays and learn something."  The above picture is Amelia getting to experience  what walking on the moon was like.  I was so bummed I had a dress on so I did not get to try it-that was not the kind of "moon" anyone needed to see.  Ha!  I seriously do not know if anyone reads this blog but that totally cracked me up.  

I got to watch this great mind figure all sorts of things out.

But guess who won the brain wave challenge?  That's right, Mama!  These extra attractive headbands were placed on us and our brain waves would move the ball toward the "winner."  Funny enough, calm brain waves moved the ball.  Apparently, Amelia's brain is firing at a much faster frequency than mine.  Hmm, on second thought, maybe I was just totally bragging on my dead brain.  

I think I was just uber- relaxed because traveling with one totally laid back 10 year old was the easiest vacation I ever went on.  

Trying to hold up Saturn, we were giggling uncontrollably trying to get Amelia's hands right on this picture.  Again, we were in no rush anywhere we went which was lovely.  

We had lots of chances to work on our "selfies."  We rounded out the night with another Amelia choice, a steak dinner.  No complaints from mama.  

Day 2 arrived and we had the greatest breakfast with the greatest girls!  This is Taylor and Megan Bonds.  I babysat Taylor and Megan (and their little sibs Ali and Mike) back when I was in college at Valpo.  Their family influenced me a lot and Steve for that matter too, as he also joined me in watching the Bonds crew.  It has been such a blessing keeping in contact with their sweet family.  Taylor and Megan both attend Belmont college now and yes, that made me feel incredibly old.  They were so sweet to give us a tour of Nashville and showed us the Vanderbilt and Belmont campuses, Music Row and let us know about Pancake Pantry, where we ate breakfast together.  We had seriously the best pancakes ever (yes they even rivaled West Egg by our old apartment in Chicago).  It was great to catch up with the girls and reminisce.  Hugs to you Taylor and Megan!  

 I think I enjoyed the special one on one time with Amelia on this trip more than anything else.  We got to have some really important talks on this trip without any interruptions and I just hope she can always come to mama when things get hard or confusing or annoying or terrible.  

After we were stuffed to the brim with pancakes our next stop was the Country Music Hall of Fame.  

Lots and lots of gold records.  

Amelia took a ton of pictures at the hall of fame but I just posted a few.  She loved Elvis's gold piano and she took a lot of pictures of different stage costumes from artists she knows like Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks, etc.  

And then it was time!!!

The first day we arrived, Amelia was the only kid downtown.  By the day of the concert, you would have thought Nashville was holding a mother/daughter convention.  Everywhere you looked were moms and tween daughters and the excitement level was at a fever pitch.  

Our hotel was directly across from the concert venue so we got to watch all of the trailers arrive.  Is she not the cutest little Taylor Swift fan ever?  Love my Mimi.  

We were so excited!!!

First concert ever =souvenirs.

Our great seats.

I have not been to any big concerts in a LONG time- like a REALLY long time.  

Taylor Swift concert- BLEW. MY. MIND!

It was so much fun dancing and singing with Amelia.  I loved watching normally stoic Amelia, get so pumped up and dancing to every song.  The concert was just so awesome, every song was such an experience.

Country music fans...look who surprised us half way through the concert!  Nashville is Taylor's hometown and wow, does she love Nashville.  She said she had a surprise for all of us and then she brought out Luke Bryan!  Wow...I was jumping up and down and screaming like a 12 year old meeting Justin Bieber.  They sang "I don't want this night to end" together and it was so much fun.  The place was going nuts.  

The last song...I was sad to see it over but she had played over 2.5 hours and every song was awesome.  Even more awesome, experiencing it with Amelia, whom I hope will always remember her first concert.    

Tennis Love

Amelia and Luke recently played in a "Just for Fun Tournament."  These kind of tournaments are right up our family alley- no pressure, no trophy, no traveling, no stress, only a few hours long instead of a whole weekend.  The kids have both been part of  the junior tennis academy at our club for a couple of years so they were ready to play some real matches.  These tournaments are a gentle entry into the competitive part of tennis.

Amelia between games, checking up on her little brother.

Patiently waiting.  

Luke did great, it was his first tournament ever and he was the youngest one there.  He really hung in there and played his little heart out.   Which is saying a lot because it was well into the 90's while they were playing but neither one complained a bit.  It may have been the endless supply of gator aid.  Luke will do just about anything for gator aid.

We were super proud of our kids while they played-whether they were winning their match or losing their match, you would have never been able to tell by watching their emotions.  They just enjoyed themselves out there and smiled and played.  I seem to remember my early tennis days a little different.  My attitude was not quite as controlled as my kids- I remember running endless laps in high school for mumbling words that I was not allowed to say.  

Amelia ended up playing 3 single matches and 3 doubles matches, she was quite the trooper.  It is fun to watch all those years of lessons pay off.  

Luke taking a break between matches.  Every coach, teacher, friend always says the same thing about Luke, "Does he ever stop smiling?"  

Luke Michael is 8 years old!

Luke starts counting down the days until his birthday,  the day after his birthday.  "Only 364 more days until my next birthday!"  So the whole family is quite ready when the big day finally arrives!  Luke is eight years old and our only little boy is turning out to be quite the impressive little man.  His excitement for everything fun is contagious and he makes me laugh every single day.  We love our Lukey Michael.  

Luke's big 8 celebration including McDonald's lunch with daddy at school, his favorite treat brought to share with his class and a pool birthday party at our club.  

A bunch of little boys (and a sweet, baby sister floating in the middle of it all) make for a wild, pool party.  The boys whooped, yelled, dunked, splashed and cannonballed for two hours only taking a breather for some food and cake.  

Luke wanted an "Angry Birds" party theme this year.  

A very spirited and loud Happy Birthday.

By the time all the party fun was done, it was jammie time but Luke had waited ALL day to open his presents and it was finally time!  

This sums up what Luke requested this year.  This loot has kept him quietly busy for the last 10 days-thank you to all who contributed.  It has been an awesome week around here.  Luke was THRILLED with all of his lego presents.  Hooray for birthdays!

The word of the day was "free"

Daddy had to work on Labor day but Grandpa and I did not:)  I had the great idea of taking the kids to the Ohr O'Keefe art museum because it was FREE!  Don't get me wrong, I want to support my local museums and such but my kid's attention spans at museums are quite short.  So "free" days work well for us.  

Thankfully Grandpa was up to my "fun" idea.  Fun if you consider telling your kids don't touch that, don't knock that over, don't run, don't pinch your sister so hard that you rip the skin off, don't get on the elevator yet, don't bang on that, no I'm not spending $15 on face painting, etc.  Soooo, our museum trip didn't last that long.  But we got to look at some cool pots that Ohr, "the mad potter" designed.  Did I mention it was free?

Then we headed over to the newishly built (2 years ago but whatev) Biloxi visitor center.  This was actually pretty cool and actually held my kids attention longer than the art museum.  Oh, and by the way, it is of course, also free.  

The above picture is very fitting of our spirited youngest.  Doesn't she look quite natural up there, shouting orders and demanding attention?  Keep an eye on that one, Addison Kate just might rule the world someday.  

Just chilling, enjoying our beautiful coast.  

Always something new...

Luke often disappears into a bin of legos, only to reappear in an hour with something like this.  

He made a full on aircraft carrier with helicopters and airplanes and air traffic controllers.  Their is no design for this, it is all in his awesome brain.  Impressive dude.

Amelia's class was studying Native Americans this week and part of their social studies report was to come in costume.  Thankfully we had saved a shirt she made in preschool so we added a bit more design and bam, Native American Amelia.  This was another classic Amelia moment.  All week she had been working on her social studies project and talking about the group aspect etc. etc. so we thought we were all set.  That night, Stephen had a meeting in one place, I had a neighborhood meeting at the same time, the kids had just gotten home from tennis.  So I told Amelia she could stay home to work on homework and I would take the little ones with me to the meeting.  I am already late, walking out the door and she says, "Mom, we are supposed to do an Native American craft for our class that we can like trade with each other like Native American's did."  Me: "AMELIA!!!  Did your teacher tell you this before today??? It's 7 pm, the night before it's due!!!"  She then tells me with all of her 10 year old sass, "It's no big deal, don't we have feathers or something?  I'll make head pieces."  Me: "NO, WE DON'T HAVE FEATHERS LYING AROUND THE HOUSE UNLESS YOU CAN FIND A BIRD OUTSIDE AND PLUCK OFF SOME FEATHERS YOU ARE OUT OF LUCK."  Amelia "Hmm, I'll think of something."  It is hard to raise a laid back kid when you are a super high anxiety, Type A parent.

Don't these look super delicious?  This was a big moment for me.  I don't go near the grill, literally, nowhere near it.  Gas, flame, freaks me out.  I am a chemistry and biology major and I never even lit a bunsen burner in my entire four years of college lab.  I always had my partner light it, thank you Jamie Keffer, I am forever grateful.  Fire freaks me out.  So grilling has always just seemed like a "boy job" to me, like mowing the lawn.  Sorry women libbers, my dad grills, my husband grills, I don't grill.  

Except, when I am starving and PMSing and really need some salty meat, apparently.  

I had taken the kids to the pool and Stephen was working and we were all starving.  I had never even started a grill before.  So I grabbed the hot dogs and my 10 year old and marched outside.  Amelia stammered, "What are you doing?"  "Do you even know how to do this?"  I told her I didn't which is why I brought her outside with me.  

But guess what?  Grilling hot dogs is not rocket science.  And I made these delicious hot dogs and all the kids cheered for me and told me I was the best griller ever.  Addison even gave me a celebratory ribbon.  

Although, when I walked back in the house, Luke was crouching behind our sliding glass door watching me with the phone in his hand.  I asked him what he was doing.  He told me, "I was ready to call 911 in case you blew up the grill."  

Thanks for the confidence buddy.  

After the cheering commenced he also told me while we were eating that he had the same scared feeling in his belly like when Daddy makes Mommy drive the boat.  

Evidently I need to work on Luke's confidence in me.

After school adventure

Stephen had to work the whole Labor Day weekend so we had to get a little creative with island time.  We headed out after school Friday and enjoyed the whole island to ourselves.   As my kids get bigger, it seems their personalities do as well by the looks of my pictures.

Our trusty Bosko boat.

Somehow, each time we go to the island the kids find a different activity to keep them busy.  This time they built bunkers and found driftwood to build up the sides.  They were pretty impressive shelters by the time evening came.

My loves on a sunset swim.

The sunset was gorgeous on the boat ride back, not that any of the kids got to enjoy it.  All three were passed out...5th grade must be pretty rough Mimi.