Homecoming 2017

 

I have started many posts over the years with the phrase, "I can't believe..."

"I can't believe, he's graduating kindergarten"

"I can't believe, she's 10"

"I can't believe she's walking"

"I can't believe she's a teenager"

And now, I can't believe Amelia is going to Homecoming!

 

I love the hairstyle she picked out!  

 

 

Amelia Grace, all grown up. 

This was before everyone started to arrive at our house for pictures.

I can tell because she has a very nervous smile on her face.

  

There we go!

That's the Mimi smile we know and love! 

 

This is how Amelia was asked to Homecoming about a month ago.

Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen?

So sweet.  

The cute boy behind the sign is Ben, a long time friend through church, they have been buddies since they were four! 

We love Ben-he is such a kind, sweet, smart, handsome young man!

 

And here they are on the big day!

I could almost not handle the preciousness.

I promise I didn't tear up...okay that might be a teeny, tiny lie. 

I didn't go full out boo hoo, but I think a tear might have surfaced.

 

So here is Amelia with 19 of her closest friends! 

Freshman fun!

 

All the girls!

 

 

These are definitely some pretty girls, inside and out.  

Us mommas were definitely thrilled with our girls dress choices after seeing

what is out there!

Wowza, some dresses looked like a bedazzled bikini top with a mini skirt.

 

 

The whole sweet group!

 

Another one, just cuz I literally cannot handle how cute they are.

 

I have about a gazillion pictures of Amelia and Ben growing up together, but here is when they were little bitties.

 

 

More buddy pictures!

 

These kiddos have been friends since the 3rd grade!

Beautiful girls!

And ridiculously smart to boot!

 

  

And one more for good measure...and I love the arm drape.  

So suave. 

Classroom City

 

At Addison's school, they do a big project called Classroom City.  It is a few weeks of learning about community leaders, small business operations, buying and selling goods, supply and demand, etc.

The children need to come up with an idea of what they want to sell and produce it and then the "city" opens up for a certain time each day for the children to sell their wares and buy what they want from their classmates.  

Addison decided to sell musical instruments- specifically shakers.  She filled all sorts of different containers  that she decorated with beans and rices.

Each class also gets to vote for a class mayor and you know Addison was all over that.  She even campaigned!

She worked on handmade posters that said things like, "Don't be a betrayer...vote Addi for Mayor."  

She also handed out Dum Dums with stickers she attached that said, "Don't be a dum dum, vote for Addison"

Addison goes after what she wants in life, and she succeeded!

She was voted class Mayor.  And as Mayor, she chose the name of her class city.

And as mayor, you need to put on your poster the name of your city and that you are mayor.

So Addison has on the poster beside her :

Addison Boskovich:

 Mayor of Dykesville!

Her teacher this year is Ms. Dykes :)

 

 

Part of Addison's responsibility  as Mayor was to write and deliver a speech to all of the third grade classes.

 

She nailed it :)

 

And of course she needed to cut the ribbon to officially open Classroom City!

 

Way to go Addison!!

Luke's 12th Birthday!

 

Look at this handsome young man!  How can it be?

He's not baby Luke anymore...our little man is growing up.

 

 

Happy 12th Birthday Luke!

 

Luke is always a big fan of opening presents!

 

Two new rackets since he hits so hard he breaks strings now, I only broke a string once in all of my tennis days!

Hitting hard was not my thing, ha!

 

 

Luke chose his old standby for his birthday dinner, Wasabi for Hibachi!

 

Happy Birthday Luke!

We love you so much!

Addison's School Life

 

Addison was excited to come home from school and tell us the art teacher picked her "selfie" to be framed in the art hallway at school.

 

 

 

She also achieved STAR reader status at school!

 

And...she caught a giant bullfrog in our yard, in her inside-out jammies of course.  

Vacation Surprise!

 

We surprised the kids by telling them we are heading to New York City for vacation!!

None of us have ever been there so we are SUPER excited!!

We wanted to tell the kids in a fun way so we set up a scavenger hunt with about 13 clues .  We attached each clue to an apple (a nod to The Big Apple) and hid the clues around the house.  They worked together so well and the last clue led them to the TV with this video playing to the Taylor Swift song,

 "Welcome to New York!"

It was so fun to tell them, we cannot wait to be tourists in the big city!

Church Retreat

 

I recently went on a Church Women's Retreat to Gulf Shores, Alabama.  Our church had a wonderful group of 17 ladies of all ages and we joined up with our sisters from First Presbyterian Church of Pascagoula.  We had such a lovely weekend, time to reflect on the topic of BALANCE, in our lives as busy women, moms, grandmoms, wives, etc.  It was so wonderful and my belly ached from laughing so hard.  

Okay, honestly.  Half of the time we were laughing so hard at our accommodations.  We had 17 of us in the room pictured above!!

In front of us, those are the teeny tiny twin bunk beds.  A bunch of grown women in a teeny bunk house.  But we did enjoy the bonding at bedtime because it was like a giant sleepover.  In which I did not SLEEP at all.  #womensnoretoo

 

Our whole retreat group! 

What a fabulous group of women!

 

Our room, a my goodness.  It still makes me laugh.

 

Lots of fun times!  

 

This is my wonderful friend Rebecca.  

She also happens to be my pastor's wife.  

This is how we slept.  

We are each in our OWN bed by the way.  See the teeny tiny board separating us?  That's how close we all were, side by side like sardines. 

I texted our husbands that we were sleeping closer to each other than we do with them at home!!