NC Visitors

My parents (Nanny & Poppy) came into town last Thursday afternoon, and the kids were so excited! Abby went straight for the bag of clothes; she knows that Nanny always stops at the outlets on her way to AL :)

 

 Both N&P got roped into lots of games, fort-building, coloring, tea parties, and picnics....and that was just before dinnertime! :)

Entertaining us with a game of Twister after dinner. They were both SO BAD!!

 Friday, the kids went to school of course and Poppy took both cars in to be serviced & get some work done. What would we do without him!? We picked Greg up from work to have a lunch date at Edgars, and then surprised the kids after school with mini cupcakes from

Gigi's for Nate's 7 1/2 birthday!

 

 Finally, that night, Greg and I got to have a very belated Valentine's Day date at Chuck's Fish. There was a 1.5 hour wait, but wine from the bar made that go by quickly. And I was so proud of Greg....he has his first bite of sushi! (And he loved it!!)

Saturday, we were hoping for good weather but it was wiiiiiiiindy and we spent most of the day inside....

 

Forts in Abby's room

Singing karoke....

We did step out for a bit and went to a nearby park.....

 That night, we went to Holy Spirit's annual Talent Show. We reserved a table with another family, and Nate had fun sitting with some of his buddies there. Some of the acts were great, and some were.....well, not that great :) We enjoyed it though!

 

 Sunday, Greg and I were in charge of teaching Children's Liturgy at 9 am mass, so we went to church & then our beloved Krispy Kreme afterwards.

 

She never stops entertaining us!

Again, it was a bad weather day, so N&P bravely took the kids to the Alabama Museum of Natural History on campus. (I stayed home & enjoyed some quiet time!)

Nanny is not the best photographer, but the kids had fun making shell necklaces,
building legos, & looking at exhibits.

 Sunday night is where things got interesting. Mom & I settled in the bonus room with our glasses of wine at 5 pm, ready to watch the Red Carpet coverage of the Oscars. The kids were playing in there, and all of sudden, Nate's arm accidentally flew into Abby & she started sobbing. Now, my girl is one.tough.cookie, so when the crying hadn't stopped after 10 minutes, I knew something was wrong. I figured Nate's fingernail had grazed her eye, because she couldn't open it. I was googling "scratched cornea," and texting with my BFF who is a nurse & whose hubbie is a doctor. They urged me to go the ER to get it looked at. So, I did!

 Greg & I were at the ER with Abby for about 2.5 hours, and it was a looooong 2.5 hours. Poor Abby was in a LOT of pain and of course it even hurt to pry her eye open for all the testing. Lo & behold, she did have a very large scratch on her cornea, and once they numbing drops kicked in, she was able to finally stop crying. Bless her heart, she was so exhausted. They gave us ointment to put in her eye 3x/day, put a patch on for the night, and told us to go see an opthamalogist in the morning.

 We got home around 9:30 pm and of course Nate was still up because he was so worried (& felt so bad!) about Abby. Poor guy!!

 

So, it was an eventful end to Nanny & Poppy's visit, but we were so glad they visited and had such a great time with the kids all weekend. (I'm especially glad they were here Sunday night so they could distract/keep Nate happy while both Greg & I were at the ER with Abby!)

 

Until next time....

Nate's "Half" Birthday!

As a kid, I always looked forward to my “half” birthday. And apparently, this is a trait that I passed onto my children…..so they love having mini-birthday parties for their half birthday. Today, Nate turned 7 ½ and I surprised him after school with a trip to Gigi’s Cupcakes! He picked out his own mini-cupcake and then he wore the ½ hat & we sang ½ of “Happy Birthday” at home!

 

Nate is at SUCH a great age right now. He is super curious about e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g, still wants to love on his momma, and has the cutest toothless grin on the block! Here is what he's up to these days.....

 

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Most of the boys in Nate’s class want to read comic books or books about superheroes. But not my boy! I love that he checks out “different” books at the school Library. Every week it’s something about drawing/tracing, some type of encyclopedia, or a book about fancy lettering or origami. I never know what he’ll come home with!

 

I love that every night at 8 pm, you can find him like this…snuggled under the covers, reading Harry Potter. Currently he is on the 3^rd book, and last night he stayed up till 9:30 pm reading! (Truth be told – that’s too late for my liking, but how can you fault the kid?! He’s a total bookworm.)

 And more on Harry Potter…. I found these spells in his Assignment Book at school!!

 

He’s still really really really into taekwondo. He’s been doing it for 8 months now and there’s no end in sight.  I’ve seen such a change in him and am proud of how much he’s excelled. I admire his determination, passion, and dedication to the sport. (Even if that means hearing him say 100x/day, “Mommy watch this kick! Mommy, watch my blue belt form! Mommy, watch this one more time!!”

 

He loves being outside….He climbs our trees & fences, ride his electric scooter, play on the swing set with our neighbor. And when our neighbor’s not available, he & Abby invent games together: The Elements, Odd Squad, School…..

He is a world-class speller like his Mom! :) Every week, he has a Spelling pre-test on Monday, and for 3 weeks now, he’s been the only student to make it onto List 3! (That means he got all the words right on the 1^st two lists, and the lists get harder as you go up…)

 

He is still a master Lego builder. Recently, he demonstrated his stellar engineer skills and helped Daddy put together a deckbox. (Or rather, Nate read the directions and instructed Greg how to do it. I am not kidding!!)

Happy 1/2 birthday to my favorite boy! And please please please stop growing! (Like, literally, please stop growing.  Reason #1 - You are eating more than an adult male and we are going to go broke soon. And Reason #2 - At this rate, you will be taller than Mommy by next year. No thank you!)

Valentine's Day Parties

ABBY

Last Friday, Abby had her Valentine's Day party at school.

She was oh-so-excited to wear a new outfit from Nanny! :)

Please notice her knees....the leggings say "Love You!"

 Pre-school parties are always held from 11-12 pm, so we started with a

paint dot craft and the kids loved it!



Pizza Party!

This is such a great story.... the day before the Valentine's Day party, a set of grandparents were visiting the school & went to Campus Mass. They said that since they were so impressed with the church & school, they wanted to do something special for all the students. So, they bought a gazillion heart-shaped donuts from Dunkin Donuts on Friday morning, and gave 2 dozen to each classroom for their V-day parties. Each classroom!! (Holy Spirit starts at PK3 and goes up to 12th grade, people!!) So, it was a great treat for the students and I was really touched that a stranger did that for our school.

In awe of her giant heart-shaped donut

Two of her buddies, Louie & Boston

 After the pizza party, it was time to play a game! We had a contest to see who could build the highest tower made out of candy hearts. Abby didn't win, but her tower sure was the prettiest!

(And the only one that was in a pattern, ha!)

The final result of her craft project, once we got
home & took the painter's tape off. So cute!

NATE

The elementary school parties are held from 2-3 pm, so it was nice to be able to attend both. Nate's class started off with snacks, cupcakes & juice, and then moved onto the craft.



Hard at work!



Another heart-stacking game, but this time, with the
tiny-sized hearts. Much harder to do! Look at his concentration :)



Love my sweet boy!!

Movin' On Up!

Earlier this week, Nate had his TKD belt testing. He is currently a Green Belt Level 2, and was going for his Green Belt Level 3...

 

All business :)

The whole family came to cheer him on, and he did great! Completed his forms, one-steps, kicks, punches, questions, and sparring tests without any problems. I took a lot of videos, but I will spare you. Here is my favorite though - click here to watch a short clip of Nate doing "elbow smashes."

 

Then, on Friday night, Nate attended the belt ceremony!! Please look how excited he is when his name is called and he is running down "Victory Lane!" :)



Melt me. So proud of him!



He even raised his hand and answered a question in front of everyone.
(The gym was packed....at least 150+ people!! He would have NEVER done that 6 months ago.)

 

Excited for her big bro!



Celebrating their new belts by throwing their old ones up in the air!



Nate is 2nd row, left side, with his mouth wide open :)



So proud of our little ninja! :)

The Titans

**I came on here to do a Valentine's Day post, and realized that I have neglected to blog about Nate's basketball season coming to a close. Oops! Nate, if you ever read this blog one day (though that's pretty doubtful).... just know that I think you're an amazing basketball player son and I'm sorry for skipping over this!! **

 

 

 Nate's 2nd season of basketball ended on January 27th, and thankfully it ended on a high note - they won their playoff game! This was yet another trying season (translation: hard to watch at times!), but the Titans ended up with a record of 3-5.

Though Nate vastly improved from last season, he still had a lot of ups & downs. However, during the last game, he really came into his stride and made a few baskets and great passes.

 

Click here and here to watch a short clip of Nate running point.

Truth be told, Greg took those videos because I was not at the game. I went to a Girls' Night Out instead. (Yes, you read that right!! I know, total #mommyfail. But in my defense, the GNO with my Mom's Group from church had been planned for a long time, and the date of Nate's playoff game was changed at the last minute.) Anyways.....from what I hear, it was "Nate's best game of the season," because he was aggressive and took a lot of shots. I hated I missed it - and yes Nate made me feel pretty guilty! - but I was glad Greg was there to see it & cheer for Nate.

Nate really practiced a lot this season - during his "downtime" - because luckily, our neighbors have a basketball goal. I'm really proud of how hard he worked, how much he improved, and most importantly, how much fun he had.



Fudge rounds to celebrate the end of the season!



The Mighty Titans



The Silly Titans

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Valentine's Day! I will blog about ours soon! :)