An Anna Grace-ism

The girls were having a snack with daddy today. Dave told Anna Grace to keep her hand out of the bag of snacks saying, "You don't know where those hands have been." Her answer, "In China, Daddy!"

Dancing feet

As you have read, we pulled Anna Grace out of dance last week. Her teacher sent me this picture from class. She was saving it for an end of the year slide show. It's so cute that we had to share!

Happy Easter!

Happy Birthday Katie!

Katie turned 17 today after a week-end long celebration! She had friends over Saturday night for dinner out/spend the night/cake, went out with her boyfriend last night, and stayed home with the girls and I tonight for a birthday dinner (Alex and Dave had a soccer game). We did cake on Saturday night but the little ones were already in bed. So we were at dinner tonight when one of them asked about her cake. When we said it was already gone, they said "but we didn't sing happy birthday!". Off to the store we went to get another cookie cake. :-)

I think she's had a good day except that by staying home tonight (her choice!) meant she missed her boyfriend's baseball game. As it turned out, he has pitched well tonight and made two home runs (so far!). She is very disappointed she was not there so is preparing to head to the high school to meet the bus as the team returns from the game.

Every goal Alex scored in soccer, I was not there for either. So I understand her disappointment!!

New haircuts

Stormy Saturday

Severe weather came through Atlanta Friday and Saturday. Our weather alarm went off many times warning us of the weather threats. Fortunately, we didn't have any major issues. We did have a hail storm though during one of the thundestorms. Katie's friends had just arrived for her birthday. The pea sized hail came down very fast---and sideways since the wind was blowing so hard. Once the hail stopped, the sun came out. Atlanta itself was hit very hard by a tornado going right through the downtown area. It was wild to see the destruction on the news. We had planned on taking Katie and her friends to eat in mid-town Atlanta. Although this area was not damaged, we decided to stay closer to home to avoid getting in the way of those trying to clean up---and away from all the fans in town for the basketball championship games.

Kid news

Here is an email I shared with family tonight. The part about Katie is a repeat but the rest is new.

Wanted to share a few things with you! Katie has been selected to be the head editor of her high school yearbook for next year. She is excited but nervous as well. She’ll be taking three AP classes so is worried about time constraints. But her teacher would not have chosen her if she didn’t think Katie could handle it. I told her to delegate well!!

Alex had his first track meet on Wednesday. He ran his personal best one mile run. He didn’t place (finished upper third) but did much better than he anticipated. For never having run track before, he was happy. He is back into the spring soccer season where is playing mostly goalie or sweeper. Another game tomorrow-----

We officially withdrew Anna Grace from ballet tonight. She just isn’t ready to be patient and listen. She can do all the skills but during the down time or instruction……she is all over the place. Her teacher doesn’t need that kind of hassle so we withdrew her. Maybe in a few years.

Abby continues to blossom daily. She is very much becoming a three year old---sassy and happy. You never know what kind of mood she’ll be in from moment to moment! She continues to love school and has to tell every last person goodbye before she leaves the building!

We had a family movie night tonight watching “The Bee Movie”. It’s the first Friday in a month we’ve all been home! The two big kids are currently in Katie’s room hanging out listening to music while the little ones are in bed. It’s great to see that K and A are spending some time together. This is Katie’s birthday weekend so the remainder of our evenings will be spent with her friends or boyfriend here. Can’t believe she will be 17!

Teenagers.....oh my

For a few weeks, Alex has track, band, and soccer practices all on the same day. Today was a band and soccer day. I showed up at his school at 5 to pick him up. He ran to the car saying he forgot his cleats at home so could we run home to get them on our way to practice. Well, okay. I guess we have to do that. He went back to band for a moment and returned with his friend who I was also taking to practice. His friend is already dressed in soccer gear. I look at Alex and ask, "Where is your stuff?". The answer? "In Katie's car."

Well Katie's car was enroute to her boyfriend's baseball game. Good grief! I just recently started having Katie drive Alex to school somedays so he avoids a bus ride---long story there. Anyhow, today was the first time he had practice on a day Katie drove him. Bonehead that he is, it never crossed his mind to take his things with him to school for the day. So his stuff is in her car, we don't have extra shin pads or goalie gloves at home, so now what? I start calling Katie over and over again. After 15 minutes, she realized I had been calling and called back. Fortunately she was still at her friend's house so was not too far away. She met us at the soccer fields and left for the game late. And the boys were quite late for the start of practice.

Teenagers.

Katie's news

Katie has been selected to be the head editor of her high school yearbook! She is excited but nervous as well. Way to go, Katie!

I believe....

Do any of you watch Larry the Cable Guy on Blue Collar TV? If so, you know his whole guitar thing called "I Believe". Well, Alex learned that yesterday and plays it at times to make us respond with an answer. Our responses have been quite interesting. What would yours be??

Cookies!

I am a big lover of Girl Scout cookies so came home with almost a dozen boxes the other day. Here are the girls enjoying some of "my" cookies!

Playing guitar

The little ones wanted to play guitar with Alex today. So they pulled out the guitars for Guitar Hero and copied him.

Anna Grace's calling

Well, we found Anna Grace's calling today----and it's not ballet. Abby came in to tattle on AG today but we weren't quite sure what she said. Dave went to investigate and found Anna Grace climbing on a chair in her closet, hanging by her hands on the top shelf, trying to reach items that were on the shelf.

Guess ballet won't work out. She needs to be in gymnastics. The girl has no fear.

Why he runs....

I just received an order I had placed for Dave. He chose two magnets for his car. One says "13.1" to symbolize the running of half-marathons which he very much enjoys---don't ask me why! The other says "will run for beer". Can't imagine what people will think when they see his car!

Quick life synopsis.....

Life has picked up speed here in GA now that spring is arriving. Here is a quick run down on our last two weeks:
-We had success with finding Katie a prom dress (red!). Her boyfriend is excited it's red. He is going to wear all black and a red tie---picture the Mafia! They are going with 20 other friends on a party bus to Atlanta where the prom will be held. This is not until May but heaven forbid we don't start early. Geesh.
-Alex tried out for the school track team for no apparent reason and made the team. Don't know how since he can be rather lazy. Anyhow, his reaction was like, "Oh good grief, I made the team. Now what!" I gather the coach was desperate and took any boy who tried out. Lucky us.
-Soccer season began for Alex's club team. First game was a win. He's playing goalie which I can't stand but he loves.
-Alex is involved with rehearsals for a band festival so between soccer, track, and band, his life is pretty busy. As is ours.......Again I say, thank goodness Katie can drive.
-Katie got her scores from the ACT and was very pleased with the result. She took the SAT on Saturday and said it was easier. Guess we'll see! We head to Valdosta State the end of the month for their spring open house. We need to schedule Armstrong Atlantic in Savannah as well.
-Anna Grace continues to get in trouble at school on almost a daily basis. Her Pre-K teacher had to leave a month ago because her husband was transferred out of state. The new one overlapped with the old one for almost a month to help the kids adjust. Don't know if the teacher expectations are different or if it is just AG, but things are not going well since the original teacher left. Good thing I have some say into her kindergarten teacher next year. I need someone who will be patient, understanding, and demanding. Strange combination but that's what she needs.
-The girls spent the night together last night and did very well. Our hope (well mine anyhow) is to move them into the same room and create a playroom with the extra space. Abby said her room would be the playground! She forgot what word she was supposed to use. :-)
-Anna Grace is preparing for her first dance recital if we allow her to continue in class. She has ballet on Friday nights so is worn out from the week of trying to listen and obey so does not do very well in class. If her current behavior continues, we will yank her from class and skip recital.
-Abby loves school and her teachers. She gets upset if she forgets to tell them goodbye. We've had to go back into school to tell them bye!
-Today was a fun filled day of doing mulch. Let me tell you, the only kids who were excited were under the age of 5.
-We took the girls to church today for the first time since our Christmas disaster. We took along Color Wonder markers and books (which we've done before with no success). But today, they both did fine. In fact, it's only Anna Grace we worry about. She won't be still. But she did today. Maybe there is hope. We went to the noon Mass so they'd had lots of time to play ahead of time.

This week is filled with soccer, track, band, school, ballet, gymnastics, work, and everything in between. Sorry we have no pictures right now. I'll try and do better next update!