Our baseball season has come to a close ... Devin had an amazing season! He was named the starting pitcher for his baseball team after the first few games and his mechanics improved greatly.During the playoffs he was awarded the game ball for his great pitching and catching.
Devin was named to the All Star team and earned a spot as a pitcher during the game. It was so much fun to play with two of his friends on the same team and have his RA Leader as his head coach.
It was an exciting game with the top players from the league on both teams and we enjoyed watching some great plays!
Now we are done and Devin is already looking forward to and talking about fall baseball. He is also looking forward to some sandlot baseball this summer!
{Pictured above one of the best shots I got during the All Star Game ... Lexi had gone in to the dugout to talk to Devin but, he had his game face on preparing to pitch the next inning}
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you would like to join in head on over to SouleMama's Blog.
Today we celebrated the end of our school year with many of our homeschool friends! It was a beautiful day and the kids spent hours swimming with a short break for make-your-own ice cream sundaes.We started our school year with a swim party and ended it with one ...
... comes to a close! It feels so good to write those words!! Our 2010 -2011 school year ended this past Friday - 180 days checked off.
It has been another great year ... Devin continued to excel in Math and Science and made huge strides in Language Arts, after I switched up our curriculum. Lexi finished a year of private tutoring in Wilson and is already showing huge improvements with her dyslexia, she also continues to be my big writer - always love to see what she has written in her journal. Ava Mae finished her Kindergarten year and while she can not wait to be in 1st grade for me it is a little sad to imagine my youngest is no longer in those pre-school years. Devin has told Ava Mae to be prepared as the fun days of Kindergarten are now behind her and she must do "real" schoolwork now. ;)
I am looking forward to this break summer affords me! It is so nice to wake up with no set agenda or a deadline to be out of the house for some extra-curricular activity. Though we always continue to school through the summer after an initial two week break - the school work is much more relaxed consisting of a few math pages and reading each week. My curriculum for next school year has been decided and purchased. Nothing left to do on that front. :) It feels so good to begin packing up all of our school work from this year and switching out old curriculum for new. Also, weeding through what we have and preparing to sell things we are done with.
The kids have already begun to fill out our slips for our summer bucket list {this idea was a cute gift from a friend for my birthday}. I am just looking forward to lazy days at our club - nothing more than hours of swimming and reading a book pool side.
Another dance year has come to a close ... both of our girls danced beautifully in the recital. Lexi was a trooper - dancing five dances in the first recital and three in the second. At one point, having just 30 seconds to change her costume and get back on stage again. Ava Mae's tap dance number was adorable! Ava has been so excited to dance on a chair - it is all I have heard about for the last few months.
Just three weeks from now the girls will be dancing in Asheville, NC at my sister's ballet company. So excited for them! Then Lexi comes back for her first year of dancing summer intensive classes here at our ballet school.
Yesterday we took our final field trip of the year ... Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield. It was a good culmination to our Georgia State History study.
Devin hiked to the top with some friends ... I drove my two girls and their friend who had a broken ankle. {When you drive up it is just a short hike to the very top of the mountain}
{Pictured below a few of the kids from our field trip - pausing for a quick group pic}
Devin was lucky to spot a deer while hiking ... we all took in the beautiful views at the top and the flowers that were blooming everywhere, then there was this butterfly who appeared to want to join us. After hiking we toured the museum with a brief history on the civil war and watched a movie which chronicled the battle at Kennesaw Mountain and subsequent march through Atlanta. Looking forward to planning next year's fieldtrips for our homeschool group!
Tuesday night a few of my very best girlfriends took me out for a post-birthday celebration!
I chose FLIP in Buckhead ... it was amazing! For those who have followed Top Chef, Richard Blais the most recent winner, is the creative director of this great upscale burger place. It was really nice to get out of East Cobb and enjoy a change of scenery!
This is the burger I chose ... so delish!
The milkshake was yummy, too. {Nutella and Burnt Marshmallow, pictured above}
God has not only blessed my life with a wonderful husband! He has also given me great girlfriends to walk through life with ... so happy to be celebrating all of our 40's together this year.
I can't believe this is my 10th Mother's Day ... it was a nice weekend. Saturday night the kids and Daune took me out to one of my favorite restaurants "Fickle Pickle". On Sunday, we enjoyed a lazy day at home and my husband cooked dinner - I asked for all brunch foods from this great Southern cookbook -
Everything turned out wonderful!
I spent some time getting acquainted with my new iPad. I am still so excited about this great birthday gift! I downloaded a few magazine apps ... I am a magazine addict and I am thinking this may be a great way for me to read magazines without having to figure out where to store them all. Also, love the Kindle app ... I won't have to keep borrowing my husband's.
My big gift for Mother's Day was this ....
I have wanted a new wedding set for awhile ... these bands have 20 small diamonds to represent the years we have been married and my engagement stone was reset with a few more prongs to hold it more tightly.
The kids got me a few small things that I asked for and made me adorable cards. It was a good Mother's Day weekend!
It has been a busy week for us ... lots of opportunities for us to volunteer, ordering fall curriculum at the homeschool convention, Homeschool Moms Appreciation Tea and, of course, baseball.
Last Saturday the girls and I volunteered with Share the Blessing {members of our church come together to serve God by volunteering in the community at over twenty different locations}. We went to an apartment community and put on a street fair for the kids. We were assigned to the "temporary tattoo" booth. My girls had a great time ... along with some friends we brought along to help. I really did not get to do much myself, other than supervise. The girls pretty much took over. Love seeing their hearts for service!
This week a friend of mine, Susan, decided she would rent a truck and drive to Alabama with supplies for the tornado victims. Susan has a way of rallying the troops whenever she has a cause to get behind. I sent an email to all of our homeschool friends letting them know what was going on and everyone jumped in to donate supplies. I filled the back of my Sequoia with diapers, wipes, baby clothes, baby bottles, stuffed animals, flashlights, batteries, paper goods and toiletries. My girlfriends, Tammy and JJ also volunteered their time helping organize all the donations my friend, Susan, received and before we knew it her whole garage was completely filled. It was amazing to see the outpouring of kindness from our community. Also, the number of strangers who showed up to donate who found out about Susan's effort through an email from a friend of a friend. Yesterday, the truck was driven over to Alabama and all these supplies will be reaching those in need very soon!
On Friday, my good friend Jennifer and I headed to the Georgia Home Education Association Convention. We spent the day working our way down the list of curriculum vendors we needed to see. I was so happy by the end of the day to have purchased all of our curriculum for this fall. It is always nice to roll into summer with nothing on the "to do" list for the start of school other than lesson planning. I have found after four years of homeschooling it makes for a much more laid back summer break.
I also attended, on Tuesday, an Appreciation Tea for all the moms in our homeschool group. It was such a relaxing night. Our speaker was a homeschool dad and he was so funny and inspirational with lots of encouraging words. I enjoyed getting to sit with my good friends Tammy, Jennifer and JJ at a table hosted by one of our homeschool group leaders.
Baseball continues to consume most of Devin's time ... lots of baseball games {mainly because so many were rained out early on in the season}. Devin continues to love pitching and has been the starting pitcher for the last few weeks for his team. Last night he pitched in almost perfect two innings and received the game ball! So that was our week! Just two short weeks left on our school calendar ... so hard to believe. We will be so busy over the next fourteen days that I feel like we will blink and summer break will be here! Can you tell I am just a little excited for the lazy days of summer to be upon us??
Well, no matter how much I wished it away, the Big 4-0 arrived this weekend. It really was not as bad as I thought it would be ... I woke up on Sunday morning feeling the same as I did on Saturday morning.
I really had an amazing weekend ... if this is how a dreaded birthday is celebrated sign me up for more.
Friday I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my husband. {pictured above}
Friday night I got to spend time out with a good friend at Archiver's, my very favorite paper crafting store. Hours to wander around like a "kid in a candy store". Plus, lots of time to talk and I even was able to make a card or two.
I spent Saturday with this crazy bunch of girls {while my husband coached and Devin pitched in a double header} ... we volunteered with our church for Share the Blessing. Our assignment was working a "temporary tattoo" table at a street fair we put on at a local apartment community. The girls had a blast and I loved seeing their sweet hearts serving others {more on that in a later post}.
Saturday night my husband took me to one of my fave steak restaurants - Ruth Chris.
Sunday was family time ... we enjoyed lunch out after church and then home for cards and cake. Only part of my gift has arrived ... the iPad2 was back ordered for over two weeks so mine will not arrive until sometime this week. Until then I guess I will just carry around the cute pink cover inside the quilted iPad2 holder bag my dear friend, Christi made me and just pretend it is here.
I am so blessed to have the best friends and family ... I praise God for the amazing life he has given me and for another wonderful 40 years!!
This weekend felt like summer ... we enjoyed baseball, swimming, time with friends, and cooking out. Just a few pictures from our fun ...
{Devin's All Star Baseball Team ... great win boys!!}
{What Memorial Day Weekend would be complete without swimming}
{Lexi and Ava Mae with their friend, Mary Corrine}
{My good friend Jen ... at her surprise 40th birthday party}
{Yummy cupcakes at the party}
{Our Memorial Day meal ... Angus burgers on the grill and cold watermelon and, for dessert, apple pie with vanilla ice cream}
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend!!
