TAMU Staff Appreciation Day Family Pictures on Campus

So, the past few years, the new President at A&M, Michael Young, has really stressed Staff Appreciation. One of the things he has done is setup a Saturday in the spring for any and all TAMUS staff to come on campus and have professional pictures made by professional photographers all for free! This is the first year we have gotten to attend, but it was fabulous! We had a busy morning with Grace having a t-ball game, and hoping we could beat any crowds and not get too hot before we got some photos done. Well, it turned out to be so much fun!! The weather was good; the lines were shorts and we made it to multiple spots to take photos before we had to go! I didn't worry about what we wore - we just threw on some maroon and fixed Grace's hair for t-ball and tried this day out. It was fun walking with the kids on campus and made me remember how that can be such a fun family day, when we want to plan one (walking around campus). The pictures turned out GREAT and Everly was eating up the fun of walking around holding hands with the kids. We will definitely try to do this yearly! Here are our photos (both mine and then the professional).

And Grace was really into posing on this day!

Trophy Day at Ballet

Grace has done two years of preschool tap and ballet. When we started this at 3 1/2, she was her normal little shy, reserved self, so I was so relieved and surprised when she really loved taking dance and was so comfortable in her class and with her teachers. She wanted me as close as possible when not in class, but then she performed and just did such a beautiful job and we are always so proud of her. The thing about Grace dancing is that she not only enjoys it, but she remembers the choreography (for her age) and wants to do a good job and listen to her teachers. So, I was glad this continued this year for her 2nd year of dance.

The end of the year came and they had Trophy Day in her class. This is the last day before her recital, where they perform their dances one final time (for parents to watch) and they get their trophy. They also award medals to outstanding dancers! If you remember, last year, she got one of the 3 medals they handed out! Of course, I was so proud and elated (even though she was only 4!) and I honestly didn't know how they picked the dancers. I mean - they are little and cute and how do you choose who really has the best talent at that age? But, the competitive side of me was just so proud for her! Well, this year....she won it AGAIN! And you know what this means, right? It means that now I think her talent must REALLY be noticed and she is going to probably grow up to be a professional ballerina or tap dancer! Because that is just the way my brain works. But, truly, I was so proud for her. The craziest thing of the day, was that in two years, this was the first day that something happened in class to make her cry and be embarrassed. The teachers brought her out to me (right after I had just told another mom how great of a year it had been because Grace never had this happen) and said they had no idea what happened but she was upset. So, I calmed her, but when we went back in for the kids to show us their dances, she did NOT want to dance. Ugh. I was worried also because she had her recital the next week and she could not get scared and not dance! She'd practiced all spring for this!

And then I thought maybe she was just tired because the NFL draft was the night before, and she stayed up late because Atticus was up late. So, I was pretty sure this was my fault and I spent the next week reminding her how exciting it would be to dance at her recital and wear her costume and try to get her back to not thinking dance was scary. Yikes! But, here are pictures from Trophy Day at Expressions Dance Studio!

 Grace with her teachers Sidney, Kaitlin & Melissa

 Ah....much better than about 15 minutes before this!

This is her sweet friend Brynn, who Grace loves. Brynn will also be in Kindergarten at Pebble Creek this fall and I am so glad. Brynn is sweet and calm and I hope they end up in the same class and get to be better friends. Brynn is not scared of dancing and has an older sister who dances, so she has been a good friend to have in dance for performing with Grace!

Baseball this Month

Atticus also had his first baseball game this month, with it being his second season for machine pitch! His first game was so much fun and he got two hits and it was a great game. After that one, he went on a stretch of no hits for awhile and was discouraged. It's hard to put all of those skills together to hit the ball and some nights, he was so hard on himself. But, he still wanted to play and have fun!

 This was his first game - looking so big with his new gear and ready for the season! Here's a video of a hit: https://youtu.be/gZk_7SpU68o

 They just barely lost this first game, but it was fun to play Luc, our next door neighbor!

 His coach was really good about letting the boys play a different position every inning. During the season, he played lots of catcher, 2nd base, shortstop and outfield. He played first base and pitcher a few times as well.

 And it's always fun to see friends at games! Here is Greer on the Lugnuts team.

And here is Lane from the Raptors; poor Lane - he broke his arm the weekend before games started! But he is such a great kid and from such a great family, that he came to every game and sat on the bench to cheer his team on!

Baseball Cards, Football Cards, Basketball Cards

So, Atticus and some of our neighborhood boys are really into sports cards of all kinds. Well, this one particular day was just one of my favorite days to watch them! They were trading and then decided they wanted to setup a table for people to buy or trade their cards in our neighborhood. Atticus took a card table and a made a sign and they traded and sold and it was so fun! They were out there all afternoon. I went out and they tried to sell me all kinds of things for lots of money! They definitely didn't know the value of their own cards - which was pretty low. They had one neighbor actually buy some and then mostly, they traded with each other or sold to each other. Atticus was an easy sell, I'm afraid, but he had so much fun. In this world where all you hear is how terrible kids are these days because they are addicted to screen time, it is nice to know that our kids are not and that they know how to play and know how to get along with kids and have fun. Technology and screen time are just going to be part of things in their lifetimes, but watching them just be kids too is so satisfying.

 Atticus, Weston, Luc, Will & another kid not from our neighborhood

Everly's Flowers

This month, Everly developed a love for flowers. She would say "fower" so sweet and when we would pass them on the road while driving (she was finally turned around in her carseat so she could see), she would shout "fowers" and "push button" in her little words because she wanted me to roll down the window so she could see them. This was around when wildflowers were everywhere, so she just loved them. She would get so excited to pick those little yellow flowers that most people call weeds. We spent an entire ballet class one day picking flowers and then one day, after I dropped Grace off at preschool, we stopped in the big field in front of the church, where they hadn't mowed yet, to look at the flowers. It was THE sweetest 20 minutes of following her around to see her excitement over the flowers and pick them and instruct me to pick them. Oh it was just he best! Here are some photos from that day!

So many flowers to take home!

T-ball This Month

So, T-ball continued this month and started out a little tough for Grace. She does not like to be embarrassed or focused on, so even though she LOVED hitting and running bases, she would be so disappointed if she didn't get the ball in time in the outfield. So, typically, when the other team hit the ball, kids from other areas of the field would run to it, even if it was going to Grace. Well, she is not one to dogpile and scramble for the ball, so she would let someone else get it but then be embarrassed that she didn't get it. Poor thing! As this month went on, we had some tears and some happy moments. She really liked playing, but sometimes just needed Mommy. Also, thankfully, the coach allowed parents to be out on the field with the kids, so this month, I was on the field during every game with her. Sometimes, Stacey (Ellie's mom) would try this to get her a little less attached and needing me, but it was a tough month for her. But, here are some highlights and a few low lights from the month anyways!

 These girls practiced every Wednesday night: Ellie, Dani, & Grace

 We had a weeknight game (for one that was cancelled due to weather previously) and got some in action shots. We went through a phase of excitement; then a phase of tears because something happened (dust in her eyes and hurt her leg when kids scrambled on her at the base), and then back to happy Grace by the end. It's just tough being so sweet and sensitive!

 

Portrait Innovation Birthday Pictures

Every year, GG and I like to get the kids birthday pictures done at Portrait Innovations. I used to go lots when they were younger, but Grace and Everly both went through phases of not liking the experience, so I had not done much. Plus, the company changed some things and you got less pictures and the photographers were not always as good. So, we hadn't been since the year before. Also, the store here in College Station closed down. However, there was one in Houston so I decided we would do it one more year and GG and I loaded the kids up, while she was in town, and took them in. Well, we got some okay photos, but mostly I was annoyed. The guy did not do a great job and they tried to charge us for stuff we didn't want and it was just frustrating. So, we have made ourselves promise NO MORE PORTRAIT INNOVATIONS! It was just always fun to get cute pictures and get them right away. Oh well! Here is what we got anyways.

As you can see, we always try to get some kind of photo of what they are into at that time, but we just didn't have any luck! They always want to put my kids on white backgrounds, which doesn't always work - my kids have light skin! And they sometimes want to use props or chairs we don't want or have used before. And they always think they get such great smiles of them when sometimes, they are just not. But, these are cute enough for the last Portrait Innovations hurrah!