American Girl, Baseball & End of School

Olivia bought her first American Girl doll a couple of weeks ago.  Being more of a reptile, animal type girl, I thought the AG phase would pass by our house, but it did not.  She saved her money (a lot) and we picked a Sunday to visit the store at North Point Mall.  Oh what a surprise.  This was my first experience with American Girl as well.  Wow!  This store was decked out...I can't wait to see what the Manhattan store looks like.  She picked out the girl of the year, Kanani Akini, a surfer from Hawaii!  She even bought the seal that goes with Kanani!  I have to say, it was treat.

We had Skylar and Garrett spend the night and Olivia prepared all afernoon by making menus, cleaning the playroom and setting the table, candlelight and all for her guest for the evening.  Aren't they sweet?

Alas, the tadpoles the Olivia and Zach 'grew' were officially frogs and were ready to hop on over to the McCurry's pond to start their own lives.  We released them and hope they have a full life with the Koi fish (or avoid the Koi fish).  Thanks for a home, Jill and Mark!

The Muller's hosted the Angel's baseball team at their house last weekend for some slip and slide fun  Coach John gave them a pep talk for their last game.

Zach and Johnny at their last game.

Zach was VERY proud of his trophy.  Pretty cool, huh?

Closing ceremonies for Smyrna Little League.

Last day of school for my Teasley Tigers.  The year flew by and and now it's time to prepare for life at the lake and eventually life in New Jersey....that is, when we find a home.  

We currently have our Smyrna house on the market, under tornado reconstruction on our lake house in Alabama, have a trip planned to Oregon/Washington in July and looking for a house in New Jersey.  Good luck finding us....maybe this Fall :-)

Let the summer time games begin.......

Bugz Kindergarten Play

My little Dragonfly....Zach's Kindergarten class at Teasley Elementary School performed the musical Bugz on Thursday night.  We were so impressed with these Kindergarteners.  I'm not sure how Ms. Mungin got them to this point, but viva la arts!  There was a group of lady bugs, army ants, caterpillars and then solo parts, whereas Zach was a Dragonfly.  "I'm a Dragonfly, I may look rather odd, I have just gone through a metamorphosis, for I'm an arthropod".  That's a mouthful, but Zach, our linguist, was up for it.  They sang, they danced, it was awesome.  

Unfortunately, with Dave commuting to New Jersey, he wasn't able to see the play, but Mimi and Papa were there!  After all of the rehearsals and other after school activities, it was nice to see what came of all of the hard work and chaotic schedules.  Great job, Zach!  Soon you will be a 1st Grader...in New Jersey.  

Outside Olivia's classroom - Mrs. Bates and Mrs. Cook's room.

The countdown is on....1 1/2 weeks of school left, with tennis, talent show and rehearsals, baseball, and Dive Team all happening (we had to take a break from Martial Arts and Daisy Scouts to fit it all in)!  Come on lazy  days of summer!  

Farewell Party and Mother's Day

My wonderful neighbors, Jill and Michelle, threw a Farewell Party for us in the neighborhood.  We have been in our house for 9 years and our neighbors are unbelievably amazing.  I do not want to think about what it is going to be like without them in NJ.  I'll put that off for another day.  The weather this weekend was absolutely perfect.  A baseball game at noon, a custard/Italian ice to celebrate and a Farewell party at the pool.  We had 18 kids swimming in the pool (it opened May 1st and our kids have been in since then and yes, it is cold).  The kids would run from the pool to Michelle and Andy's backyard to play on the new play set.  Great idea, guys!  The party started at 4:30 and I'm not sure when we finally wound down.  It was such a lovely evening to be outside with friends.  The kids were happy, we all had very full bellies and sangria to keep us happy, and we were in no rush to really say goodbye, Saturday night or ever.  Thank you, .thank you, thank you for a wonderful party!

Speaking of farewells, I found a few photos from April when we told our kids that we were moving to NJ.  They were very excited and luckily, I had a book on Gardens of New Jersey that a book club friend gave me the night before.

I think Jenna was crying because we were leaving....or was she?  Carly, Skylar and Olivia like to play dress up.  Oh, the good times...  The Peeps they share.....

Back to Mother's Day....it was a very nice, relaxing weekend.  After everything that we have going on, it was truly nice to take it easy today.  Dave (with a nudge from me) and Olivia (gung ho) made me scrambled eggs and GF cinnamon toast while I read the Sunday paper.  Yum!  Olivia and Zach were busy working on a card for me this morning.  I love their artwork!  We eventually made it to the park and met up with another Shiba Inu.  Kobe was very excited.  Zach and Olivia had a great time at the playground and I just enjoyed watching them.  My babies are growing up.

I decided earlier in the week that I wanted to see the IMAX movie at Fernbank, Ultimate Wave: Tahiti.  This September will be our 10 year wedding anniversary.  Dave had planned for us to celebrate it with a return trip to Tahiti.  We sail the BVI's for our 5 year anniversary.  With the move and new job, I think we both know that Tahiti is not in the plan for this year, so I thought the movie would be nice to see, and it was.  It was somewhat of a surfing documentary, but all four of us were leaning with Kelly Slater and surfing along with him.  All of our mouths were agape at the beauty of the French Polynesian islands.  I want to go back, but we'll keep it out there as a goal.  It didn't help that our Porsche friends were in Hawaii on the trip we were supposed to go on.  But I digress.....  we have lots to look forward to!

We finished our Mother's Day evening with dinner at Fuego Mundo at the Prado.  I love their South American food (mostly gluten free) and I even got GF carrot cake to take home.  That will be breakfast in the morning!  Mmm, mmm.

Happy Mother's Day to all; it was such a lovely weekend.

Precursor to Mothers Day

With everything that is going on, it's easy to forget Mother's Day is coming up.  Luckily, our wonderful teachers have not forgotten.  Wednesday, I was invited to Muffins with Mom in Olivia's class.  What a tear jerker!  Her teachers, Mrs. Bates and Mrs. Cook are outstanding.  I'm also a room mom for Olivia's class, so her teachers gave me a beautiful potted plant.  From the kids (with the help of the teachers), each child created note cards for their moms, along with flower pens and picked out hair color, body type, etc. for the note cards.  It was so cute (and funny at times) to see how our kids portrayed us.  Through the eyes of a child.....

I am the 'beast' mom in the wrold. And it looks like I am going to get some jolrey "jewelry".  Nice!  I'm also very 'seet'...sweet!

Olivia was called to walk me into her room, she escorted me to my seat with muffins and water and I had the sweetest notes.  Sniff, sniff.  More sniffles came when the teachers played a slideshow, of course with a heartfelt song accompanying it.  Ah, what a wonderful 1st grade year.  I loved it all.

Today, I was invited to Pastries with Parents in Zach's class.  Mrs. Muller decided to invite the dad's because they get overlooked in June sometimes.  Again, the level of sweetness and care they took in making the mom and dad's pictures, mugs, everything.  Apparently, Dave likes to eat Peeps, watch the Speed Channel and I like to eat Indian food and ride my bike.  Yep, that's pretty accurate.  The slideshow was very entertaining in Zach's classroom.

Mrs. Gagnon and Mrs. Muller

Thanks for all of the wonderful Mother's Day wishes from their teachers and from my love bugs.

Lake Martin tornado damage

Wednesday evening, a tornado tore threw Lake Martin and destroyed many homes.  Power has been out and it may be a week or more before power is restored.  We were lucky enough, in Atlanta, being spared by the storms that roared through the South, but our lake house was not so lucky.  I received a call Wednesday night from one of our lake neighbors to tell me that our lake house was severely damaged.  1/4 of our roof was torn off, thrown into the neighbors yard, our large screen porch was ripped off completely, a window broken and tons of debris and trees were down.  In our small cove, four houses were completely destroyed, down to the foundation.  We weren't exactly lucky, but lucky enough to have the main part of our house intact and very lucky that no one was injured.
We visited the house today and it was amazing to see how everyone was pulling together to help everyone clean up.  State Troopers were stationed to check proof of residency to make sure there isn't any looting.  The Red Cross was already set up and Alabama Power had crews stationed all over, they looked like ants.  They were pulling lines from the lake, staking new polls, and working non-stop.  Everyone was working non-stop.  Our neighbors' sons put tarp on our roof as we took a ride around a portion of the lake to see the damage.
We are still waiting waiting on our actual insurance adjuster to contact us, but our insurance company has called several times.  We need to get things started.  Everyone else on the lake has....
The news of the damage to Lake Martin has not really made the news, as Tuscaloosa and the Birmingham area has, but they are still finding people from the rubble and a few lives were lost in the area, actual numbers haven't been confirmed.  After seeing it all first hand, it is hard to stomach.  Although, being around our neighbors, it was inspiring to see how everyone has pulled together.

To see all of the photos of the area, click on my Snapfish link:

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=7058970014/a=94127266_94127266/