Eden's Straight Hair

One of my favorite things about Eden is her curly hair.  I think it is beautiful but unfortunately she does not.  She asks me almost every day, "Mom, when am I going to grow straight hair?".

 

A few weeks ago, Aunt MerMer was in town.  She has curly hair just like Eden but she often blows it out and wears it straight.  I wasn't there so I'm not sure how it came about, but somehow Eden convinced Aunt MerMer to give her straight hair too. 

 Meredith said Eden sat perfectly still the entire time she was blowing her hair out.

The finished product:

Eden was SO proud of her straight hair and couldn't wait to show it off to everyone in the family!  I have to admit that I did love the way it looked but I still prefer her with curly hair.  I have a feeling that once she gets old enough to do her own hair, we will be seeing this look a lot more often!

All Stars

This weekend we finished up Parker's all-star season with a second place win in the regional tournament.  The boys all played their hearts out and even though we didn't get the first place win to move on to the state tournament, we could not be more proud of how they played. 

 

We have had a great all star season this summer.  It was a much better experience than last summer.  We didn't play every weekend so I actually felt like we had a little bit of a summer in between the practices and tournaments.  And the weather this summer was a little bit milder than last summer which helped a lot on those long tournament days.

Parker played pitcher most of the season and did a great job!  He started off the summer in a little bit of a hitting slump but was making great contact with the ball by the end of the season. 

His team did not have a good showing at the first tournament but with a lot of hard work and practice, they were able to improve and even finished in first place in one of our tournaments.  Parker was so proud of his first place trophy!

The highlight of our all star season was during the tournament we played on Father's Day.  Once again, we were up against Aledo Orange.  We had played them numerous times over the past two summers, both in t-ball and now in coach pitch, but were never able to beat them.  After a very hard fought game with a lot of amazing plays by our boys, we FINALLY beat Aledo Orange!  It was such a great moment for our boys (and the parents too)!  Even the umpires said it was the best game of the entire tournament!  The Aledo coaches and players were such gracious losers and asked to pray with us after the game.  It was a great win and definitely a Father's Day that Cory will never forget!

The winner of our last tournament advanced to the state tournament.  The boys played so hard but could not pull out another win against...you got it...Aledo Orange!.  We were still so proud of them for their second place finish. 

It was a great all star season! All of the boys improved so much and it was fun to watch them grow as a team.  We were so thankful to Coach Tony and Coach Scott for all of the time and effort they put into coaching our boys!  Parker learned so much from them and he is already looking forward to playing again in the fall!

My Little Gymnasts

Eden and Lily started a little gymnasts class at the beginning of the summer.  Lily has wanted to take gymnastics for a while and was so excited when I told her she was finally old enough.  Eden has matured a lot over the past year and was ready to try gymnastics again.  They counted down the days to their first class.  Imagine their disappointment when we showed up on the first day to find out that it had been cancelled.  There were a lot of tears on the drive home that day that even a Sonic slushie couldn't fix! 

 

I'm happy to report that they are doing great and love being in class together!  When I ask them their favorite part, they always say "all of it!".   I hope that they continue to enjoy taking gymnastics.  I don't think that we have the next Olympian on our hands but I think there are a lot of good life lessons that can be learned in any group activity.  (Plus they just look so darn cute in their little leotards!!)

Look Who...

has learned to write her name!

Lily has been working hard to learn how to write her name.  She still gets quite frustrated with the 'y' but it gets better every time she practices.  I'm proud of her for not giving up, even when it gets hard for her!

Bubble Beards

I love these two silly girls!!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July this year!  Since my mom's birthday falls on the 4th, we always use her birthday as a great excuse for a family get-together/cookout/swimming party!

 

The kids were so excited to go to Granna's birthday parade in Keene!  They truly think that the parade is for her even though I've explained numerous times that it is because we are celebrating the 4th of July.  Either way, they always have a great time at the parade!

We started the morning with donuts in the back of Granstan's truck while we waited for the parade to begin.  After that, Cory and Parker played catch while the girls picked the best spot to get the most candy!

The kids quickly remembered from last year that the more they waved to the people on the floats, the more candy they got!

After lunch and rest time, Emily, Jon and the kids came into town so we headed over to Granna's for dinner and swimming.

We ended the evening with cake and ice cream for Granna's birthday. 

We are so blessed to live in a wonderful country and even more blessed to have such a wonderful Granna!  We had a great time celebrating both of them today!

June Recap

June was a busy but fun month with the end of school, birthday celebrations, and lots of all-star baseball.  Here are a few more things that kept us busy:

 

After lots and lots of years of being in education, Granstan finally retired!  The kids saw him off on his last day of work!

The fifth graders at my school performed The Little Mermaid so I took the girls to watch it one afternoon.  Lily fell in love with Ariel and was beyond excited when she took a picture with her!  She talked about Ariel for days and we have watched The Little Mermaid movie several times since the performance.

Addison, Aubrey, and Ryan finally moved into their new house at the end of the month.  It has been very quiet at Granna's house and we miss seeing them every day.  The week before they moved, we made sure to spend a lot of quality time with them.  These two continue to be inseparable and share such a special bond.

On the night of my birthday, Granna volunteered to keep all of the kids so Emily and I could go out to dinner and the kids convinced her to take them to Sweet Frog after dinner.

Granstan is the oldest of eight kids in his family.  Five of my dad's seven siblings were all in Bowie one weekend so the kids and I rode with my parents to have lunch with all of them.  Several of my cousins were also there and it was great to visit with family that I don't see very often.  My aunt has a swimming pool so the kids had a great time too!

We joined the summer reading program at the library so we have been reading every day to get our minutes in every day.  The kids have enjoyed earning prizes when they turn in their reading minutes!

After months of no rain, June finally brought lots of storms.  The kids begged to go splash in the puddles but it was more like a lake in our backyard so I said "no"!  They loved the double rainbow that formed after one of the late evening storms. 

July has started out to be a busy month too!  So much for the slower paced, relaxing summer that I was looking forward to! I am going to blink my eyes and school will be starting again.  Even though we are busy, I am enjoying being home with the kids every day and am trying to soak up every minute with them before school starts and I have two kiddos in full day school!