Tennis Ace

Millie participated in what I thought was going to be a tennis tournament on Sunday. Turns out they did play matches but there was not a "winner" at the end. Well, all Millie is concerned about is that she won every match she played so she has proclaimed herself the unofficial winner. Works for me.

Serve

It was for ages 10 and younger and since some of the pros running the matches knew Millie, they paired her with the oldest and best players. I even heard one of her previous coaches she had while we were trying out IRC say to another coach "Amelia? Oh, she's young but she's really good, put her with the older kids." I may have been a proud mom then, just a little.

Her wicked backhand

They are forming teams in about a month to do more matches and tournament play. I would like to sign her up but it's during her regular clinic time so we will have to reevaluate our schedule and see if we can make it work.

Reed

Reed, my cute little boy and super snuggler. He is the sweetest little thing these days. He can, of course, be very stubborn but for the most part, if you know how to talk to him and know when not to force him to do something, you can manage just fine.

He really misses Millie when she is at school so our days at home can get kind of long. He is very excited when she gets off the bus and is always at the door to greet her (if he's not still taking his nap).

He is still our solution man. If he wants to do something or has an idea and you tell him no, he will always come up with a pretty logical solution to the problem so it will work out. I will not be surprised if he ends up being some sort of attorney.

If you notice the big red mark on Reed's forehead, that would be what we refer to as ketchup head. I thought he had ketchup smeared on his head when I first saw him. When I picked him up from my dad after my trip to Cancun, he had a new big scratch on his forehead. He said Jacob hit him, on accident, with his elbow. Well the scab has finally fallen off but from the looks of it, it will leave a scar.

He is still enjoying school. His teacher informed me that he has been holding hands with Brooke quite a bit. I asked him about it and he said she was his best friend. He also talks a lot about Luke. Apparently Luke gets in a lot of trouble so Reed fills me in on his behavior everyday. Reed said he is trying to teach Luke how to be good but that it's going to be a lot of hard work.

Millie

Millie, Amelia, my first born. She is turning in to quite the little lady these days. And with that comes attitude, stubbornness, and a clashing of wills between her and I but we are surviving. She excels at nearly everything she attempts whether it be sports or academics. She has finally found her grove at her new school and is thriving. School work is still not really a challenge for her but she still enjoys going and has fun. She is happiest when given a task. If she does not have anything to do, she tends to butt heads with Reed and they fight. But given a task, it's like she becomes a different person. She loves to have something to do even if it is as simple as emptying the dishwasher. It's like her eyes light up and she snaps to attention. She loves to be helpful. She loves to have a craft, a project or an assignment to work on. I have discovered that idleness is her worst enemy. If I can keep her busy, she's a saint! She also loves to read, play board games, card games, write books or songs and color.

We were discussing Lent on Ash Wednesday and we decided that we should give up TV as a family. She was a 'no' on giving up macaroni but she thought giving up TV would be good. Her comment was "If Jesus can go 40 days without food and water, we can go 40 days without TV." She is such a sweetie...most of the time.

Her list of chores is getting a bit large these days as she gets older but mostly taller. So many things she was able to do before she simply couldn't because she wasn't tall enough. Well, she towers over most 6 year olds and a lot of 7 year olds now for that matter so she is able to do more around the house.

She is really enjoying Karate right now and is taking it very seriously. The discipline that is required in Karate suites her personalty perfectly and she loves it. She loves the structure, the rules and the routine of it. I am sure this is something she will stick with until she has that black belt.

She is also in the process of writing her second book. Stay tuned for more information on that.

Cancun 2012

Nothing beats a last minute trip to Cancun. My mom called me on a Monday morning and asked if I wanted to go to Cancun on Friday morning. Well sure I wanted to but I had this little problem of my little critters. You know, they kind of needed someone to tend to them for the week I would be gone. My dad volunteered to watch Reed and I was able to sign Millie up for before and after school care at her school. Along with child care and a few uncles and neighbors pitching in to help with Millie, I was good to go.

My mom and I landed in Cancun Friday afternoon with no major issues other than mom had no luggage when we got there. I just did a carry on so I had mine. We went on to the hotel and the airport finally delivered mom's bag at 2:30 in the morning.

The next day we were refreshed, had all of our things and were ready to hit the beach. It was Saturday that we discovered the most delicious poolside grill I could ask for. I am glad we found it early on because we ate there everyday for lunch. It was a grill and sushi bar and it was the best cheeseburgers and sushi I could ask for. It was fabulous.

We didn't do a lot of outings while we were there. Mom and I had both been there 2 other times and didn't have a huge desire to spend much time sightseeing. That and everyday we had a few thunderstorms pop up. We didn't really want to be out and about and then be caught in a storm. So we were pretty happy just relaxing, reading, watching the ocean, counting tattoos on people, drinking our yummy drinks (usually a Mudslide or something fruity for mom and I stuck with Bloody Mary's all week) and giving other people at our hotel nick names, such as Apple Girl, Steroid Boy, The Smokers, Little Chubby Girl, Curly Head Boy... It was great.

A few things we did notice a lot were the tattoos. I have no desire to have a tattoo but they don't bother me either. The interesting thing we did notice were that tattoos travel in herds and they seem to grow. What I mean is if a group of traveling companions came to the bar or walked along the beach, they were either all tattooed or they weren't tattooed at all. So I decided that tattoos must travel in herds, your group was either tattooed or they weren't. I found this interesting. Also they seem to grow. I didn't see anyone with just 1 tattoo but I saw tons of people with many tattoos. So apparently you can't have just 1, if you get one, you must have to get more.

The other things I discovered is it must take longer than 6 straight days of laying on the beach, reading a book and listening to the ocean while drinking Bloody Mary's before I get sick of it because if it were not for missing my family back home, I could have stayed much longer with no change to the laying/drinking/reading agenda I had been enjoying. And the Kindle Rick got me for Christmas was very handy on this trip. I think I read 3 or 4 books while I was there and I only had to carry my Kindle with me instead of 20 pounds of books.

We did enjoy watching the Superbowl at the resort and enjoyed the free huge buffet and free drinks they had set up for it. I think this could become a Superbowl tradition. It was very nice.

Mom and I really enjoyed this vacation. Thanks to everyone who pitched in and helped with my kiddos so I could go. And a big thanks to my dad who really made it all happen.

Little Dragon

Reed tested today for his Gold Belt. He is in a little different program than Millie. He is in the Little Dragon program for preschoolers. Basically what it is is a continuous white belt class, don't tell him that though. He still gets to test every 8 weeks for a new belt but his belt will be a white belt with a color stripe down the middle. I know it looks like he has a Gold belt in these photos but that is only because his new belt did not come in yet so Sensei awarded him a Gold belt but they will trade it out when his real one comes in next week. He was the only one testing and he did great. The spot light was on him but he answered all the questions correctly and did all the correct stances and kicks. He will stay in the same class as he has always been in and when they feel he is ready to join the older kids, they will move him to a white belt class and basically he starts all over again. They did say that the Little Dragons can move through the first belts a little faster usually since they have learned a lot of the basic skills already.


His Splits - he has a little work to do on these.

Side Kick

Front Kick

Getting his (temporary) new belt

It was about 3 feet too long for him