Mammy's Mysterious Minivan

Like I said earlier, my mom is amazing and took the kids and I and my sister to Florida on fall break. It was a total surprise for the kids! Rick was able to join us for a few days as well. It was a great week...

First night reveal game. Reed was so excited about the Knight Dinner Show that he fell down and died.

Reed died of happiness

Next Day at the show. Our Knight was the Red Knight and he threw Millie a flower into the stands. I wish I had videoed Reed watching this show. He was hypnotized and flinched and grimaced every time the swords hit and lances broke. He was truly completely enthralled by this show.

Hanging with the King after the show

Reveal number 2 - Seeing Winter and Hope at Clearwater Marine Aquarium. This would be a bit of a drive since we were in Orlando but totally worth it, the kids love Winter and Hope and we were all going to Clearwater Beach to play afterward.

Winter

Winter

At the beach!

Revel time again...it was Millie's turn to flip out at the surprise that we were going to Universal Studios to experience HARRY POTTER WORLD!!

Eyes closed waiting for instruction

Told to open eyes

Millie just figured it out

Happiest girl on the planet

Yes, that is an Evansville Quidditch shirt we found at an outlet mall in Indiana, SCORE!

Millie became a roller coaster FOOL while we were there. She now wants to ride every coaster in the world. The second day in the park we even met up with her best friend who was down there too and she had no idea about this either.

Hogwarts of course

Beware of Kreacher at 12 Grimmauld Place

Butter Beer

Heading to the Ministry of Magic

With Kate, happy happy girls

Beetlejuice

Optimus Prime

Rip Ride Rocket

The Hulk

Reveal time...a scenic boat tour. It was very nice and relaxing. I love seeing the beautiful homes surrounding the lake. So pretty.

And of course a few days of just some fun at the pool

There are truly no words for how much fun this trip was. I know the kids will remember it forever!

Lucas Oil Finally

Finally able to upload photos from when Reed and Rick played at Lucas Oil on September 28th of this year.

Crazy Crazy Weekend

Busy busy as usual.  Friday was my sister's 40th birthday so we went out to eat with her and my mom and dad. 

Saturday morning Millie had softball practice then Reed had basketball practice.  Right after that mom picked me up to head into town to set up for Laura's surprise party.  She totally had no idea and I was glad the slideshow I made for her worked the way I had intended. 

Sunday morning it was up early for church and Sunday School, cleaning and preparing food for my family's thanksgiving that I host every year.  We had to have it a week early to fit in Rick's family's Christmas next weekend but it worked out.  We were a bit late to our own party since Reed had a game but it's family so I had the door unlocked and coffee was already brewing when we got home.

Still hoping to upload photos soon...

Dumb Computer

So, I still can't upload any photos so let's do a quick run down of things going on these days...without photos.

I think I left off around September because I know I wasn't able to blog about Reed playing football at Lucas Oil Stadium.  I even rented a big fancy lens to be sure I got great photos but I can't share them here.  It was a lot of fun and they won their game.  They went undefeated all season with Rick as their coach but they lost the last game of the season...the only one Reed didn't play in.  Coincidence...I think not...

My super wonderful mom had been really wanting to take all three grandkids to Florida together and it needed to happen before they got much older.  So she planned this super wonderful surprise trip for us.  The original plan was for the kids to have no idea what our destination was but mom couldn't hold it in after she took them to see Dolphin Tale 2 at the movies.  So she told them we were going to see Winter and Hope.  Of course the older ones then realized we were going to Florida but she wouldn't tell them anything else.  Heck, if that was our only outing that would have made them the happiest kids on the planet.  But, she had tons of games planned for them in the van (she rented with a movie player - kids in heaven) and they did puzzles to figure out that we were going to Orlando but then still didn't know what all we would do there.  She had other games and worksheets for them to do in the car to earn spending money, they turned them in to her for their "Mammy Credit Card" balance.  Each night she had a fun reveal party for what was happening the next day.  I have never seen so much joy in kids in my life.  On top of the amazing resort we were in, she took us to Medieval Times (I wish I would have videoed Reed's expressions, he was in a trance he was so loving it), Universal Studios with HARRY POTTER WORLD!!!!, seeing Winter and Hope along with a beach day, a beautiful lake boat tour in Winter Park, dinner at the T-Rex cafe at Downtown Disney and a few fun pool days.  The weather was perfect and it was a perfect trip.  Millie even got to hang out with her best friend one day at Universal and became a total roller coaster maniac.  Rick was able to come down separate on his motorcycle and joined us for a few days while he camped and mountain biked on the way down and back.  I don't think the week could have been more perfect.  Thanks mom!

Millie's Fusion softball team won their first tourney in Santa Claus a week or so ago.  It was super exciting!

What's going on now???

If you recall we adopted Hercules - the dog - this past January.  It has been constant trips to the vet trying to figure out what all is wrong with him.  On top of thyroid issues, he also has Lupus.  So he's on steroids which is helping but at the same time they will slowly cause his body to break down.  So we will enjoy the time we have with him knowing he at least feels good and just be happy that we could provide him a loving home and make him comfortable for at least a little while.

Reed has had 3 basketball games playing at Floyd Central in a mini-league.  They have won all three by about 30-8...we haven't seen much competition yet.  Millie was supposed to play in a tennis tourney today but no one else signed up for it.  Guess they saw her and figured there was no way they would win ;-)

That about sums it up.  We are busy as always but blessed beyond belief.

My dad

So, my computer still won't upload photos so I can only post from photos on my phone. As I was looking through phone photos I came across these beauties of my dad. Every year we go to see Branson on the Road with him at Derby Dinner. He was telling some sort of silly story and I decided to take a bunch of photos of him. 

Harvest Homecoming Window Painting

Millie was chosen to represent her class by the art teacher to paint a window in New Albany for Harvest Homecoming.  She was super excited because they got to do it during the school day. 

Cross Country

3 of the top 10 girls play for Fusion!  They have become great friends!

As a fourth grader Millie had high hopes for this year's season but I knew it would be hard. One of her very good friends who goes to a different school (above in the blue) had been training hard all summer but Millie was busy with softball and didn't do any running. She had a great season (4 races plus championships) but she just couldn't win one. Not that second place out of about 200 girls is shabby by any means...All races were 1 mile.

Race 1 - Finished 3rd 7:08:46
Race 2 - Finished 2nd 6:42:02
Race 3 - Finished 2nd 6:31:20 (different course at Floyd Central High School)
Race 4 - Finished 2nd 6:34:58
Preliminaries - Finished 2nd 6:45:65
Championship - Finished 2nd 6:32:21

She's not sure if she wants to run next year for middle school. I'll leave it up to her to decide when the time comes. She wants to play basketball and maybe tennis in middle school as well so there's no point in overbooking if she doesn't want to. But if she wants to I will continue to do all I can for my kids to support them in their talents. The time may come eventually when I can't do that but for now, I will. My kids will always come first to me and although I meet myself coming and going some seasons, nothing makes be happier than seeing them set a goal, work hard and then reach it. My kids are learning that hard work pays off no matter if that's in school work, piano or sports. They are also learning that they are part of a team. By joining a team, they have a responsibility to that team to do their part and be their best. I never want my kids to think I expect them to be the best, but I will always expect them to do their best. I was so very proud of Millie during this season but I was more proud of how she was happy even with second place. She cheered for her other friends and was truly happy for all them, even if they beat her.

An ice cream celebration with her best friend after the championship. 

Football Summary

Reed's football season has come to an end and they were undefeated until the last game. Reed wasn't able to go to that last game so I like to think because of Reed's football domination, they couldn't keep it together without him. We'll go with that anyway. He had more fun as the season went along but he's still not sure he wants to play anymore. I won't force my kids to do things like this unless they want to but we will strongly encourage him to not give up yet. We shall see what next fall brings.

His basketball season starts this week and he is really looking forward to that. He has a few buddies on his team so I'm sure he'll have a blast.