Orange Belt

She ran the Kata for the whole group. She did great!

My Attempt To Catch Up

This is going to be a quick recap of the past 5 weeks...

Millie got a her Yellow Belt, she rocks and is a Karate superstar.

Reed got his orange belt, no photos but he was the first 3 year old to ever successfully run a Kata. He too is a Karate superstar.

We sold our house.

We played at my mom and dad's house during spring break, I love it there.

We found a new house.

Easter at my parents house, Reed busted the Pinata, fun was had by all.

The Crew.

All caught up now. I feel better.

Reed And His Wheels

Reed loves to be outside. He's usually peddling away on something. He has really started to enjoy Millie's Razor scooter as well. He says his Spiderman one is for babies. I have a feeling he will be getting one for his birthday.

Future Highlander

Just because I have not blogged for a few weeks doesn't mean we have not been busy. To sum it up, this photo speaks for itself.

Grandparent's Day

Friday was Grandparent's Day at Millie's school. She was very excited to have Mammy and I there with her. The timing could not have been better because it was during the 2 hours Reed is at Preschool.

First Mammy filled out a little paper about her memories of first grade. Then every student had drawn a self portrait of themselves earlier in the week and they were hanging on the walls and the grandparents had to guess which one was their little one.

Later the kids sang some cute songs and recited some poems about grandparents.

Last they worked on a cute project and wrote things they like to do with each other.

After a few refreshments, we had to leave so the kids could get back to the serious business of spelling tests.

I really enjoyed watching Millie and my mom get to spend this special moment with each other. We are very blessed to have her in our lives.

Louisville Zoo

Rick and the critters and I made a quick trip south on Saturday to meet several of my friends for a play date at the Louisville Zoo.

My kids have been there once but neither of them remembered it. Reed was pretty new and Millie was only 3 so it was basically a first for both of them. We bought a membership though so I see many more trips in our future.

We grabbed Jacob along the side of I65 on the way and took him with us as well. I like to get him whenever I can and my kiddos loved having him there with us.

It sure was a beautiful day and I think we all realized when we got home that perhaps we should have had sunscreen on. I guess it's that time of year already.

They all had fun but I know we were pretty tired by the time we left. We had had a late night the night before at a softball clinic for Millie. Then we had to get up pretty early to head to Louisville. Reed even claimed the stroller before we were finished!

Reed Has a Best Friend

Reed has a best friend and her name is Brooke. Brooke says Reed is her boyfriend but I have convinced him that she is not his girlfriend, just his best friend. The other day when I picked him up from preschool, it started hailing and just south of us had several devastating tornadoes. Reed was concerned for Brooke and was praying she got home before the storm.

Well, today is Brooke's birthday and Reed wanted to make her a card. He did great and wrote all the letters by himself!

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.