{Back To School 2013}

One more milestone checked off the list, William started his "real" kindergarten this week and Samantha started with Pre-school I. I can't believe how fast my babies are growing.

We picked up a couple of new uniforms for William and a new backpack from Land's Ends big enough to carry his homework folder. Loved that he decided to go with orange and blue and we had his named monogrammed. This is such an exciting time for him. He's one of the first student for his school's German immersion program.

We met with his teachers at the school's open house and we couldn't be more pleased with our school of choice. He'll be spending half of the day with his American teacher, Ms. Fleming, and focus on Reading and Literature. The other half of his day, will be with his German teacher, Frau Miltner. They'll be focused on Math's and Sciences. Makes sense, because a number is a number. The intent is by the time that he is in 5th grade, he'll be fluent like a native speaker. Exciting! Frau Miltner DOES NOT speak English at all in front of the kids. When we walked in, she was speaking in German to us. When no kids were around, I heard her speak English, without a single hint of accent at all. They said kids learn language better and immersing them, they'll just absorb the change like a sponge.

Here are a couple of first day of school pictures of my big boy.

A sweet first day picture with Dad and a picture in front of school.

Big hug from lil sister to big brother on his first day at school.

The whole family, checking out William's classroom.

Samantha transitioned and had her first day of Pre-school I as well today. She is very excited to learn more big girl stuff. The class focuses on honing in on pottery training. Samantha has been pottery trained for almost a year. She was feeling like a rockstar, that she's one of the kids who are a Pro on this. She was so proud to show of her ribbon stamp from potty training. She also drew a backpack of William as his first day of school art work. How sweet!

A thumbs up from William for first day of school! When I picked him up from afterschool at Wieuca, he was so excited to introduce me to his new friends Rowan and Murry.

Here's to a great year William and Samantha! Enjoy learning and be kind to all the people that you will meet.

{4th of July 2013: Part 2}

The weekend of the 4th, the sun showed up in spurts and we took advantage of the moments to do some typical summer fun activities. Saturday, we drove to see the L family for some fun at that lake.
They had their annual golf parade. The dads and the kids had a great time riding!

It was fun watching the kids waved at us.

My kids have been looking forward to their boat ride at Mr. Bobby's boat. These 3 are seriously best buds. Can't wait for Lena to be up and about and join this crew.

Kids also had fun swimming at the look looking for golf balls near this hole.

Oh what an absolutely great time we had! So blessed to have friends who feels like family.

We were also ecstatic to hear that the Chamblee fireworks was on schedule for Sunday. The H family met up with us, and we had a great time. I love this fireworks show and a must for us every 4th.

The mommas!

The kiddos running around before the show.

The 7th of July celebration. Go 'merica!

Rockin' it out with the band to Livin' on  a Prayer.

Windin' down a lil before the big fireworks and Samantha deemed a nap was necessary.

Another great fireworks show, another great 4th. Blessed to be living in this wonderful country!

{4th of July 2013: Part 1}

This year wasn't your typical sunshiny 4th of July. We had days of rain the weekend of the 4th, and honestly I was a lil bum about it initially, but snapped out of it and enjoyed every minute of spending time with family and friends. This will be a 2 part post, but I wanted to capture all these special moment coz we are truly blessed to be sharing our life with all these wonderful people!

Our first 4th at our new home, and totally loving the patriotic buntings at our patio. Perfection!

Samantha had her first bike parade at her new school. Tito Nestor's flight from Baltimore came in early, and he was able to come see Samantha's school. Missed my brother, and it was so great to spend some time with him. Unfortunately, the parade was rained out, and they had to moved the event indoors and change it to a dance party.

Lil girl was having so much fun. She even told me that she had to go so she can hang out with her friends. Made me so happy that she's transitioning well to her new environment.

We had our first rainy Peachtree Road Race. It didn't scare our group and we were ready to tackle 6.2 miles, rain or shine.

Rain....we are ready for you!!! Trash bags and all.

It was humid, but all that matter was we have another Peachtree Road Race in the book. And, can we just chat on how awesome Ed is at taking race pictures? Me on the other hand, not too much :(

So grateful to have this time to just soak up some family time.  Feeling extremely blessed.

William has been looking forward to a return trip to the Korean BBQ restaurant. He was so excited to show his Tito Nestor his favorite food.  We also had my cousin and his fiancee  over, they were visiting from California and stopped by real quick to see our new house.

More adventures ahead for Part 2 of our 4th of July.

{Best Yard Helpers}

When we moved from a condo to our new home, we know that we'll have to allocate some time for yard work. Kids have been really into picking up sticks and weeds and loving their time outside. Hey, what better way to learn simple life skills :)

{Summer Camp Pancake Breakfast}

I've mentioned in here before how much we love William's summer camp. There's lots of focus on community and family. Yesterday, the 11 year old age group  cooked for the family pancake breakfast. It was their way of serving the community and was a great example to the younger age group like William.It was great to meet William's friends and their family. Perfect way to start the day.

{Houston: Enjoying the City}

What a memorable trip this was for the kid. They loved every minute of this vacation. They had a great time exploring new places but I think the thing that they enjoyed the most was getting to spend a lot of time with their cousins. Family time is the best!

Staying at a nice hotel was definitely much appreciated by everybody. William even made a comment that nice places, must cost good money. My son, the forever budget conscious (just like his Dad). The Westin we stayed at was conveniently located next to the mall and Target...sigh, my kind of location indeed! The hotel's signature bed didn't go unnoticed. The kids LOVED it! Even had their cousin Paige hang out with us for a view on our last day at Houston.

We very much enjoyed's the resort pool with a view of the city!

Granddaddy and Grandmommy are building their home in gorgeous neighborhood so of course the whole family had to check out their lots. The kids had so much fun just running around their lot.

Silly cousins hanging out.

The house plans looks great and we are looking forward to staying with them soon!

Houston boasts great Mexican food and it sure lived up to it's reputation. We had the best fajita and beans at Lupe's Tortilla. Thanks to a friend's FB message that we should check this out!

And their sand box area, is a hit with all the kids, as Ed and I cringed at the thought of of cleaning up after them. Somehow, sand just finds it's way everywhere.

Not necessarily a Texas thing, but Cracker and Barrel is always fun for breakfast. Here's William playing with Ed and Granddaddy.

Another highlight from the weekend was our trip to Houston's Children's Museum. Rated's as the number's Children's Museum in the Nation. So much to explore!

Superheroes in action at the museum.

The outdoor area features their flow works exhibit and was a great way for the kids to dip their hands in water and cool off a lil from the Houston heat.

{Houston: Grandmommy's Surprise Birthday Party}

The reason for our trip to Houston was to surprise my Mother in law on her birthday. And what a success it was. It's hard to keep a secret from her, but we all sure pulled it off. She was soooo ecstatic to see the whole family in their new home town. The grandkids came running to her for warm hugs.

Grandmommy loves her grandbabies, and she was so happy to see them.

We had the party at my in laws favorite steak house, Brenner's.  The steak was great, but my favorite was the seafood platter appetizer. The scallop almost take like butter melting in your mouth, and the lobster was seasoned just right. It was perfection!!!

Loved getting the kids all dressed up for the occasion.

It was a lovely night celebrating a special day for a special lady. Happy birthday Grandmommy!

{First Plane Ride}

I couldn't have asked for better travelers. The kids did well on their first plane ride to Houston for Grandmommy's surprise party. We talked about plane rides weeks leading up to our flight, and that helped a lot. They were very well prepared. We also loaded up our ipad with movies and picked up a new game for William's DS. The airplane is  not the place to set boundaries. Kids asked for something, they get it :) Before our flight, we gave them a heads up that there are several moments where they will be asked to turn off all electronic devices. When they heard it over the speaker, they were ready. Hooray for a successful first plane ride!