Ben's Room Decor

For lunch on Saturday, I led the family to the edges of Georgia Tech's campus for some authentic Italian pizza at Antico Pizza. I wanted to see what foodies have been talking about since its opening a few years ago! I knew there was the possibility that the kids would not touch the pizza since it was not fast food or frozen, but I was willing to take that risk on Saturday.

It turns out that the authentic pizza, pizza that people from all over the country flock to Atlanta to try, did not make an impression on the kids. (No surprise there.) What did make an ever-lasting impact were the little Sprite bottles out of which they drank! Ben even brought his home as a "souvenir". Now it has a prominent position on his bedroom dresser. He explained, "I'm going to take my Coke-beer up to my room where I can keep it safe forever and ever," and that he did.

E's Cooking

As of late, both cooking and cooking shows on TV have peaked Eleanor's interest. On Saturday mornings, I can hear her fighting with her brothers because she wants to watch "Cupcake Wars" on the Food Network while they want to watch super hero cartoons.

Last week, she started to flip through one of my cookbooks and decided that she wanted to cook dinner one night. Over the weekend, she finally selected a family favorite to cook for us on Monday night - TACOS!

When the time came for her to start dinner, she helped me account for all of the ingredients and got to work around 5:30pm. She browned ground turkey and heated up corn and black beans on the stove top. Once the meat was cooked thoroughly, she loaded up the taco shells and dressed them with a few handfuls of cheese before we placed them in the oven for a few minutes of baking. A few minutes later, voila! It was dinner time.

What did her food critics think? Everyone asked for seconds (and even some thirds) so I think I might have to put Eleanor to work weekly if she keeps getting these glowing reviews!

Art Camp

Each morning last week, Ben spent a few hours with Miss Holly and Miss Claire at Art Camp. Because he turned four this summer, this class was Ben's first opportunity to work with Miss Holly after seeing so much of her through the years driving Eleanor and Hayes to and fro. Ben savored his time there and has asked to attend another art class this year. He brought home three art projects during the week . . . the folk art flower, the sunflower and the pea pod family. Interestingly, when Eleanor took this same Art Camp when she was four, the class molded the same pea pod family. Eleanor's pea pod only had four peas for the four members of our family at the time. Now that it was Ben's turn, his pea pod had five peas to show how our family has grown!

Summer To-Do List Summary

My blog has taken a hit as of late, ever since I decided to try to stay away from the computer at night. During the day, with school starting and errands to run, I'm finding that I have very little time to check in with the blog. Hopefully, some time will free up once Ben starts school after Labor Day.

This summer was a productive one in terms of our annual Summer-To-Do List. If you look closely, you can observe the check marks after the activities we accomplished. The kids maintain the argument that summer lasts until Labor Day as they try to squeeze in a lemonade stand before September. It is hard to believe that the Summer of 2012 is drawing to a close, but we sure did our best to make the most of it!

Exciting Time in Heaven

The other morning on our drive to choir camp, Ben got me a little choked up. We drove by a big golden retriever that reminded us of our precious Baxter. Ben started talking about heaven and how much fun Baxter was having up there. He then says to me, "Since I'm going to be the last one to get to heaven, I'm going to be super excited when I get there. When I see you guys I'm going to jump up and down." I wanted to make sure that I understood what he was saying and asked him, "Who do you mean by 'you guys'?" "You, Dad, Eleanor, Hayes . . . " he replied and he then continued to list all of his family members.

You never know what sweet thoughts will come out of the mouths of babes.

First Day of School 2012 Edition

Our summers are feeling shorter and shorter! We weren't even a week into August but Monday, August 6th, marked the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year. Though we hate to see summer draw to an end, I think all of us were ready to return to some semblance of a routine.

Our school bus system was revamped this year so our bus is scheduled to arrive at 7:10, 15 minutes earlier than in years past. Since it was the first day, we were out at the stop at 7am . . . hence the tired eyes on the kids (and two bed heads). The only glitch of the day was that the bus forgot our stop so we had plenty of time to take our usual first day bus stop pictures. (This year, we could have 21 kids on any given morning at our stop!)

Lucky for all of us, the bus found its way to our street in the afternoon to bring the kids home. Both Eleanor and Hayes reported uneventful days after hopping off the bus with smiles on their faces. Here's to another great school year!

H's Baseball Birthday

To celebrate Hayes's 7th birthday, we hosted four of Hayes's good friends (Graham, Lane, Owen and JD) at a Braves game and then had them spend the night. First, everyone met at our house for some Pizza Hut pizza and Atlanta Braves cupcakes (both Hayes's requests). Hayes just loved having his good buddies over for his birthday - he truly was a happy camper. Once they were well-fortified, Thomas took the five boys down to Turner Field to see the Braves play the Miami Marlins. They had very good seats (courtesy of the Braves and Thomas) so they were in a perfect spot to cheer on their favorite players. During the first inning, when Jason Heyward was up to bat and Chipper Jones was in the on-deck circle, the boys screamed to get Chipper's attention. Their loud yells were successful because Chipper turned around and acknowledged them. Then, with the next pitch, J-Hey hit a foul ball that Chipper caught. Chipper quickly turned around and tossed it to Thomas, who then handed it to Hayes as a great souvenir from his birthday baseball game. Later in the game, Thomas caught a foul ball and then he was able to round up three more MLB official baseballs so that each boy came home with their own baseball. They stayed until the end to see the Braves pull through with their first Monday night victory of the season - 8-2. It took a while for the boys to wind down once they got back to the house. Thomas and I finally went to bed around midnight, pretty certain that the five boys were asleep. Unfortunately, the next morning came early as we heard them up at 6:02am!

Hayes crashed later that day from sheer exhaustion, but he loved celebrating his birthday with his friends.