May 2019

May's letter didn't promise too much more than what was already scheduled in a jam-packed month (First Communion, Justin's b-day, and end-of-the-school-year festivities!), but it did also mention family bike rides and movie nights.  As a result, May was filled with LOTS of  amazing memories!

Of course, Lissie's First Communion was huge on our May calendar.  We had family and friends coming from all over the place to celebrate her big day!  She wore my own First Communion dress that was handmade from the Philippines.  She completed the ensemble with a mantilla that my mom got her when she was in Fatima, a headpiece that I wore when I got married, and earrings and a bracelet that are heirlooms from both sets of her great-grandmothers.

My mom prayed for this moment - to witness her granddaughter receive Jesus for the first time.

Pretty Lissie

After Mass, we celebrated in style with a special Sushi Train luncheon.  (I really wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant since the big event happened to be on Cinco de Mayo, but apparently Mexican restaurants do not typically accommodate for large reservations on this holiday.  Who knew?)

One of her favorite gifts was a paper doll saint collection from her godmother!

Lissie's godfather and family had traveled from Michigan, and we convinced them to stay an extra night.  As such, Lissie and Xavier (who begrudgingly had already ruined their Perfect Attendance record earlier in the year when X got sick during school and I wasn't about to make an extra trip to pick Lissie up later) were more than eager to play hooky from school to spend time with their family (unfortunately, though, while Justin and I still had to work, haha).

Soooo excited to have a dog in our lives, even if it was just for a weekend!


Toby!!!!








Playing hooky and having bubble tea with Auntie Cat


They showed them the Parthenon


Ninong Chris with Lissie

Since the kids had the family during the day, we got to hang out with them at night - Hot Chicken and Sushi!

May also brought with it the school's May Crowning of Mary.  This year, eighth graders and second graders processed in, and Lissie was chosen to bring up the crown.  It was super sweet and special!

May also brought us Justin's birthday.  He had to work, but we made sure he had his favorites for dinner when he came home.  We also celebrated a little belated when I got him tickets to Nashville Symphony's Harry Potter night - so fun!  The kids were a little sad that they weren't invited, but Justin showed them the first Harry Potter movie at home as a celebration for finishing the first book.

Making dad's famous mac and cheese for dad on his birthday


Yum!




Date Night!

For Justin's birthday, he got himself a new bike.  Then I got a little jealous because, well, it just is no fun to try running to catch up with three bikes!  So, naturally, I ended up getting one myself and we've already gone on many adventures exploring different trails and new places.

Lastly, May brought with it the end of the school year.  Both kids had amazing years and have grown and learned so much.  Xavier and I even survived being together in the classroom and, surprisingly, it is an experience we were both sad to have end.  In the end, both kids were presented with special awards: Xavier received a Best Effort award for the quarter, and Lissie not only received the Best Citizenship award for the quarter but also the EagleSTRONG award - the one that students and teachers vote on for exemplifying the best qualities of a St. Ann student.  They both worked so hard this year, and I am so proud of who they are becoming.

Field Day fun with one of her BFFs


First Grade end-of-the-year bash at the Nature Center

Charlie's Angels at the second grade end-of-the-year picnic at Arrington Vineyards

And, of course, now that it's summer, the Bucket List festivities have already begun.  Here are some other pics to round out our May:

We celebrated Mother's Day a little early since Mom was in Italy during the actual day.


And while they were in Italy, the kids were in charge of watering the plants.  As you can see, they did a great job.  Haha.


The kids did a fun Shoney's 5K.


Our Bucket List 2019


Nothing says summer like a party in a pickup.


Justin took the boys to see Detective Pokemon, so naturally the girls got a pedicure.


Halo-halo!


$1 movies!


The zoo!


The Nashville "beach"




And, of course, the pool!

As always, it was another busy month.  And now it's June - and, well, summer always brings out the best sort of crazy in us!  Stay tuned.....

April 2019

This month was, well, unexpectedly quite crazy.  It didn't start off that way, though.  In fact, the monthly letter touted a low-key month - the first month of 2019 where we didn't have a trip planned - with the only "big" things being Easter and a family movie outing.  Sounds beautifully serene, right?  Ha!  In retrospect, I should have known better - this family does not do "low-key" very well....but the promises of memories made definitely came through!

This month was a month of festivals and egg hunts.  We made it to our first Franklin Art Crawl of 2019, and it was hands-down one of our favorites.  The kids had a blast chatting with local artists and magicians, listening to awesome live music, and eating all.of.the.snacks.  We even won some art at a silent auction to benefit the Make-a-Wish Foundation because the kids wanted the Disney painting to put up as a reminder of their Disney Cruise.

One of the salons had hair glitter!  L was thrilled, while X was enjoying the snacks.  Ha!

I love how the artists take time to talk to the kids!

Watching the kids play the violins as inspiration for their own musical journey

We won art at the silent auction!

We also ventured to a few special events in our town this month - we rode our bikes about 6 miles to two different family events, an Arbor Day celebration and a Fun Day at the Y - and the next weekend went to the Brentwood 50th Birthday Parade.

Justin also took the kids to our church egg hunt, as well.

Since we became Cheekwood members again this year, we decided that we would attempt the Spring Art Hop Easter event rain or shine.  Luckily, it didn't rain but the mud and icky forecast drew others away, so we had the place almost to ourselves and the kids scored big with crafts, live music, and more Easter Eggs than their baskets could carry!

Easter at home was a small event this year - of course, we dyed our eggs and had our own Egg Hunt with the golden egg prizes - but with Justin working this year, we decided to just have a small feast at home for dinner when he came home.

I really love this picture - how X is hard at work, and how L is patiently waiting her turn while reading her book.

Making an Easter Basket cake with the grandparents

Easter Basket Goodies!

We forgot to get family pics in our Easter Best, so we stopped by Walgreens to get one with Daddy at work.

  

Xavier was so sad that he didn't find the Golden Egg at our home egg hunt...

...but big sis shared her findings.  Love her sweet heart!

We went on an afternoon hike at Radnor to enjoy the beautiful Easter Sunday!

 We also spent some time in service to others as we volunteered with friends at the Dismas House.  Xavier had been wanting to go back for a while, and he picked who he wanted to join us, and we made it possible thanks to his big heart!

Ah, and then the crazy came.  We knew we were going to do some renovations at the end of April - putting in hardwood floors in the entire upstairs where all of the bedrooms are.  Our contractor promised us that while they would work for about a week, we wouldn't be displaced until the last weekend.  Sounds great, right?  Justin and I had planned a short camping weekend as a special (and inexpensive!) treat for the kids.  Well, the workers came and tried to move every.single.thing the first day they came!  Luckily I was able to bargain with them to get us one more night in our bedrooms, but we did end up displaced - not just for a weekend, but for over a week!  We scrambled to pack everything up and find a not-so-expensive-yet-not-so-shady hotel (we did have some very generous friends offer to put us up, but please - nobody really wants a family of four crazies living with them, haha).  We resigned to hotel hopping because last-minute prices for hotels the weekend of big events in Nashville (the NFL draft, marathon, Main Street Festival, to name a few) was through.the.roof. 

Even though we were going crazy with this "staycation" we did our best to make it fun for the kids.  Even though we still had school and work, we made it a point to go to the pool as often as we could and enjoy the hot breakfasts in the mornings and the warm cookies in the lobby each afternoon.  I must admit, I also enjoyed the benefits of daily maid and towel service, too.  Haha.  We even were able to finagle staying in the same hotel the whole week instead of picking up and moving like we had originally thought.  It was an adventure, for sure, but the kids were such troopers and we made it work.

And, look, our hardwood floors look amazing!

The end of April also was a busy one with the KidsRock Marathon and Lola's birthday celebration to cap off the month.  Throw in a family trip to the zoo where we somehow got lucky enough to go behind the scenes to feed the tapirs for World Tapir Day and a postponed Easter Egg Dive in the mix, as well!

Feeding the tapirs!!!

Happy Birthday, Lola!!

So, yes, April was unexpectedly a bit crazy and not-so-low-key at all.  There's always May, though, right?  (Ha!)