Monday, March 23, 2015

3rd Grader

Year after year, the feedback from Jack’s teachers is that he is a self-motivated, focused, responsible student.  I walk away from each and every parent-teacher conference full of pride about this kid…and, maybe a little disbelief at how studious he sounds because he would certainly rather be playing around outside than studying when he’s at home.  The only thing lacking might be his neatness and organization skills—which makes us all the more thankful that Jack has Ms. Jarrett this year, THE most organized teacher I’ve ever met.  She’s also a lot of fun and Jack has a running joke going with her about the Florida-Auburn rivalry.  Third grade has been a fun year for Jack—he couldn’t have asked for a better group of friends in his class or a better teacher.

Here are some highlights from late winter/early spring of Jack’s 3rd grade year (most of these images are from other parents or Jack’s teacher):

{Living Museum Day—Jack’s class all represented Americans who were the first to accomplish something.  Jack was John Glenn, first American to orbit the earth.}

{Valentine’s Day shoebox monster ready to chomp on some Valentine cards.}

{Field trip to Discovery Place.}

{Jack’s class pet, Toothy, came home with Jack over one weekend.  It rained most of the weekend so we had to get creative to take him on adventures—bowling and Mexican food.  They did get a little soccer in Sunday afternoon.}

{Our studious boy—the light was so pretty, I felt inspired to photograph the ‘everyday’ like I used to all the time when the kids were little.  I guess I got a little distracting…and then maybe a little annoying.  Oh well.  Love this face.  Oh, and in this picture you can really see the extra permanent tooth that Jack has coming in on his upper left side and that is pushing his two front teeth off center.  He had an extra baby tooth in the same place that had to be pulled.  The permanent tooth will have to be pulled, too, which is a bigger undertaking and involves an oral surgeon.  We have to wait until we can clearly tell which of two teeth in that space looks most similar to the one on the other side.}

{And, a quick soccer portrait in the backyard—Jack has to submit a photo each year for a soccer ID card in order to play competitive soccer.}

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Girl Scout Thinking Day

In March, Ella’s Girl Scout Junior troop participated in Thinking Day, a festival of the countries of the world.  Each troop selects a country and prepares a booth with research information, artifacts from the country, a swap (this is a Girl Scout thing—it’s a small craft that is on a safety pin to collect on their vests), a stamp for the scouts’ event “passports”, and a sample of food from the country.  As Ella and I had recently travelled to Spain, we led our troop in learning about the culture, the terrain, the regional differences, government, products, and food of Spain.  We made small paper flamenco fans as our swaps.  For the food at our booth we decided to represent tapas—we had Spanish olives, paprika almonds, manchego cheese, cured chorizo, pan crackers, and tortilla (Spanish omelet) which I had prepared and was a bigger hit than we’d expected.  Ella and I also displayed all of our souvenirs from Spain (hers from our trip and mine from when I lived there as a child) and photos from our trip.  And Jack was even nice enough to lend Ella his Catalan flag Barcelona Futbol Club jersey for the day.  Overall, our booth was a hit and it was fun to work with Ella and her troop…and to relive our amazing trip just a few month earlier.   

Friday, March 6, 2015

Twins

During our weekend introduction to Harper and Hudson, we also took a few pictures of these two sweeties.  Newborn photography is by no means my specialty and twins was all new to me, but it’s always so wonderful to have these kinds of images of my own nieces and nephews.  Love these two cuties.  Wish I lived a whole heck of a lot closer so they wouldn’t grow so much between our visits…

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Harper & Hudson

On January 30th, Jacqui and Randy welcomed a baby girl and a baby boy into this world.  We couldn’t be more thrilled about the arrival of our new niece and nephew, Harper and Hudson.  What sweet little perfect babes.  And these two cuties literally hit the jackpot with the attentive, loving, fun, amazing parents they have in Jacqui and Randy.   

We made the trip down to Florida to meet Harper and Hudson in mid-February when our kids had a long weekend.  Look at these beautiful, beautiful babies and their very adoring (albeit a little tired at this point) parents.  Congrats to Jacqui and Randy and, well, all of us!  Meet Harper and Hudson… 

 

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Instagrammin’ in February

February was a busy month, but not on Instagram, I guess.  The major highlight was our mid-month trip down to Orlando to meet the newest family additions, Harper and Hudson, Aunt Jacqui and Uncle Randy’s new twins.  We were thrilled beyond words to meet them.  In other news in February, Jonathan saw the end of one job and the start of another…and with that, a new car.  We had a few snow days off of school, but, unfortunately, no real snow. 

half birthday celebrations. | 100th day of school—jack wants “100 dollars” but does not want “100 sisters”… | back to soccer | the conquering heroes | meet harper | and hudson | snow, what snow?? | fun times car shopping | thin mints, anyone? | snow (?) day fun | a sneak peek into ella’s piano festival performance | superiors for both of them!

Sunday, February 8, 2015

My Favorite Thing in Spain by Jack

by guest blogger Jack

My favorite thing in Spain was probably Park Güell in Barcelona. One reason I liked the park was there was a giant lizard made out of smashed colored glass. Another reason I liked the park was the view. You could almost see all the buildings in Barcelona.

My favorite thing in Madrid is all the restaurants along the streets. All of the food was different from what I eat in North Carolina. There was a lot of seafood instead of burgers. My favorite food from Spain is paella, rice infused with saffron and cooked with seafood and vegetables.

My favorite thing in Seville was the mushrooms, the largest wood structure in the world. It is also called the Metropol Parasol. We went to the very top and I had to hold my Dad’s hand. The view was awesome. And that was my trip to SPAIN.

Friday, February 6, 2015

Instagrammin’ in January

We kicked off the new year in Madrid, Spain,  with day trips to Toledo, Ávila, and Segovia in the days to follow.  You’ll notice that some of my favorite big camera images of our travels in Spain also happen to be some of my favorite iPhone images that I posted on Instagram when we got back to our hotel each night in Spain.  I often found myself taking a picture on my phone and then my camera—and you know what, sometimes I like the phone picture better.  Pictures of me in Spain definitely show up more in the Instagram pics, though, because it was so hard to unstrap myself from the rented D750 that I was wearing under my coat with a theft-proof strap. We even got a family pic from our guide while we were in Segovia.  Sometimes these phone pics are just invaluable.

After Spain, as you’ll see, January was a pretty quiet month for us—no tennis or soccer, no major snowfalls this year…just back to normal life.   

holy toledo! | bridge to toledo | cervantes | alcázar | hilly toledo | trying to find the cathedral | we found it! | sampling the marzipan of toledo | us and the toledo alcázar | view leaving toledo, with the sun setting. | ávila with its intact medieval walls | a closer looks at the walls | what a view of the plains of spain. | our playground for the week. | knuckleheads | a peek into plaza de santa teresa. | the fairytale castle of segovia | the rare family photo | view of segovia from the top of the castle. | love my boy. | segovia—the cathedral and snow-capped mountains. | alcázar | the roman aqueduct of segovia | my cute family—thankful they indulged me and planned our big trip to spain! | churros con chocolate—last breakfast in madrid | ¡adios, españa! | a long trip home—even the panthers vs. eagles playoff game in the philly airport couldn’t keep him awake. | not yet…just watching a middle school basketball game. | running with my girl—she’s too fast for me. | finally checked out metamorphosis in charlotte…although it currently doesn’t move.