Lawson Turns 5!

Lawson (aka Doodie Rainbow Champagne) turned 5!

His celebration was held at the Bounce House were all his cousins and friends jumped in his honor!

    

When cousins get together, it can be a little scary! ;)

There's something about the men in our family -- they all LOVE their cookie cake... 

First Trey, then Zach and now Doodie.

 "The apple doesn't fall far from the Trey."  Oh, I mean Tree. :)

Media Debut

Zach made his media debut on 94.7 where he was interviewed during last week's radio segment dedicated to the Lakeshore High School TITANS. He looks good, but we might need to work on his interview skills! ;)

Go TITANS!

Happy Birthday, Chloe!

Our youngest granddaughter, Chloe, turned 6! 

Chloe celebrated her special day at My Little Tea Party where all the guests got to dress up in their favorite garb...  Here's Chloe as a glamorous Rock Star and her sister, Sara, as Jasmine.

    

Emma chose to dress up as her favorite Princess, Snow White, while Mia surprised me with her choice of a beautiful fairy!

    

There was a fashion show and tea party, followed by karaoke and line dancing...

and of course, three cheers for Chloe!

 

Thanks, Mom & Dad, for a super special day!

Hooray for School!

The kids started school last Monday... Hip Hip Hooray!

Okay, I may be a terrible mom but after a summer filled with daily workouts (Zach, not me!), a teenager's social life, two little girls who were "bored" on day two of summer, three barking dogs and a full time job, that's how I felt when the bus rounded the corner.

It is bitter-sweet... I do see how my babies aren't babies anymore and I wish I could just make them stop right where they are but I also love seeing just who they are becoming.  I pray God gives me what I need to help guide them where He intends to lead them. 

Every year, we take first day of school pics... And one day I'll make some cool scrapbook spread with them all lined up over the years... Or better yet, I'll give the pics to Aunt Sissy and she can do it properly!

Clearly Zach is becoming a man...

Zach - 10th Grade

I can't believe he started his sophomore year at LHS.

 
Mia is sassy as can be and got on that bus with her ponytail just a swingin'.

Mia - 1st Grade

We are thrilled that she got into the multi-age program at WES (a classroom of half first graders and half second graders). Her teacher is Ms. Stratton who also taught Zach and is his all-time favorite teacher. She's firm but fair - perfect for my two oldest and strong-willed children.

Emma started Pre-K at New Covenant - Mias old school - and has many of the same teachers as Mia did. She climbed out of the car on her first day with her Little Petshop lunchbox and never looked back. She tells us every morning that she misses her teachers. She was so ready to go to school, but I am glad we waited to enroll her. I guess I wasn't ready until now.

Emma - Pre-K

 

And of course there's never enough chaos, so also on the first day of school was the girls' first gymnastics class!  

 

No wonder Tony and I are exhausted at 9:00 at night...

  

Snuggle Bugs

Let's just say that their just can't be two closer sisters... Mia and Emma bonded immediately in China a lite over a year and a half ago and their relationship has only deepened over time. Now that doesn't mean we don't fight... As we all know there's a fine line between love and hate and as true sisters do, one minute they are best friends and the next there's high-pitched squealing involved. But on most evenings, Tony puts the girls to bed and I follow up with a last kiss after getting Ms. Elma settled. That's often followed up with one or two or three visits back to the girls room to tell them to quit giggling or talking or messing with the dogs and to please, please, please just go to sleep!

We've woken up plenty mornings with things askew, toys out of place, you get the idea... Well one recent morning we noticed the dogs had been let out of the playroom and the DVD player was on - apparently there had been a midnight showing of one of the Princess movies!

The best though was this morning - finding two little snuggle bugs all curled up together. Apparently, Chi Chi (Emma) had gotten scared in the middle of the night and Na (Mia) comforted her. 

Snuggle Bugs

They are sooo sweet when they are sleeping!

Too Sweet!

Silver Stars Dance Camp

One of the really cool things about Lakeshore High being a new school is the students get to establish the traditions. One of those is an annual dance camp sponsored by the Silver Stars dance team for younger kids. Mia attended both year's camps and recruited a new friend to go with her this year. Our friend Ginger's granddaughter, Lily, has been visiting from Vermont this summer. Mia and Luly became friends fast and Lily accompanied us to camp. As you can see from their performance pics, they had a ball.

Mia even got to introduce Lily to some other friends too! And if you know Mia you also know it's never enough fun so we ended the day with a few more hours of giggles and play at our house with Mia, Emma, lily and Kaitlyn!

Mia, Lily & Kaitlin

Last Hoorah of Summer

Our annual summertime trip to Austin came a little late this year bit we still managed to squeeze it in. As usual, we did our shopping at the Nike and Disney Outlet stores which was perfact timing since Zach needed Shox and cleats and Mia and Emma needed (well wanted!) Princess everything.

We also snuck in a picnic at the park. Grandma Elma and I watched as our kiddos played... Tony included!

After working up a good appetite and sweat, we headed to "Uncle Scott's" house where we went for a swim and enjoyed another Mexican meal. We got to visit with Mari and the kids got to see their tortoise -- he's pretty cool!

Mia -- Our Bathing Beauty

Uncle Scott

Emma... Too Pooped to Pop!

In case you don't already know this, Zach's favorite food is Mexican - so as compensation for him having to spend six days in a car and hotel room with his parents and little sisters, we fed him Mexican food for breakfast, lunch and dinner...everyday! The rest of us broke down and ordered a burger at least once, but Zach stuck with it 'til the end. In fact, on the drive home he asked if we could drive through Taco Bell! Okay, that's not real Mexican food but give it a rest...

We snuck in some other fun things too but mostly it was nice just all being together!

Gotcha! Take 5

Five Years!  It's been five years since we got to hold Mia for the first time.  My how time flies...  Tony and I can't get over how much she has grown and how much she has matured.  God really is good.  We are so blessed to have her as our daughter.

What a beautiful young lady....

To celebrate, we made cupcakes which Mia decorated -- we were able to share some with our China Play Date friends on Saturday and with the Tulli Two's on Sunday.

Sunday, July 18th was official Gotcha! Day -- after church, all the Tulli's met up at Trey Yuen for a wonderful Chinese meal...

and lots of love and laughter!

 
Happy Gotcha! Day, Mia!

Eat Mor Chikin

So who knew July 9th is Cow Appreciation Day?  Well at Chick-Fil-A it is!  If you show up in full cow attire, you get a free meal.  We love "the Chick" so my sister, Katie, and I planned to meet up for an early dinner -- she and I could catch up while the kiddos played.  The girlshad a great time spotting their shirts and Zach will do about anything for a free meal!  He told me he'd go dressed in costume -- that way, I'd only have to buy him one meal. :)

Can you guess what Zach and I are?

Jersey cows, of course!

Cousin Chance's costume was pretty creative too!

Mmmmm.... nuggets and chocolate milk.

And yes, the new spicey chicken is good, according to Zach.

It really was loads of fun and an excuse to dress up and be silly.

Cincy in the Summer

Our most recent adventure was to Cincinnati for 10 days -- we just returned last week.  We were there for a follow-up visit for Emma at Cincy Children's Hospital.  She's doing great... and we managed to make a family vacation out of our time there.  Zach stayed home so he could attend football practice and weight-lifting, but Ms. Elma was able to join us. 

During our stay, we went to the Children's Museum, the Cincinnati Zoo, Pioneer Days, Waynesville, IA for antique browsing and EnterTRAINment Junction...  Our hotel had an indoor pool, which the girls loved and this time, we actually managed to find some good places to eat -- thank you Montgomery Inn and Graeter's Ice Cream!

Here's some favorite photos from our trip... Can you guess where we are and what we are doing?