Smiley's (aka....) School Year in Review

Last but never least is Smiley.

For a while now I think I could have switched up the nicknames and graced her with Hannah's ~ Sassy!

But instead, I will use her actual name, Alayna.

This kid is Sassy, Spunky and a bit Dramatic!

Alayna had a great school year.  She likes school for the most part.  

She does well academically and loves to be around her friends.

 (Alayna's first day of 2nd Grade)

(Alayna's last day of 2nd grade.  Notice the black eye?!  She was playing volleyball at a graduation party with 

some teenage boys and took a volleyball to the eye ~ YIKES!)

This kiddo is strong willed and typically has a lot of ideas going on in that head of hers, from what I should make for dinner, to how she could re-arrange her room and to planning parties with the neighbors that she forgets to tell me about.  

Last fall she was fascinated with mermaids (and still is).  She decided for her 8th birthday she wanted to have a mermaid themed party.  Before she was able to celebrate with friends, we were able to celebrate with family at my sister's house in another state.  My sister was sweet enough to get her a lovely mermaid cake!

When we were finally able to schedule a "friend" party she wanted to continue the mermaid theme.  

She went swimming with a few friends, then back to our house to celebrate "under the sea"  with food and fun.

Besides her fall birthday, she had a couple of other fun fall events:

Pheasant hunting with family (she walks alongside the hunters and tries to scare up birds)

and Halloween

However, much to her brothers dismay, she wanted to be like him and chose to be Robin Hoods Sister ~ HA!

This 2nd grade year was a big year for her at church.

She made two sacraments, Reconciliation and First Communion.

She had to learn a lot and was very proud of her accomplishments ~ as were we!

Alayna is spunky and definitely has some not so great moments with her siblings (and hubby and I if I'm being completely honest here).  

But she does love her family and is always cheering her siblings on

as long as we aren't in the volleyball gym for too long!

Like I said, she loves her family ~ once in awhile I'll wake up to notes like this one (her spelling has gotten better since this first one)

She loves spending time playing, laughing and simply just hanging out together

She is adventurous and full of life! I can't wait to see where she goes!

A month of review

I don't know how it is possible, but I seem to not be able to find the time to sit and write.  Perhaps it is that I haven't been making the time to sit and write, which is a bummer, because I like to write.....

It isn't that I haven't had ideas to write about.  I have many drafts started.  I just haven't finished them for a variety of reasons:  I didn't have my pictures watermarked and ran out of time, I couldn't find the words to finish a post the way I wanted, the kids came home from school and I had to step away from the computer, and the list goes on and on.... Hopefully, I will get them finished.....soon.  They feel like unfinished projects.

Let me get you caught up on the happenings from the last month over here at my house:

Volleyball is still in full swing for Sassy.

Someone is excited about playing softball and found a bat that she thought would be perfect.

I was able to sneak a picture of Action reading to Smiley. 

I love that he grabbed some books and asked her if he could read to her.  So sweet!

Action had the opportunity to meet someone he really looks up to:  

The Catholic Guy himself, Lino Rulli and we have a blurry, bad light, cell phone picture to prove it!

A certain little 6 year old was asked, by her dad, to attend a Daddy Daughter dance.  

She planned for weeks regarding what she was going to wear for this special event.  

Sassy found my old hot rollers and styled her hair for her.  

It was fun to watch their sisterly bond even though there is an 8 year difference in age.

Breaking news....SOMEONE LOST THEIR FIRST TOOTH!

She was super excited, and couldn't get over her new look.

Hubby's parents were visiting so we decided to celebrate a couple of birthdays a few weeks early.

I made their favorite, yellow cake (from a box) and chocolate frosting 

(FYI only one of them is 14, but you'll just have to figure that one out for yourself).

After cake, we stepped outside for a quick family picture.

 Finally, our TV took a turn for the worst.  I guess if you like to watch television shows in double and in strange colors, it works, I however, do not. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with this wall.  What ever builder thought it was a good idea to cut a hole in the wall to fit a tv obviously wasn't thinking about the future and the problems that might pose.  So, if you have any ideas for me, my ears are open.  Leave a comment or shoot me an email.  I'll take any ideas you have (note the whole area behind the tv is hollow)!

Summer Vacation

I think I would be rich if I could invent some sort of contraption that would slow time down in the summer.  How can three months go by so quickly?  Three whole months of sports, friends, sun, fun and relaxation.  I'm not sure, but they did.   And in those three months, I only managed to put together two blog posts.  Only two?  My kids started back to school last tuesday, Sept 2nd  (which is, and will be, a blog post of it's own) and I have finally sat myself down in front of the computer to catch up.

Although I didn't blog much, we indeed did have a fun summer, let me show you:

Warning: Here comes the photo overload

Action had a fun baseball season.  

A short break during a 13 mile bike ride with the family

Sassy's softball team played in a Nationals Tournament.  They placed 4th out of 72 teams.  

They played 10 games and Sassy pitched in every one of them.

Hanging out between games 

Sassy even got Smiley to pitch a little

A very relaxing day on the lake

When we were on a weekend camping trip with friends, this stray cat decided it wanted to be part of our group.

I celebrated my birthday with my family ~ and mmmm..... an ice-cream cake!

A fun morning doing a little painting at our local Color Me Mine

Some state fair fun which included seeing a not quite 1 day old baby pig, rides and treats to name a few things:

 And even when the summer softball season ends, the pitching never does.  Lets just say she is very happy her fall softball season has started up.  She didn't like having to take two whole weeks off :)

And it has been our tradition the last few years to make gak the week before school starts, 

this year was no different.

This is simply a snapshot!  There was so much more we did, more softball, more baseball, more lake time, more crafts, more playing, and great times with friends, bonfires, crafts, water fun and just time relaxing.  It was a great summer!