Alabama Sports Festival June 2014

Emilee has been taking Taekwondo since she was 9 years old.  She is now a blue belt with three stripes.  That means that the next time she tests, she should be a red belt.  The next belt after that is black.  She really likes it.  Of course there are times, she doesn't want to go, but for the most part, she likes it a lot.  This is the third year in a row that she has participated in the Alabama Sports Festival in Birmingham, Alabama.  It is a little like the Olympics, but on a state level.  Most of the time she competes in sparring and forms.  She always does really well in forms, but she gets very frustrated when she competes in sparring.  This year she decided to take a break from sparring and try board breaking.  So she competed in forms and board breaking this year.     

 In forms she did AWESOME!  She came in first place.  She was extremely happy.  Board breaking was another story.

They don't really focus a lot on breaking boards in her class.  She had only tried it a few times and the boards were a lot thinner then this.  She found out, because she was 12, that she had to use the thicker boards.  She panicked a lot.  She became very nervous.  Even though people assured her that the boards break very easily.  Still, she lacked experience.  I told her, I wasn't going to make her do it, but she did anyway.  I was very proud of her.  She did so well on the first board.  (You break three).  The other two, she just couldn't do and she hurt her foot.  She came in second though.  So not bad for a first time.

 I guess I am a mean mom.  I made her smile for a picture anyway.  Though this is right after.  She is not up for smiling too much.

She did a little better here.

 Afterwards, we went for ice cream by the river and let her soak her sore feet in the cold water.  She cheered up quite a bit.

Hunter stayed with a friend who lives in Birmingham now and Megan came down with us.  She was a trooper.  I know that she really didn't want to go and was bored out of her mind at the competition, but she came to support Emilee and for that, I am very proud of her.  She is a good sister.

May Birthdays 2014

So, by now you should know that the end of month is like Christmas for us.  All three kids have birthdays in the same week.  So of course it began with Megan.  

 I actually didn't get to be with Megan on her birthday.  This is the third year I have not actually been with Megan on her birthday.  Globals is always during her birthday.  So the first year I was at Globals with Emilee, then the next year Megan was at Globals and then this year I was at Globals with Emilee again.  It will probably be like that again if either one of them wins next time also.  So, she celebrated with Jeremy, her grandma and Hunter.  As you can see, they gave her cinnamon rolls.

She turned 14 years old today.  It is very hard to believe that she is really that old and that I am old enough to have a fourteen year old.  I am still in denial.  This year instead of going out to try and find something for her, Jeremy gave her $100 in cash.  I guess when she opened the card, she thought it was just a $20 until she opened it more and kept counting 20's.  She was quite surprised.

 Hunter was next.  He turned 10 years old this year.  I took him and a few friends ice skating on his request.  Two of the boys had never gone before.  They struggled at the beginning but they made it through and actually enjoyed themselves.  Afterwards I took them to the pizza place called Stevie B's and let them play some games.  It was a very easy birthday for me.

Of course he also had to celebrate with the family and his favorite dinner is Pesto pasta.  We call it green spaghetti.

 And ever since Hunter had a GiGi cupcake, he now has an aversion to frosting and just wanted a batch of brownies instead.  Again, pretty easy!

I can't believe my youngest is 10 now.  Man, the time does go by fast.

 And then finally, the last birthday is Emilee.  She turned 12 this year.  Maleficent came out on her birthday and asked if she could take a few friends to go see it.  How could I say no.  Another easy one for me.  Here they all are in front of the movie theater all sweet and cute.

 And this is how we moms see them. Crazy, crazy and more crazy.

After the movie, I took them to get frozen yogurt.  I sat at the next table and pretended I didn't know them.  I think they all felt big.  

 Emilee also celebrated with the family.  Her favorite meal is chicken and rice

...and she has no problem with frosting.  12 years old and going to middle school.  She will be my girly, girl all the way.  She loves clothes, nail polish, make up and shoes.  She never thinks she can have enough shoes.  

Happy Birthday kids!  Hope your year is fantastic!

Sixth Grade Graduation for Emilee

Emilee is finally out of sixth grade.  Talk about excited.  She was so happy!  She couldn't wait to hit middle school.

Of course all the sixth graders are.  They are more then ready for a little more independence.

Emilee will make a great seventh grader.

Emilee-- Space Camp 2014

So, in sixth grade around here, the kids get to go to space camp for a school field trip.  Even though this is an expensive field trip, it is cheaper then if we were to do it on our own.  Megan went when she was in sixth grade and now it was Emilee's turn.  She was especially excited because in fifth grade she was suppose to do Camp McDowell and I had to pick her up because she had caught the flu.  So she was not missing this for anything.  This is drop off.

This is the outside of her dorm room.  She was excited to room with one of her best friends.

This is the inside of the dorm room.  She had lots of adventures during the day.  Hated sleeping there.  She said she was really cold and the beds were not comfortable at all.  She also got some kind of rash there.  Who knows.  She has sensitive skin.  And they had a fire and had to evacuate one night.  Even with all that, she still had a great time.

Destination Imagination 2014

Once again I managed Emilee's DI team.  It was quite the year.  We had a team of 5th and 6th graders this year.  As much as I wanted them to do Challenge D:  The Improv challenge, I couldn't get them to do it.  Megan's team decided they wanted to do Improv and this is the first year that Emilee was put in the same age group as Megan and so she didn't want to compete against their team.  She convinced everybody that would be a bad idea.  They went with Challenge B:  The Scientific challenge.  They had to create gear that would get them out of a bad situation and help the survive in that extreme weather environment.  Emilee's team this year was called Warning:Extreme Danger.  In their story, they found themselves landing on Jupiter, fighting against Alien squids and trying not to be sucked into the Great Red Spot.  Guess what?  They survived.  It was quite the story.

At Regionals they came in first place.  This is indeed an accomplishment.  They were by far the youngest team going against Middle Schoolers.  Megan's team also got first place in their Improv challenge.

Megan's team at Affliate.  They did a great job.  They got second place.

Emilee's team at Affliate.  They did a fantastic job.  I thought for sure they would get first, but they also came in second.  

So with my two second place winners, I thought.....Whew..No Globals this year.  I can relax.  Then it came.  A first place team had dropped out.  They pulled out a team randomly from the second place winners and guess what? ....Warning: Extreme Danger was that team.  Well, of course they were just excited and so the fundraising begins.  We did a lot of fundraising and with that hard work, everything was paid except for $175 per team member.  Not bad for a $900 bill for each team member.  So onto Globals we went.  (Remember...Globals is where the team competes against the whole world.  That tournament is always in Knoxville, TN.)

Here we are, ready to go.  They were excited!

I signed the team up to have a buddy team.  I thought that would be a fun experience for them.  Their buddy team was from Romania.  I had hoped they would get to visit with them more often, but our schedules were very different, and it just didn't work out.  The kids exchanged t-shirts and gifts and loved it anyways.

Here are some highlights of our trip above.

It was a great trip.  The kids were fun and got a long well.  They did awesome!  Next time, Emilee will be at the middle school and under a different group.  It means a whole new learning experience for the both of us.

Easter

Once again the Easter Bunny made an appearance.  I think next year, the Easter Bunny might be just a little more conservative.  Sometimes, he just can't help himself.  Darn Easter Bunny.

Down below are the kids dressed up and ready for Easter.

Megan

Emilee

Hunter

Yep, I have beautiful children!

Wicked in Nashville

In March I was so excited to take my girls to see Wicked in Nashville.  So many people, told me all about the show and how great it was.  I tried to see it in New York City twice.  Both times, it was just way to expensive.  Friends said, it is so worth it, but I don't care what show you are watching.  $200 a ticket, $400 for the pair, is just not worth it.  So patience.  I knew it would come to me.  Woo-Hoo, my friend Kyla said let's go and so we decided to take our girls.  Best day.  It was a great show.  Still not worth $200 a ticket, but a good show.  The seats were high up, but we all had a great time and the music was wonderful.  

It is now one of our favorite sound tracks to listen to.  I think watching this made Megan want to get on the stage even more.  Since going to the show, she has expressed a stronger desire then ever to pursue this goal.  She loves to sing, she loves to be on stage and she loves to act.  
    So would I recommend seeing wicked?  Ya, definitely.  If it is coming to your city, for sure go.  You won't be disappointed.    

It'a been way TOO long and Happy New Year!

       Holy cow!  I can't believe it!  I use to be so good at this and couldn't ever see why many of my friends never updated their blog.  Well, I fear that I may have joined the dark side and let my blog slide just a bit.  I remember the days when I couldn't wait to do something with the kids, my husband, my friends or even just me, taking pictures and blogging about the whole event.  I bragged to others saying, "What a great way to keep your journal current."  Well, dark side... I am going back to the light.  No more.  I really am going to try better and keep up the blog and staying on top of things.  For the most part, I enjoy blogging and I don't know how I got so far behind.  Well, I could tell you what happened through most of 2013.  This could be a novel of some sorts, but not going to happen.  I am starting fresh.  I could tell you about Emilee competing in the Alabama Sports Festival with her killer Taekwondo skills and receiving 2nd place in forms and 3rd place in sparring.  I could tell you all about our trip to Florida and the time we spent at Pensacola Beach.  I could go into telling you about the lighthouse that we climbed the many many steps to get up and learning that it is the most haunted lighthouse in America, the boogie boards we used and the dolphin cruise we took.  I could also tell you all about Hunter and his first year playing soccer and all the fun he had playing defense.  I could also tell you all about Megan and how she has been taking some acting classes, tried out for "The Christmas Carol" and loving her new found talent of singing in the choir.  I could go into Halloween and how Megan was the Queen of Hearts, Emilee was an angel (while one of her best friends was the devil) and Hunter was a Mad Scientist.  I could also go into tell you about our yearly trip to the pumpkin patch and Lyon's farm and how much we still like going there.  I could tell you all about those things, but I think I will just keep you guessing about all that stuff and we will just start with Christmas.  That is always a good place to start.

         Ahh, Christms!  What a season it is.  This is our fifth Christmas here in the Huntsville Alabama area.  I never thought I would live in the South, but I have to say that after six years I have to say that I like it.  We had quite the Christmas this year and as always, I probably went a little overboard.  I can't help it.  I really do try to say that I will be conservative, but I just have so much fun.  Of course, after all was bought and taken care of and we were settling down for the holiday, the Lamps' Christmas traditions could start.  First up:  Making cookies for Santa and  those sneaky Pajama Elves.

     It doesn't matter how old the kids get.  Making cookies for Santa is always something that they look forward to.  Yes, even Megan.  She swears at 13 that she doesn't care, but I think she does.  I think she still likes it all and I hope that even when she is 18 years old that she will still love making cookies for Santa. This is the first time that I haven't frosted any.  I let them do it all themselves.  We usually leave six for Santa (2 each of their most favorite that they decorated) and then the rest are for us.
     And how can we forget about the sneaky pajama elves.  I don't know if they come to your house at all, but every Christmas Eve, pajama elves ring the doorbell and leave brand new pajamas for the kids to wear to bed that night.  They never get caught.  Go figure.  One year though, we will catch them one year.

      Christmas Eve we try to remember our Savior.  Sometimes we have a quick lesson about our Savior and sometimes (like this year) we have something just a bit longer.  This year is was the Christmas devotional that is given by the church.  We didn't get a chance to see it this year, but Jeremy had recorded it so we watched it on Christmas Eve.  We read the Night Before Christmas, open one present and soon after that, the kids were up in their beds with thoughts and dreams of sugar plums dancing in their heads.

     Hunter started our Christmas morning off.  He was excited to get Swap Force which is a crazy game on the Xbox.  That was by far his favorite, but he also got magic tricks, a pogo stick, and a Sega handheld game of some sort.  Of course that's not all, but those were the favorites.

      Emilee is our piano player and what do you give a piano player?  Well, a keyboard, why not?  She plays it all the time.  Emilee mostly wanted clothes and let me tell you, she got a ton.  That is my fashion deva for ya.  She also was the one who found the pickle on the tree that Santa hid.  That means she got to open the pickle present.  She was very happy about that.  I believe she has only found it once before.  (In our family, we leave a pickle ornament out for Santa to hide and the one who finds it, gets to open the pickle present.  It is usually for everyone, but the one who finds it, gets the pride and opens the present.)

     That leaves Megan.  She got one of the coolest things this year.  She got an electric guitar with amplifier and a program to help her learn.  Why not just get her a teacher?  I suppose money and time.  Not enough money and running out of time.  Though, Megan has had 4-5 years of piano, I believe if anybody can teach herself, it would be Megan.  She has a knack for musical notes.  She just has to put in the time and discipline to do it.  I think she likes it though, it is just a matter of sitting down and doing it.

      That pretty much is Christmas in a nutshell.  Jeremy got a fire pit for the back deck, Bunny got a huge mirror for her bedroom and me.....I got the best toy of all, a brand new Cameo Silhouette.  If only I knew how to use it.
       Now here we are....2014.  I am full of resolutions and promises that this is going to be the best year yet.  Come back often and find out.  Happy New Year, Everyone!!