Father’s Day

We had the most relaxing Father’s Day weekend! The kids and I went (almost) nowhere on Friday. We went to the gym and pool, then my parents house Saturday morning, and the Hammers Game Saturday night. Nick had already declared Saturday night (when Z scored those goals) as his best Father’s Day present, but we still celebrated him with a nice steak dinner and a movie (Big Hero 6, which is awesome, by the way) Friday night and a day at the movies on Sunday. We saw Inside Out, which was another winner in our books, so fun!

They’d already decided which feelings they identified with. Z was ‘Anger’ and Lu was ‘Sadness.’

Or, was it ‘Joy?’

Lu was a little small for the flip chair, so she ended up in my lap.

We snacked, laughed, could’ve cried, but suppressed it, basically it was a great movie!

We had a great dinner and ended the weekend with cobbler and ice cream on the couch watching Star Wars Rebels at Nick’s Zayd’s request ;)

I have some pretty amazing fathers in my life, and Nick is absolutely no exception! He loves his children fiercely and would go to the ends of Earth for them! He’s caring, devoted, and so much fun! We are so thankful for him on Father’s Day and EVERY DAY!

You'll Never Believe What Happens Next

You know those videos on Facebook that are like "A little boy meets an old man 'and you'll never believe what happens next'"? Man, those things get on my nerves, but we actually kinda had one of those moments on Saturday.

Z's school soccer program was having "Family Night" at a Birmingham Hammers game, our local soccer team which I never knew existed before last Tuesday. Anyway, I mentioned it to Nick, then we mentioned it to Z, and he got really excited about it. It rained in the afternoon and we were kinda getting settled in for the night, running late, but Z was so excited, we had to get up and go.

It was a really cool and fun game, but where things really got interesting was at halftime when they do this goal scoring competition where they put small nets in the corners of the goals and get kids from the crowd to try and kick the ball into one of the nets.

Nick had the idea for Z to go out there, but I wasn't so sure because he was a good bit younger than all the other kids out there. Thankfully, they didn't listen to me, and he jumped out there and got in line to take a shot.There were probably about 25 or so kids that lined up to try and score a goal. About five had scored when Z was up, then this happened.

He scored! We couldn't believe it! His reaction was PRICELESS, and I was so proud when he said his name and his age into the microphone!

They lined up the 6 finalists and had them go again to narrow it down further, and Z scored AGAIN! This time he kicked into the corner goal on the opposite side. The crowd went nuts, and I'm not exaggerating (well, maybe a little). Only one other contestant (who was about 13 years old) scored on the second round, so he and Z went again to determine the winner.

Z missed the third and fourth shot and the older kid got one, so Z came in second place and it was really the sweetest moment ever! Especially when the announcer said he won a $55 credit for Hammer merchandise, $10 for every year of his life, ha! We were beaming, and that really isn't an exaggeration.

Needless to say, we are all Birmingham Hammer fans now!

Life Lately

Here’s what we’ve been up to lately.

Checkups

Playing outside and swimming

Running errands (and being silly)

Going to the library!

Watching the fireflies in our yard!

Baking! (and posing)

Hanging at Mama’s office

And visiting friends!

In short, it’s been a super fun summer so far!

Lu’s Third Birthday Party!

Saturday was Lu’s long awaited third birthday party. We decided that since she’s still “little” and the last time she went to a bounce house party I had to bribe her to get her to play, that we’d have one last “house” party and invite our friends and their kids.

I decided on a loose tea party theme. I say loose, because there were as many boys there as girls, so I didn’t want to go full fledge tea party for just half our guests.

I ordered the printables from Etsy and had them printed at the UPS store, then spent my evenings watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix and cutting everything out. I thought it turned out pretty cute.

We had activities for the kids, cupcake decorating, necklace making (these were perfect), and video games for some of our more rambunctious guests.

We had lots of food, some homemade and some catered, tea, lemonade, and a tea and coffee bar. Yummy food and drinks plus people I love equals good party in my book!

From the minute our guests started arriving, Lu wanted everyone to sing to her. After we ate and played, she got her wish.

Then, she got to open her presents! She was so excited to start playing with everything!

It was SUCH a fun party with a great group! It almost makes me want to have another house birthday party…

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a very fun and low-key Memorial Day weekend. Uncle Faris hung out with us on Friday, and he and Z took on some Bad Guys in the yard, while Lu examined the flowers.

We hung our flag and had some photo ops.

Then, more outside time with Baba.

The boys went to the new Avengers Movie, and Lu and I went to Frozen on Ice. She LOVED it!

Monday, we hit the pool then went over to my sister’s house for burgers! The kids played hard, we got to see two dance recital reenactments, and then we were ready to head home and call it a long weekend!