A Prince is Born

The long awaited Royal Baby watch has ended, or maybe just begun!  9 months of waiting for July 22, 2013 to finally arrive when we heard word that William & Kate had their firstborn child, a son, a prince, a future king.  Now we wait for pictures & will watch him grow up from afar, thanks to modern technology.

April 29, 2011

The happy couple

The mom-to-be

While doing school yesterday, Isabella was watching the live feed outside the Lindo Wing on her IPOD.  It was fun to wake her up with her Kate magazine & tell her Kate was in labor.  She was going to be a "mum" this day!

Official announcement placed on the gold easel at Buckingham Palace:

"Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 4.24 p.m. The baby weighs 8 pounds 6 ounces. Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well."

It was signed by the medical staff who helped deliver the baby.

It's A Boy!!

My vote is that Spencer is somewhere in his name.  Time will tell.  It was fun to watch history unfold yesterday & to watch the traditions of old with the birth announcement being carried by car to be delivered to Buckingham Palace.

June/July in Review

Here is a random summer in review photo update from June & July so far:

Isabella & Kaki on top of the truck at the drive in movie.

And next door, Brook & Kale on top of the car at the drive in.

We went with a group of friends to the drive-in to celebrate this special little boy's life.  Happy birthday Dax!  Dax had a liver transplant as a baby and has just turned 9 years old.

Isabella was super excited to be a teen helper at VBS this summer at our church.

She worked in a pre-K room.

Brook was glad to have Mallie with her at VBS.

Isabella & some 7th grade friends had a baby shower in honor of Princess Kate!

We are still on Royal baby watch!

We've spent several days swimming at anyone's pool who will have us!

Here is Isabella swimming with the turtle at friend's pool. 

Chillin' Brook

Swimming at an indoor pool....it was just plain cold y'all.  I stuck my toe in, but that's as much as I could stand.  The girls adapted better :)

The girls are with our British neighbor who turned 88 last week.  We are thankful for such sweet neighbors.  We love them & they are like great grandparents to our girls.

Isabella was dressed up for a murder mystery birthday party.

Our church hosted a Movie & A Makeover night for Brook's grade.  

She was sooo excited to finally attend this event!

Meanwhile, Avery & I had a date night.  We enjoyed the most delicious cheesecake I have ever tasted from the Cheesecake Corner downtown Memphis.  This was a caramel coffee flavor.  So yum.  

Avery & I watched the sunset over the Mississippi River.

Brook & Aliyah at our Saturday Spanish class with our Colombian hosts. 

Birthday parties were the theme of the weekend.  Our friends had this big slide in their yard.  

Isabella enjoying water fun!

Brook, Kale & Mallie

Celebrating Kaki's birthday!  These sweet friends have known each other since they were 2 years old!

We also celebrated Kale's birthday.

In our spare time, we have frozen yogurt.  I'm a little addicted.

We had a reunion of our past community group from our old church & Isabella enjoyed every minute with this cutie!

So there is photo overload for this week!  We will continue to seek out swim opportunities & are enjoying ourselves in between school days.  I hope you are enjoying your summer & have a great weekend ahead!

Back to School, already??

As the saying goes, we strive to be lifetime learners. As we prepare for a busy fall & even busier spring, it was time for school work to begin.  We have officially begun our 2013-2014 homeschool year! Isabella is in 7th grade & Brook is in 4th grade. Before you think I'm crazy for starting school in July, our goal is to get in one week of school before the end of the month.  Therefore, we will only be doing school maybe 2 days each week. This will help us be ahead come this fall before we get behind! So far, the school year is off to a good start!  When daily school in August arrives, we will be adding a few more things to the school schedule.  This year, we have no outside commitments, which feels great.  I am giving the girls much more independence with their school assignments this year to train them to do a lot on their own in preparation for homeschooling in Colombia & for even college.

The girls working on their art drawing....they are using their teeth, drawing like Joni Eareckson Tada.  The title of this lesson was appropriately called "Frustration".

Isabella's science experiment on the density of atoms.  

We have 3 layers: corn syrup, water, & oil.

A rock sank to the bottom of the glass.  A grape floated on top of the corn syrup.  A piece of ice floated on top of the water.  A piece of cork floated on top of the oil.  

Here I was on planning/organizing day.  The girls are continuing using My Father's World curriculum studying Creation to the Greeks this year.  It is a great curriculum, layed out well & bible based.  We add our own math, grammar, writing, and spelling.  I am thankful for this company & for a friend who blessed me by sharing her old curriculum with me!

Summer Fun

Summer fun continues with our friends from SC who came for a visit in Memphis.  The Greens were in town to see friends here & it was fun to have them back in Memphis.  Just seemed natural.  Here are some pictures from the fun (and I give photo credits to Laura for most of the photographs!).

Libby, Lillian, & Brook at afternoon playdate 

A big moment...our dog, Beckham, & the Green's dog met.

They're friends too!

We had a gathering of several families at a friends home.  This is how the girls kept busy. 

And the adults enjoyed food, drinks, conversation & live music!

Lauren & Brook

I just love how Brook can crash anywhere when she is tired. 

The kiddos all spent the night at the Fernandez home.  Here are Brook, Catherine, & Libby.

Brook, Lillian, Catherine, Libby, Isabella, & Lauren

The parents all met the next morning for coffee & donuts.  We even had an impromptu encore music session. 

Homeschool mommas

Lauren & Isabella  (Miller was at camp, so she didn't get to make the trip).

And last but not least, Avery & Tim.  This is Avery after his morning coffee!

Happy 4th!

I hope you all had a happy 4th celebration!  We are thankful for our freedoms & for our military & others who help us enjoy a free life each day in our country.

We started our morning with a new recipe, courtesy of Ree Drummond from the Pioneer Woman.  If you haven't seen her show on the Food Network or read her blog, I recommend it.

French Breakfast Puffs

Ingredients:

3 c all-purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 c sugar

2/3 cup shortening (I used butter)

2 eggs

1 c milk

Coating:

1 stick butter

1 c sugar

3 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 & lightly grease 12 muffin cups.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt & nutmeg.  Set aside.

In a separate large bowl, cream together the sugar & shortening.  Add the vanilla, eggs, & mix again.  Alternate adding 1/3 of the flour mixture & 1/3 of the milk to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.  Fill the muffin cups 2/3 full.  Bake until golden 20-25 minutes.  Remove the muffins from the pan & set aside.  To make the coating, melt the butter in a bowl.  In a separate container, combine the sugar & cinnamon.  Dip the warm muffins in the butter, coating thoroughly.  Then roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Side note:  I had some remaining batter, so I also made some mini puffs in my mini-muffin pan.  Also for the coating, the original recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter & 1 1/2 c. sugar.  I reduced it, only because that seemed like soo much butter/sugar.  I also used a low fat milk, but Pioneer Woman always cooks with whole milk.  Just trying to save a few calories where I can.  Clearly I still got enough from this recipe!

Delicious!

I love decorating with food!  We have a display of red & blue M & M's (dark chocolate), white yogurt covered pretzels, & good ol' Twizzlers.  So far the day is good with this food!

We spent some time at my sister's house on the 4th.  We were able to meet her 2 week old nephew (my brother-in-law's sister's son).  He was precious & the girls enjoyed holding him.

My 4th of July accessory...a bracelet Isabella made for me last summer while she was at camp.  I love it & wear it often.

Fireworks are always viewed best from home & this year the NYC fireworks did not disappoint.  And for a comical touch to end the holiday, these are the sounds I went to bed hearing....