Movin' On Up

Tanner has been faithfully plugging away at Tae Kwon Do trying to work his way up.  Here is the visual of rank advancement.  Everyone starts at a white belt and then goes up from there..... yellow, orange, green, purple, blue, brown, red, Bo Don, Super Bo Don (there are several levels of this) and then finally Black Belt.  Tanner is bound and determined to work his way up to Black Belt.

He is currently a Blue Belt....

But on Wednesday night, he got one step closer to his goal as he took the belt test....

And earned his Brown Belt!

And then last night, Tanner had a Court of Honor in Scouts where he earned advanced to Second Class Scout.  This is actually an old picture because I completely forgot to take any pictures last night!  But I wanted to document it nonetheless.

Tanner loves scouts and has faithfully gone every week for many years now (I think 5 or 6 now).  He became a Scout (which is the first ranking you earn after leaving Cub Scouts and becoming a Boy Scout).  Then he earned his Tenderfoot and then his Second Class Scout ranking.  Now he is working on becoming a First Class Scout.  From there, he will try to earn Star, followed by Life, then finally Eagle.

Keep up the good work, T!

Bookend Birthdays

Wednesday morning, we woke up to a TEENAGER in the house for the very first time!  Lacey enjoyed breakfast in bed with her two favorite things - pop tarts and strawberry milk.

I took the day off work so that I could be there to see Lacey off to school AND be there when she came home.... and was thinking she may want to play hooky with me and go and do something fun!  She declined.  She said she wanted to go to school and be with her friends on her birthday and said it would be fun for her to have them see her and wish her Happy Birthday and such.  And she said that she knew she made the right decision when one of her friends decorated her locker.

And although she declined my offer to take her out of school, she did say that she would love it if I would drop off CFA for lunch!  In Middle School, parents aren't allowed to eat with their kids like we can in elementary school, but apparently they are allowed to drop off they food, so here I am adhering to the request of the birthday girl!

That night, I made her very favorite dinner (a dish she calls "Ratatouille") and finished it off with an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins.

She asked to invite over her friends from school and church and have a "friend party" last night.  So, last night was Round 2 of celebrating Lacey.  This time, she requested cheesecake.

Lacey's peeps.

So grateful for all these girls.  Last year, as Lacey transitioned from Elementary School to Middle School, she faced some challenging situations she had to figure out and navigate as people changed, friendships changed, loyalties were compromised, etc.  But she has found some really sweet girls both at church and school and that makes me so happy. 

Lacey made each girl a bracelet with their name on it using her 3D pen.

After hosting Lacey's birthday party last night, we woke up this morning to ANOTHER birthday girl!  My Ella Grace is 7! 😢😱😳

Since her birthday fell on a Saturday, she was very sad that she wouldn't get her mama bringing her lunch at school on her birthday.  So I surprised her by going in the other day AND signing up to be her Guest Reader in class that day.  She was thrilled!

Then today, we had her friend party.  

She wanted a Chick Fit A party.  I did some research on this and CFA doesn't host parties at their restaurants.  Soooo......... I brought CFA to our house!  I did a cow-themed party (Eat more Chikin) and ordered off the Catering menu from CFA.

I ordered a ton of cow balloons and even a little cow costume for Ella.  

She makes for a very cute cow ;) 🐄

Our front door decorations welcoming our guests.

And Riley dressed up as a CFA employee and helped serve the kids their food and with games.

We did a variety of cow-themed games including a treasure hunt, which culminated in finding a piñata for the treasure.  All the kids took turns hitting it and when it exploded, the kids went crazy collecting all the candy and toys the were stuffed inside.

And then we wrapped up the party with ice cream and cake!

Dave made this cake.  It's called a piñata cake and when you cut into it, it explodes with candy.  

Ready to eat!

I have been throwing birthday parties for many, many years for lots of kids!  But this was my very first boy/girl party!  The older three have always given me "friend lists" that consist of only kids their same gender.  Not Ella!  Her list was 50/50.  And thankfully her CFA team was gender neutral so it all worked out!

After her party ended she had fun opening gifts with her sister and her bestie (Dom) from across the street.

And then tonight, the six of us went out to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen  to celebrate our birthday bookends as a family.

Birthday dessert cheers!

I don't have any baby pics of Lacey on this computer, but here I am moments after giving birth to and meeting my Ella Grace.  One of the four most amazing moments in my life.

None of the nurses could believe how much blonde hair she had.  They all said the the only time they ever saw babies with that much hair, it was always dark hair.  That should have been my first sign that this girl would always beat to the sound of her own drum!

Every year, this week of my bookend babies getting older, just 3 days apart from each other, is always bitter sweet.  This year in particular is hard since my first baby is now a teenager (how did THAT happen?!)  But every stage has it's joys.  I am so grateful for my first baby and this last baby..... and for all the highs and lows and joys and challenges of every moment of motherhood in between. 💗

I Have a Dream.....

Today Dave had the day off work and all the kids had the day off of school because it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  So, I figured, we should spend the day showing the kids why they don't have school today.  We got up bright and early and headed to DC to the new (opened just 3 years ago on Sept 24, 2016) Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture.  

We started in the basement.  There are three floors below the museum that delve into the history of slavery and racism.  

Random background about this picture..... Tanner and I read a book a couple years ago about how the original Emancipation Proclamation was burned in the Chicago Fire and how a woman risked her life trying to save it.  So, I was surprised to see this.  I asked two employees about it and they both insisted this was the original.  I told them that I thought the original was burned in the Chicago Fire.  They had no idea what I was talking about.  Upon closer inspection, I saw that at the bottom of this page, it noted that this was a copy of the original but it has the original signatures of Abraham Lincoln and the Secretary of State.  So, there you have it! Mystery solved!  And I should clearly get a part time working at this museum ;)

Riley learning about segregation and racism and standing her ground at the makeshift Woolworth's counter.

Entering a segregated train.

The bottom three floors were emotional. I didn't take a ton of pictures and I'm not posting all of the ones I did.  So much of it is just too sad and horrific (the children being torn from their mother's arms at the auction block... I can't even stand to think about it!!).  But when you come up on to the main floor, you can go into this contemplative room where all there is is an indoor waterfall and some inspirational quotes on the wall.  It was a perfect way to decompress after all we had just seen and read.

And then we went to the top three floors which were the "fun floors."  They celebrated African American athletes, musicians, politicians and how far we've all come.

Here are 9 of Car Lewis's Olympic medals.  He won a total of 10, but he buried one with his father.

I of course loved the Michael Jordan section!

And the Oprah section!

And then we made our way back to our car, stopping by the Washington Monument.

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear." ~ MLK