Proud of my Hoopster!!

Jase had an 8:30 game this morning...can you say early?? Lol!

Ok, so I missed the first game since it was on the day of Alisha's wedding and Jase made a basket that game. Since then he has yet to score in a game and you can tell that he really wanted to make a basket. And of course Shawn and I are proud of him no matter what, but he gets right up to the basket and he dribbles off his foot or passes the ball and he loses he opportunity to shoot.

Today his team had 5 players and the other team only had 3, so when they asked for volunteers to join the other team, Jase was the first and only one with his hand up. So, we joined the Dallas Mavericks for the day! Only downfall about this is that he is still wearing his red Rockets jersey and playing on the other team. I think the referee honestly forgets that Jase is on the other team and does not get to dribble down as much as the other kids. And then he doesn't know anyone on the blue team, so not a lot of passes come his way.

Jase's team (Mavericks) had the ball and were coming down court. One little boy (Junior) had the ball and Jase says "pass, pass". Well the little boy passes the ball and Jase shoots and MAKES IT!!! He was so excited!! He jumped up and down with his fist in the air, and hi-fives Junior who passed him the ball...it was awesome!! We were all cheering for him and you would have thought he was 15 years old and hit the game winning shot! I was so happy for him and tears literally came to my eyes! It was so cool to see him score a basket! One game left...maybe he'll get another one and if not, I'm glad I was able to see him make this one! :)


Jase dribbling down the court



Jase after the game! All smiles!

Half Bath Renovation...continued (finally)

Well, we have been busy this summer and my quick half bath reno has turned into a long drawn out project. Sanding is nearly impossible during the day with the kiddos at home and with all of the dust. Then when Shawn gets home and we have dinner and baths it gets too late to turn on the electric sander when the babies are in bed. Long story short, we have not worked on it! Lol!

Jase was so excited to see Daddy work on the bathroom that he got all masked up and wanted to help too. When Shawn was finished sanding for the day, both he and the room was a complete mess!! So much so he went outside and literally hosed himself down before jumping into the shower. Hopefully we can keep this ball rolling and get it finished before Allyson's birthday party!!

Did someone say ice cream sandwiches?

Tonight after church we took dessert out back and enjoyed the sunset. As you can see the kids loved their ice cream sandwiches and so did Mom!!

D is for Diamond

After being on vacation last week and not doing our lessons, we are back in full swing!! This week we're learning about Eyes with our vocabulary word "iris", the color blue, the letter D, the number 4 and Lavender's Blue nursery rhyme.



Jase and Allyson working on their letter D pages



We give sticker candy instead of real candy!



Allyson LOVES stickers!!

After our lesson today, we turned on Dino Dan for the letter D.  It is a show on Nick Jr. about a little boy who sees and communicates with dinosaurs. It is a pretty informative show and Jase and Allyson both like it. Win-Win!

Getting ready for pre-k

Jase picked out his backpack and lunch kit for pre-k today...Cars 2 of course!! :)

R&R in Livinston

After being home for 1 day, we packed up the kids (and Nanny) and headed to Livingston for a little R&R.  We stayed with my Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Jim.  They have a nice home in Livingston with lots of rooms and bathrooms to accommodate our family! Every time we go up there, we have such a grand time whether we're fishing on their pond, swimming in their pool, having breakfast or just sitting around the kitchen table talking away.  I'm not sure if it's the country pace or what, but it is always so relaxing there...very refreshing.

On Saturday Aunt Kathleen's three children (my cousins) and their children came over to swim and visit.  Alisha, Aunt Susan and Dylan also drove up and stayed the night on Saturday.  I had a great time catching up with everyone and making new memories as well!

Chicago Trip!!

I had a great trip to Chicago last week.  I went for 4 days and 3 nights and stayed at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.  I went with two friends, and one of them works there so she invited us to go.  We did a River Architecture Cruise Tour and that was good...very detailed about all of the buildings on the Chicago River and who the company was, the firm that financed it, what art deco era, the year, design...etc.  At one point Michelle looked at me and said "are you falling asleep?"  I smiled and answered "yes!" LOL!

I was definitely impressed with all of the downtown buildings.  They were all unique and just a ton of history.

We also bought a 3 day package for a double decker/trolley tour guide.  That was really neat.  There was 14 stops in the downtown tour and you could get on and off at any of those stops from 9a-5p everyday.  Not only did we see and learn about Chicago from this tour, but we also used it for a means of transportation around the city.  A double decker bus would be by a stop every 15-20 minutes to pick up or drop off.  We also bought another package to tour the rest of Chicago that took trolley buses out to the suburban parts of the city.  We took two out of three of those tours and saw Wrigley Field, Chinatown, Greektown, and Little Italy. We drove right next to Wrigley Field, but didn't get to see inside the stadium since there was construction.  And Chinatown was neat to see where Chinese immigrants settled over 100 years ago.  There was not much left of Greektown and Little Italty with the exceptions of a few restaurants.

I enjoyed the food in Chicago...maybe a little too much!  Haha!  The first day we ate lunch at Giordano's...so good!!  The pizza was fabulous!! We also had dessert after dinner nearly every night...c'mon we're on vacation!! :) I celebrated my 31st birthday there and had a wonderful meal. We went to an Italian restaurant (surprise, surprise) and we shared 4-5 different entrees and then headed over to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert.  I am still smiling a week later!

Last, but certainly not least we did a little shopping as well! They have a street called "The Magnificient Mile" where they advertise a mile of fabulous shopping.  A couple of the tour bus guides said it isn't actually a full mile, but more like 3/4 of a mile.  Either way...I enjoyed it.  I think that Macy's headquarters are in Chicago, so we probably saw at least 4 of those and the one we went into was 8 stories tall!! Now, it wasn't as wide a normal Macy's, but 8 stories was pretty impressive.  I also got to visit a Vera Bradley store...LOVE IT!! I wish I could take the decor from that store and decorate a room or two in my house!  The American Girl Place was really neat; two stories of dolls, clothes, accessories, matching outfits for the girl owners, a cafe, a hair salon for the dolls...you name it they had it.  Ally is a little too young for this now, but I can't wait for when she gets older! :)

I had a wonderful time...great place to visit and plenty of things to do in Chicago!