A Day in December

For all of November, our micro church gathered ingredients for "survival kits" for the homeless. Then, in early December, we gathered to assemble the kits. It was a hilarious scene, and our good friend Jeff wrote about the whole thing, here. 

Walt and Meredith manned the toothpaste and toothbrush center. 


George was in charge of trash bags.


Ella made as many kits as any grown up.


The sock pile was almost as tall as Madeline. 

We made about 400 kits in about 2 hours with things donated by just about everyone we know. It was a good and amazing time. 

Action Shots

Hadley and Madeline reading:



Meredith dancing:

 

Soccer

When your dad is coach, and your dad is a great coach, life is good. When 2 amazing moms also help coach, life is even sweeter.

A Day in October

Today began with a 9 week honors assembly. Madeline trotted across the stage for reading and math and felt honored to do so. That said, she was much more excited to watch Meredith dance in her first Dance Team performance.

Meredith danced for the two separate assemblies with her amazing team. She also won some awards, but mostly we're excited about how hard she worked to learn everything she needed for school and dance.

 

After school, Ginger and I coached our first Destination Imagination practice. I love these kids so much, I have to resist the urge to tell them that when they're, say, rolling around trying to pretend they're a boat (Meredith is the sail). 

After DI, Mer was blessed to meet her church small group leader (Jessica) for a little one on one time at Muddy's. What could be better than a cupcake and a cozy chat? Meanwhile, the rest of us tried to squeeze in a quick lesson about all the believers having all things in common, using marshmallows and toothpicks. I feel sure that much was gained. 

We ended the evening with church at the Young Avenue Deli. Bursting with blessings.

Something's Gotta Give

The blogging has got to get rolling again. And the photos have to have a place to live other than my phone. Here are the things posted outside their classrooms for the first open house of the year for kindergarten and fourth grade. For posterity, and all that jazz. 

A Day Off

A couple weeks ago, Meredith went to school sick for most of the week. They had "Discovery" tests scheduled; she had a pretty bad cold, but she pressed on through the week. On Friday, I gave her the day off. I will preface the following pictures by saying that she slept an hour and a half late AND took a nap that afternoon. So there WAS actual rest involved. But it was a great day.
No denying that. 

It was one of the first beautiful days of spring and we decided to go to Overton Park. Meredith made a scavenger hunt for us, which included researching items to add to the list on the internet and recopying it three times. All in about 15 minutes. Work gets done so easily when we're inspired, aye?

We started out on the trails. Tree hugging was entirely optional. 

This guy did NOT get hugged. 

We looked for signs of spring. It gets talked about a lot lately, but I can't go without saying: this park is an amazing gift. 

This is the fairy garden. It's amazing when the crape myrtles are in bloom. Mer snuck back to leave something in the garden. Still don't know what.

The hunt took us through the forest and then to most of the Overton Park landmarks...the College of Art, the Levitt Shell, the Doughboy statue.

She wanted us to find when the park was established. This must have come from the internet research. 

There was then a long, beautiful run to back to the car. Being truly warm and outside for the first time in 2014—and then faced with a wide open golf course (all that stands between you and the car that will take you to Five Guys), a girl will run.