A (Busy) Week In Review

In usual Myers fashion, life has been down right hectic this week! We started off our weekend with our first bonfire of the season and an early Easter celebration with my mom and my grandpa.

The girls were insistent on building a fire....it was 20 degrees outside BUT the sun had come out earlier that day. I love that the sun reminded them of this. P.S. Please excuse these next few pictures as they are off my phone.

Maddie kept me warm (and the heater you can't see!).

Snuggles with Dad are always the best.

The girls entertained us as well....they made up some silly songs and sang them to us, did a little dancing. It was quite funny. One of those moments where Dave and I look at each other and secretly say to one another that "These are our girls. And they are great".

Lucy enjoyed her first bonfire as well.

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We leave for Mexico tomorrow morning bright and early! I grew up in a house where Easter was a very big deal and being gone meant an early celebration wit my mom. It was even more special because she brought my grandpa with her! Grandpa has been through a lot since my Grandma passed away last October. He's been dealing with his own cancer and is finally through with Chemo and feeling a bit better. Seeing him here, with the girls, dying Easter eggs was truly special. A moment in time that I'll remember forever.

Taylor made this beauty at her ceramics class last week during conferences. It really is beautiful, a bit unbalanced, but is hanging from our dining room lights.

She also made this cutie and it was the perfect middle of the table decoration.

The girls have become insistent on name cards for anything special. I love it.

The girls, Dave, my mom, grandpa and I spent some time dying eggs.

Love this picture....happy girls and their great grandpa looking on.

You are never too old to drink and dye eggs!

A special treat for after dinner. Grandpa loves sweets so I think this hit the spot.

In love with this picture as well. Love beams through the screen on this one.

 

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Work has been very busy these days! This week was particularly busy with a field trip, conferences and a first grade assembly. I truly love my job and this week was a reminder of why....

I met with 27 parents in two days- all of who reminded me of the fact that I love teaching; I love watching these kids grow into wonderful little kids. It's all so worth it.



I had some hard conferences and some that we celebrated just how far their child has come and after they were done, I felt loved and ready for the last 60 days with their children.

I had to share this photo because I simply love it; proud kids (and teacher) ready to perform in front of a lot of students at an assembly!

 

And speaking of conferences- We had Taylor and Maddie's conferences last week and they were just down right wonderful! Taylor has been working really hard on her math and she was able to see just how hard her work has paid off. We were quite proud! And Maddie is doing wonderfully! Reading and Writing up a storm! Life is good!

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And to top off our week, on the way home from swimming, Taylor fell asleep (something she NEVER does) in the car. We got her home and yep, fever and bad cold. We went into total panic mode as we had less than a week before we headed on vacation. 5 days later, 3 missed days of school and 2 doctor visits later we are left with a very well rested child who still has a bit of a cough but is ready to swim, hunt for shells on the beach and enjoy her first trip to Mexico. PHEW.....

 Maddie girl also visited the Dr. this week but for a different reason. She's been complaining that she is having a "puff" in her eye and then she can't see. With my families history of bad eyes, we got her in ASAP to have a visit with the eye doctor. She was a trooper (got her eyes dilated, puffs of air shot in her eyes) and was VERY disappointed to find out that she doesn't need glasses. Crazy kid. Relieved parents.

Yes, we are accepting comments for her beautiful outfit! :)

She was giving her mom some sass about getting her picture taken. It was a balmy 58 outside.....

She wasn't digging these glasses!



 

I am off to finish up last minute packing and to tidy up the house. Enjoy the beautiful weather headed our way and HAPPY EASTER!

Blooming Photographer!

This week, the girls had early release for conferences. The PTA at their school asks different people from the community to come in and teach classes that relate to their "speciality". Taylor signed up for ceramics and photography. After day one, she was hooked on photography. As I opened up her screen of pictures she'd taken from her first day, I gasped in surprise. She had some beautiful pictures on it.

She very happily went to school this week and became more and more excited about the "contest" they were going to have at the end of the week. I blew this contest away with a simple "That sounds fun" and not giving it much thought.

 The instructor had taken 5 of his favorite pictures from each of the students who had taken the class and made them into a 4x6. Then, he narrowed his favorites to his top 10- 3 of which were Taylor's. The two above and the second flower picture (which he printed in black and white) were chosen for the entire class to vote on. Taylor was very excited to inform us last night that she WON with her picture of the log! Her flower photo took 4th place.

 

She was thrilled to be rewarded with this book, Complete PHOTOGRAPHY. She's saving it to read in Mexico on the plane and is excited to take more pictures at our final destination.

For this mama, my heart was bursting with happiness for her! As lots of you know, this is our girl who is filled with worry and lacks self confidence at times and for her to do this and be so proud of herself. Well. It was just the best feeling. For her and for us.

Change of Season!

I'm so excited to see the early signs of spring; daffodils and tulips are poking through the ground, neighbors are out walking that we haven't seen all winter and it's light out until 8 o'clock! With these changes in the season, it seems our life has switched from a pretty laid back winter to a full blown, here we go, let's get it done spring! And it all made it's appearance last week! We survived, barely, with the time change (does anyone as they get older notice how HARD it is to get up on the Fridy after this has hapenned?! Ouch), fastpitch starting, a switch to longer gymnastics classes, swim lessons starting, night meetings, hosting bunko and a craft show. But here we are fresh off of a good weekend and feeling energized by our new week. Oh, and the fact that we leave for a slice of heaven in 12 days just might have us a bit more enthusiastic than usual! Our week.... in pictures. Enjoy! And Happy Spring!


Both the girls are taking swim lessons. Taylor is just fine tuning her skills and Maddie, who taught herself to swim this summer while on vacation is being re-taught the correct way :) They both adore their teachers and are having lots of fun!

 Maddie girl is gaining lots of confidence in her swimming skills! So proud of her!

 Taylor is finally learning the correct way to breath while swimming. She is loving the challenge. Couldn't be more proud of this girl!

 I'm sorry this picture is so grainy- darn phone. Taylor's first fastpitch practice was held under the shed at school- I'm sure it was the first of many. She liked her first night but that's all I got out of her. I'll be back with more updates on this for sure!

 

Sunday was Saint Patricks Day and all this tired mama could muster up was green waffles and milk.


I spent my Saturday and Sunday at a craft fair at our local fire station. My teaching partner and I have been making crafts for "fun" in our spare time the past 7 months or so. This was our first spring show (and only one, as Adrienne is expecting a baby boy at the end of June!) and we had a very successful weekend. We especially love this particular show as we donate 10% of our earnings to help childhood cancer research. Everyone in my family thinks I'm nuts for doing this but I can honestly say it's my stress reliever and I love making things! We are also venturing into the etsy world- we aren't sure how we will do but we thought we'd give it a shot! You can find our shop through this link- www.twocraftyteachers.etsy.com 

Have a wonderful week!

Basketball and Bribery

Maddie warming up.

Dave and I are competitive. We've always been- growing up we both played lots of sports and we both like to brag about high school state championships that were won and college tournaments that were played. Naturally, we'd have competitive kids right? WRONG. Somehow, we've been raising two little girls who are pretty non-aggressive in the athletic department.

 

This was Maddie's first year playing basketball. We were thrilled that she was willing to try it out and we saw future potential for sure. We were able to coach her team which was good fun but with that came challenges we hadn't thought out. For instance, our girl not wanting re-direction from us, storming off because we were "wrong" and needing a drink every 30 seconds. She came in not really knowing anything about the game and left understanding offense and defense and being able to dribble the ball. The girl didn't like to shoot. At. All. Which is where Dave and I began to wonder where we went wrong! But she was a top notch defender; never losing her girl.

 

Maddie getting her defense on.

Maddie and her coaches.

This was Taylor's 2nd season of Upward Basketball. She ended her last game last year finally shooting (a lot) and scoring and she was very excited to be playing this year. She started off strong in her first game and then for some reason, lost the spunk and we were seeing that non-competitiveness in her again as well. Now, you are probably thinking...."These people are horrible! Putting so much pressure on their kids to do well". It wasn't like that at all. I promise. It was more Dave and I having these conversations privately trying to figure out how to get them to be more aggressive. And then, one day it came to us. The girls were telling us about a friend who was earning money for scoring at her soccer games and the light bulb came on in me. It's horrible and you know where this is going right? Yep. We bribed them. With money.

With 3 games left in the season, we told the girls that for each rebound they got we'd give them a dollar. For each basket? $5! Sounds like a lot. But they hadn't done either in a few games. We only owed Maddie $3 at the end of the season (which for her was A LOT of rebounds!) but Taylor? OH MY! Apparently the girl will shoot, score and rebound for money! I had to go to the ATM to get her the $32 bucks she earned in 3 games. She was aggressive, shot and made baskets and most importantly she was an active member of her team.

We aren't proud of what we did. And honestly, we just wanted them to feel successful about what they were doing.

At the end of the season we saw two girls who are beginning to love the game, who made new friends, became good team members , who laughed and enjoyed themselves. All that's most important.

Taylor doing what she knows best.....chatting :)

Taylor warming up.

Taylor hustling back to get on Defense.

Taylor and her friend, Celeste(they are wearing the same # because about 5 weeks into the season, we lost Taylor's jersey and she's wearing Maddies!)

Little Girls and Their Daddy

 It's been a long time. Too long. My father in law is always so sweet in asking.."do you think you'll ever put anything on the blog again?" My hubby asks:"Why haven't you put anything on the blog?" I don't have any answers as to why it all stopped but I think it may have been because of this little thing called Instagram! I love it, it's easy and I can capture every moment I want with it. Of course, there is a BUT..... I can look at the memory I've captured but I can't remember specific feelings I had while capturing the picture or I can't remember vivid details of the event 3 months down the road. So, here I am. Back again. Challenging myself to document, capture, write about all our great things we are doing as a family and as individuals. Enough said.

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It's ironic that my first post in almost a year would be about the same thing I posted on my very last post before I disappeared. It's amazing to see just how much the girls have grown up in the last year.

After a busy day of basketball, we raced home where everyone began their primping for the big father daughter dance. Within the hour, the girls had ditched uniforms for sweet dresses, a little  bit of makeup and some "fancier" than usual hair.

Taylor, 8

Maddie, 7

These girls. Love. One. Another. A. Lot.

New dancing shoes were mandatory.

 Enter this man. First, he stole my heart 14 years ago and he's managed to steal a few more since then. Our girls are extremely close to their daddy. In fact, they worship him from sun up to sun down. At first, I was jealous. Very jealous. But over time, I've learned that it's okay for Dave and I as parents to have different relationships with our kids. Theirs something about little girls and their daddy that I can't compete with. And I'm okay with that. In fact, I couldn't imagine it any other way. The three of us are incredibly lucky to have this man in our lives. He loves us unconditionally (even when we team up on him!), treats us with kindness and sweet surprises. Without him, we'd really not be the family we are today. Full of love, making memories and living life to the fullest.

Maddie and her daddy



Taylor and her daddy

As the night unfolded, I received texts from Dave about how much fun they were having. Dancing (the favorite song this year was the Macarana), meeting up with new friends they've made over the last few years through the high school, eating candy, doing more dancing and trying to win raffle baskets.

When I got home from a fun evening out with some girlfriends our little girls were sound asleep. Dresses hanging from a chair, dancing shoes retired for another year and a Daddy with a huge smile on his face from an evening spent with his sweet girls. I love the memories we are creating for our daughters.