Bainbridge Island

It feels very odd to not be on Bainbridge this weekend.   I know that I have not spent every Memorial Day weekend on Bainbridge but I don't specifically remember spending this weekend anywhere else.  My memories of times on Bainbridge go back many, many years.  I have spent the past couple of days with Bainbridge memories in my head.  Not of those in my childhood, but those from the past 6 years. 

Kiara, Ben, and Mason running through the secret path, buiding Scuba Landing, water balloons, Kiara building with Mason, painting, walks to the beach, digging for worms, Ryan hitting golf balls, walks to Walts, fires at night, looking for crabs on the beach, a new deck, Gabe playing in the sandbox, the Headlees coming, baby pools, Ben and Kiara on the John Deere, Mckenna and Ryan on the John Deere, Gramps painting his Grandkids names on the roof of the patio, picking blackberries, the big kids strolling Emily around, and sports.  Lots and lots of sports.  I can close my eyes and picture every kid running on the field; Mason, Kiara, Ben, Gabe, Mckenna, Ryan, and Emily.

Kiara's 1st T-Ball Practice...

Today was Kiara's 1st T-Ball practice and in turn Deborah and my first baseball related sporting event for our kids.  All of the other girls had brand new state of the art gloves from Dick's sporting goods.  We trotted Kiara out there with a glove that has been passed down thru 3 Headlee brothers...Rob told me there is a John Olerud autograph on this glove, and he was right!  A family heirloom and autographed by a Coug, perfect!  After practice I asked her if she wanted a new glove like the other girls and her response was "No, I like I can put my finger through the top on this glove."  That's my girl!

We have not done a lot of practicing, but she looks like a natural to me, knees bent, nose over the ball, she didn't miss one grounder.

We had practiced a little yesterday on hitting.  Her coach got a little in depth with his hitting instructions.  All good advice, but my 6 year old wasn't ready for talk about hand placement and rotating hips.  My advice yesterday was: swing as hard as you can and watch the ball!  Today she got to hit a number of balls off the T and did fantastic. 

Baseball can get a bit boring and long at times, the coach did a fantastic job of splitting the team up into 3 stations: hitting, ground balls, and throwing.  The fields still had standing water on them so that is why practice was in the parking lot...might as well have been in Seattle!

I loved watching Kiara play Baseball, jury is still out if she really liked it, but I think she did!  Her favorite part when I asked was "I liked playing the game."  She knew exactly how to run to 1st base after she hit it, then to 2nd, 3rd, and then scored a run in their 1 inning game that recorded zero official outs :)  Baseball has started, summer is here!

Ohio License

As I quickly approach my 34th birthday, I also was approaching an expired Washington license.  I have procrastinated getting an Ohio license (big surprise right) but couldn't wait any longer.  I studied for hours last night (truthfully I quickly read over a highlighted drivers book that has been passed around the Browns facility) and left this morning to take my test.  I was pretty nervous.  Mainly because Tom kept telling me it was an easy test, "it is just common sense."  That just made me more nervous.  Well, not to worry, I passed.  I left my Washington license there and came home with a pink Ohio license.  Another reminder that we are not just visiting Ohio, this is our home. 

I missed a couple of questions.  One of the questions I missed was "What is the legal age for a person to ride in the open bed of a truck?"  Next to the question was a picture of a truck.  In the multiple choice, I searched for the answer: IT IS NOT LEGAL AT ANY AGE!!!!!  Well that wasn't one of the choices.  The answer is 16.  I am not that disappointed that I missed that question :)!  Just another subtle reminder we live in Ohio.

Austin, Texas

Our weekend in Austin was so much fun.  Tom and I keep talking about how great it was!  We LOVED the city and would recommend it to anyone and everyone as a very, very fun place to visit.  Most of our pictures are of the amazing people that we were with.  We realize that for us, these people are what made our time in Austin so great!

A view from our hotel room. 

Here is the wedding crew! 

On Friday night, the rehearsal dinner was at a park.  The food was from Rudy's BBQ, Andy's favorite Texas BBQ spot.  It was really, really good food coupled with a really great crew.  Andy and Tom have known each other since they were 11 years old.  Everyone in Andy's wedding party was in Tom's frat at WSU.

After the dinner we headed to Cedar Door, a bar close to the hotel. 

WEDDING DAY!

Tom left the next morning to get ready for Andy's big day.  Here is a picture of their ride to the wedding. 

After the wedding the newlyweds and the wedding party spent a few hours taking pictures. 

Beer and pizza was included!!  Here is a pic of the happy couple.  (if you look closely at the sign, you can see that someone thought it was funny to write weed on top of you.  The photographer said she would be able to photoshop this out :)) 

Andy and Emily's reception was beautiful!  Here are a few pictures.....

The grooms cake!  Go Cougs!

Following the reception we headed to a bar in downtown Austin.

Hanging out with Ryan was a highlight for us!  What a great friend.

Not all of the wives were able to make the trip but here are the ones that did.  We had a lot of fun together, especially watching how much fun our husbands were having!

The Bride and Groom made an appearance late night, it was awesome.

Tom and I ended our trip with a day and night by ourselves.  This was a much needed vacation day for us!  We have not had a night away in a long time and enjoyed every minute of it!

Of course we don't have any pictures of our time, but here is one of us at the wedding!

Mckenna's rocking out!!

Mornings where Mckenna doesn't have preschool are always very entertaining.  About a week ago, Mckenna was hilarious.  So much so that I had to take a couple of videos.  I am not sure where Mckenna learned to rock out this way, but I am so happy she did!!  Be sure to make it to 20 seconds in the video, this is where she really gets into the music :)!!

After the rocking out sessions, she moved to dancing. 

Mckenna has her last day of preschool tomorrow.  She is so excited.  We are all going to join her for the last 30 minutes of her class for an ice cream party.  We are getting Kiara out early from school (we had tears at the thought of not going and decided to pull her out 20 minutes early to be there) and will meet Tom there for a fun party!   Mckenna has had a fantastic year this year.  She will be going back to the same place next year for preschool 3 days a week.  The whole class is returning next year which should be a good indication of how great Mckenna's teacher is!

This past weekend, Grandma and Grandpa Headlee were here and Tom and I went to Austin for Andy Cannons wedding.  Everyone had SO MUCH FUN!!!!  Pics are getting uploaded now and we will share some stories tomorrow. 

Ava says hi!!

Kiara is Growing Up!

Kiara came home from school, ran upstairs to change her clothes, came back down and informed me that she was going to go outside to lay in the sun and read. 

She set up the blanket, picked out her book, and went outside.  She started in the sun until she got hot, and then moved to the shade.  Love it, love it, love it!  

Kiara is reading like crazy.  She enjoys it and is very good at it.  The other day she said "I can read chapter books.  Not just "I can read" books but chapter books too!"  She is in an accelerated reading program at school where she checks out a book from the library, reads the book at home, then goes back to school to take a quiz on the computer.  She has scored a 5 out of 5 for the past few quizzes!   

Reading in the sun at Vancouver Island - HERE WE COME!!!!  (probably not yet but exciting anyway :))!

Sorry....

for the lack of posts.  I will make up for it in the next couple of days because I have a lot of fun things to share! 

GIRLS WEEKEND!!!   For years Aunt Chris, my mom, Jen, Sarah, and I have been having girls weekends.  We traveled to Arizona, Portland, LA, Chicago, Vegas, Bainbridge, Seattle, and Cleveland.  In between these very fun weekends we have gotten together to watch shows.  The favorite of the group is The Bachelor but when that was not on we still would get together and watch Idol or Dancing.   Kiara and Mckenna tagged along for girls nights when we were in Seattle and because of this, they have been counting down the days for a fun girls weekend.  It was a slightly different trip than those of the past considering we had 3 small children with us, but there was still just as much laughter and just as much fun!

Kiara and Mckenna loved hanging out with Jen and Sarah. 

Here are a couple of excited girls waiting at the airport for Sarah to arrive!

Soccer Saturday!  Kiara and Mckenna loved having a large (and loud) cheering section!  They were pretty excited to show off their skills.  Mckenna scored 6 goals and Kiara had 3.  It turned out to be a pretty decent day but it was very, very muddy.  I might owe Jen and Sarah some new shoes!

Look at this group!

For a long time Kiara has wanted to go to this store where you can make lotion, soap, or lip gloss.  We kept saying that we will do it girls weekend.  Well, we did it!  Kiara made lotion and Mckenna made soap.  We had 2 very happy girls.

I love this picture!  I don't remember why but they were pretending to be sleeping.  Mckenna's face is the best!

Tom watched our girls so that we could all go out for a drink and dinner.  It was so much fun!  We went to 2 places that I had never been and they were both great! 

Sarah is getting married in April and she asked Mckenna to be the flower girl.  How sweet is this picture :)!

Aunt Chris, Jen, and Sarah are such important people in my life and I am so lucky that they are such an important part of my kids life as well.  Next up for this crew will be Sarah's wedding in Cali.  As for the next girls trip......... how does New York sound ladies?????

Surgery is scheduled

Ava had a doctors appointment today where we scheduled her eye surgery for August 10th.  Ava will be put under for approximatly 1 1/2 hours.  An hour will be spent on her left eye and the other half hour on her right.  The difficulty of the surgery is that her eyes are smaller than that of a normal baby.  There is not a clear picture of how much muscle to pull back and there is no way for the doctor to know how to "fix" her eye issues.  So, she will have surgery and we will wait, observe, and move forward from there. 

Here is a look into the daily life with Ava. We love her laughs, and all the joy she brings to our fam.....

What a Saturday!

A lot of things happened this Saturday.  Kiara started the day playing soccer and winning.  We went back to the fields a couple of hours later for Mckennas soccer game where she scored her first goal!! Not just one, but three!  After that Ava had her first babysitter (with Mckenna) so Kiara and I could go on a girl scout activity .  While all of this was going on, the Browns were in their final day of the draft and continuing to draft some awesome players!

We will start with Mckenna's soccer game.  This was only Mckennas second game.  Mckenna was hillarious during the first game.  She tried to participate in the game but when people would start cheering she kept stopping and would get a huge smile on her face.  Tom and I are pretty sure that she thought everyone was cheering for her :)!!  As for the second game, she was amazing.  Here are a couple of videos from the game.

She was so excited, as you can tell!  It was pretty awesome :)!

Kiara had a mother/daughter tea through girls scouts on Saturday afternoon.  When I signed Kiara up for it months ago, I didn't realize it was draft weekend.  When I figured out it was, I got the babysitters lined up for Mckenna.  I gave it about a 5% chance to leave Ava as well.  It turned out Ava was on a perfect schedule.  I put her down at 2 and Ms. Rebecca came at 2:15.  When Kiara and I got home and 4:45, Ava was sitting on a blanket and playing with both Rebecca and Mckenna.  And, she was happy!  YEAH!!!!  This was very exciting for me and of course for Ava as well :)!  

Kiara and I had a blast at the "tea"!  I don't get a lot of alone time with Kiara and everytime I do, I just treasure it.  This time was extra special because she and I weren't just running to the store, we were doing something special for her and something that she was so excited about!  She was super cute and very happy!     

As for the draft, you will have to ask Tom for the specifics but I will say, he is very excited about the overall draft picks of the Browns.  Looking forward to a great season!  GO BROWNS!!!