Seven Years Old

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

Crosby is seven years old today!

The birthday interview tradition continues!

What is your name? Crosby
How old are you? Seven
What is your favorite thing to do? Spend time with you
What do you want to be when you grow up? A scientist
What is your favorite food? Tacos
Who do you like to spend your time with? You
What do you do really well? Play video games
What makes you laugh? Tickles
What is the best time of day? Recess
What are you afraid of? Nothing!
Who is your best friend? Hudson
What do you like to do with your family? Have tickle fights
What do you love to learn about? Outer space
Where do you like to go? Disney Animal Kingdom
What is your favorite book? Bad Guys (the series)
If you had one wish, what would it be? To be a Storm Trooper. and to fly.
What is your favorite color? Yellow
What is your favorite TV show? Anything on Disney+
What is your favorite animal? Weiner dogs
What is your favorite movie? Toy Story 4
What is your favorite drink? Apple juice
What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
What is your favorite restaurant? Tijuana Flats
What is your favorite place to go? Animal Kingdom
What is your favorite song? Every song by Perry Gripp
What is the best part about school? Recess. and art.
What is your favorite cereal? Cinnamon Toast Crunch
What is your favorite snack? Apples
What do you like to take to bed? Nothing
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Run around
What is your favorite fruit? Apples
What is your favorite ice cream? Mint
What is your favorite outfit? Pajamas
Where do you live? My home
What is your favorite sport? Baseball

Crosby is now in first grade and he is an awesome reader. For the Accelerated Reader (AR) quizzes last year, he scored in the top five kindergartners for the whole grade! He recently discovered the Bad Guys series of books and does not put them down.

He has recently gotten into video games and loves to play Super Mario Odyssey; Minecraft; and Disney Infinity on the Switch and the PS4.

He hasn’t gotten a chance to play baseball since early March, but we are hoping to start a new sport this winter. He’s been doing a lot of swimming and bike riding this year during quarantine.

Here are some highlights from this year!

Christmas break in Sarasota!

New bike for Christmas!

Kicked off the year at Star Wars land at Hollywood Studios.

One of his only baseball games of 2020.

Spring picture day. Such a handsome kindergartner!

Nine weeks of virtual school.
The only highlight was he was able to wear his pjs.

Ended kindergarten with a plastic bag full of school supplies. Such a sad way to end his first year at the elementary school.

Crosby fell in love with Ziggy and Bruno while they were visiting from Colorado this summer. He is a huge dog lover!

He lost his first tooth on June 6!

Lots of pool days during quarantine.

His first sleepover to end the summer.

Complete with video games!

First day of first grade! He did nine days of virtual school – LaunchEd.

He lost his second tooth in his sleep and went to school the next day!

First day of in-person school. That smile says it all — so excited!

He got to meet the pilot!

Riding a horse in Montana!

Looking the part in Montana with his best bud!

Fall picture day! Such a big first grader.

Birthday(s) weekend at Disney with friends!

Happy 7th birthday to our lovable, goofy boy!

19Oct2020

Nine years old!

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

Kenley is nine years old today!

Our birthday interview!

What is your name? Kenley
How old are you? 9
What is your favorite thing to do? Go on the hammock
What do you want to be when you grow up? A doctor
What is your favorite food? Spaghetti with butter and salt
Who do you like to spend your time with? My family
What do you do really well? Soccer
What makes you laugh? Getting tickled
What is the best time of the day? Lunch
What are you afraid of? Deadly wasps and bees
Who are your best friends? Brenna, Ashlyn, Aiden, Kyler
What do you like to do with your family? Go on water slides
What do you like to learn about? History
Where do you like to go? To Disney resorts
What is your favorite book? Junie B. Jones
If you had one wish what would it be? That I could fly
What is your favorite color? Purple
What is your favorite TV show? Jessie and Bunk’d
What is your favorite animal? Giraffe and unicorn
What is your favorite movie? Hamilton
What is your favorite drink? Pink lemonade
What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
What is your favorite restaurant? Tijuana Flats
What is your favorite song? Satisfied and Helpless and the entire Hamilton soundtrack; and Hey Look Ma I Made It
What is the best part about school? Recess
What is your favorite cereal? Frosted Flakes
What is your favorite snack? Goldfish
What do you like to take to bed? My blanket
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Go on the hammock
What is your favorite fruit? Watermelon
What is your favorite ice cream? Strawberry
What is your favorite candy? Skittles
What is your favorite outfit? Tie dyed shirts
Where do you live? Orlando, Florida (says subdivision and street)
What is your favorite sport? Soccer

Kenley started playing on a club soccer team in January. She was one of the youngest on an experienced team so it was a great way to learn the ropes. They had two tournaments and won both before the season started, but only ended up playing on regular season game in March before the season got cancelled. The fall season started up in August. Since the older girls moved up, she’s one of the oldest, so it’s a good learning experience on how to lead the younger girls. They’ve played a few games and we’re hoping to get through the rest of the fall season without any hiccups.

Here are some other highlights of the year:

The infamous hammock she talked about!

First daddy/daughter dance!

Field Day 2020 — the last day at school of second grade!

Virtual school for the last nine weeks of second grade. Zero stars, do not recommend.

New bike for quarantine!

Virtual Smile Mile (which is not as fun as the actual Smile Mile)

School supply pick up to end the year.

Seeing Bruno, Ziggy, and her cousins in Sarasota!

Sleepovers!

First day of third grade! The first nine days were virtual, called LaunchEd.

First day back to face-to-face school! Woohoo!

Montana!

Picture day!

Birthday(s) weekend at Disney!

Happy 9th birthday to our sweet girl!

27Oct2019

Six Years Old!

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

Crosby is six years old today! I am not entirely sure how this is possible. I’ll first let the birthday boy himself tell you some things about him.

What is your name? Crosby
How old are you? Six
What is your favorite thing to do? Be with you. [heart melted]
What do you want to be when you grow up? A firefighter or a policeman.
What is your favorite food? Tacos
Who do you like to spend your time with? You
What do you do really well? Climb stuff
What makes you laugh? Jokes
What is the best time of day? Lunchtime
What are you afraid of? Nothing!
Who is your best friend? Christina
What do you like to do with your family? Play with them.
What do you love to learn about? I like to learn about Legos.
Where do you like to go? I like to go to Disney.
What is your favorite book? My favorite book is dinosaurs.
If you had one wish, what would it be? To be Spider-Man.
What is your favorite color? Red
What is your favorite TV show? Star Wars
What is your favorite animal? Cat
What is your favorite movie? Jack Skellington (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
What is your favorite drink? Apple juice
What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
What is your favorite restaurant? Tijuana Flats
What is your favorite place to go? Animal Kingdom
What is your favorite song? Kidz Bop Halloween
What is the best part about school? Lunchtime
What is your favorite cereal? Blueberry Cheerios
What is your favorite snack? Flavor blasted Goldfish
What do you like to take to bed? Nothing
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with Kenley
What is your favorite fruit? Pumpkin
What is your favorite ice cream? Mint Chocolate Chip
What is your favorite outfit? Dinosaur shirt
Where do you live? At my house
What is your favorite sport? Baseball

Crosby started kindergarten in August! We really like his teacher and his classroom is Harry Potter themed. I think we’re still in the transition process into kindergarten and elementary school in general. He has had a few really good weeks recently, but the start of the school year was rough. We had a few days off from Hurricane Dorian right after the start of the year, then there was some shuffling of kindergarten classrooms so it took about a month to get into a good routine in his classroom and during extended day. The first nine weeks just ended so I am excited to have his first official parent-teacher conference.

He’s now in this third season of tee ball and really starting to enjoy it! This season he’s on the Red Sox. He’s learning more about the sport and hitting the ball hard off the tee. He certainly has had a few moments this season where he wasn’t as into it but we’ve seen really good improvement over the last few games.

Happy birthday to our incredibly smart and funny little guy!

19Oct2019

Eight is great!

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

Kenley is eight years old!

Our birthday interview tradition continues.

What is your name? Kenley
How old are you? 8
What is your favorite thing to do? Go on water slides
What do you want to be when you grow up? A doctor
What is your favorite food? Watermelon
Who do you like to spend your time with? My family
What do you do really well? Math
What makes you laugh? Sometimes Crosby and sometimes Aiden
What is the best time of the day? Going out to recess
What are you afraid of? Snakes
Who is your best friend? Ashlyn and Brenna
What do you like to do with your family? Go in the pool
What do you like to learn about? Math
Where do you like to go? To a hotel
What is your favorite book? Junie B. Jones
If you had one wish what would it be? That I could fly
What is your favorite color? Pink, purple, blue, and green
What is your favorite TV show? Rapunzel
What is your favorite animal? Unicorn
What is your favorite movie? Descendants 1, 2, and 3
What is your favorite drink? Pink lemonade
What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
What is your favorite restaurant? Tijuana Flats
What is your favorite song? Happier
What is the best part about school? Going on the computers
What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms
What is your favorite snack? Granola bar, peanut butter kind
What do you like to take to bed? My blanket and pillow
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Run around
What is your favorite fruit? Watermelon
What is your favorite ice cream? Strawberry
What is your favorite candy? Sour Patch Kids
What is your favorite outfit? A dress
Where do you live? Says exact address
What is your favorite sport? Soccer

Kenley just finished her fall season of soccer on her first all-girl team. She played really well and scored two goals (in the same game!). She continues to show a lot of potential and played forward majority of the season. Since last year, she can successfully do a cartwheel and a handstand!

She had a crazy busy summer going to several different summer camps, including the UCF soccer camp, Double Down sports camp, golf camp, UGAMES church camp where she did karate, and gymnastics camp.

Second grade is off to a great start! The first nine weeks just wrapped up. I said the exact same thing last year, but I think we’re just now starting to get into our routine for the school year.

Happy birthday sweet girl! Looking forward to seeing what this year brings for you!

24Jul2019

Indiana {March 2019}

Posted in Family, Travel by Kendra G.

To kick off spring break, we headed up to Indiana for a long weekend. The weekend was full of family, friends, and celebrations before heading back home.

We were so thankful to see so many family members in such a short time, most of which made the trip to visit us.

On Saint Patrick’s Day, we ran the Shamrock Beer Run 5k in downtown Indy. It was our first beer run and probably our coldest run to date. It was freezing! Thankfully the beer stops helped us warm up. Downtown Indianapolis was absolutely beautiful on the brisk day.

We ended the day celebrating Grandma Sue’s 80th birthday! We had a lovely dinner with family to celebrate our special lady.

We also got to visit with several old friends and meet new little friends while we were there! Again, we were so thankful that everyone made room for us during their busy weekends.

One major highlight of the long weekend was the snow! Yes…in March…during spring break…the kids saw snow for the first time! They loved playing outside as the big snowflakes fell to the ground. It didn’t last long, but it was memorable.

We made one more quick stop to visit the birthday girl before heading to the airport.

We had a great, long weekend which was action packed. Needless to say, it took a bit for all of us to recover.

17Jan2019

Christmas in Chicago {2018}

Posted in Family, Travel by Kendra G.

We started our Christmas break with a lovely Christmas service at church on Friday night.

Saturday morning came early and we hopped on a plane to head to Chicago!

Michael and Rachel showed us around the city while the kids headed back to the house to bake cookies and see Arie.

We stopped at Macy’s to get warm and check out the Christmas tree and beautiful decorations.

Afterwards, we hopped on over to the Christkindlmarket which was packed the moment it opened. I got a cute mug full of warm goodness, then we headed out.

Our next stops included Garrett Popcorn, Ballast Point to taste some beers, and Au Cheval for the best burger in the entire city.

Finally, we met up with the kids at Forge Brewery!

The next two days, we had a wonderful visit with family.

We were hopeful for more snow, but she was thrilled to at least see this much.

Christmas morning was full of coffee and opening presents before we packed our bags to hit the road.

Our first stop was in Lafayette for a short, but sweet, visit with the cousins.

After one more stop in Indy, we were on the road. 14 hours later, we arrived in warm Orlando to continue our Christmas break!

We had such a wonderful time in Chicago and we already can’t wait to plan our next visit. To say that Michael and Rachel were amazing hosts would be an understatement. We had such a very, merry Christmas!

4Dec2018

Minnie’s Halloween Dine

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

Crosby’s birthday landed on a Saturday this year and it was our last birthday celebration of the month, so we decided to do our first character dining experience. I knew we wanted to go to Hollywood Studios for his birthday, so I looked at the options there first. Hollywood and Vine is usually an experience with the Disney Junior characters, which would not be my first preference but for the month of October it turns into Minnie’s Halloween Dine at Hollywood and Vine. I immediate jumped on this because of the character line up and the Halloween costumes!

We opted for lunch so we could start our day around noon and end the evening with the Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular show.

Since Minnie was the star of the show, we were able to get our photo taken with the Disney Photo Pass. All other photos were from my phone on our own.

Mickey was Crosby’s favorite!

Goofy asked Crosby how old he was and was being a jokester.

Donald’s costume was my favorite.

Kenley’s shirt was the hit of the day! Daisy played with it and she got several comments about it! Daisy and Minnie were Kenley’s favorite.

We had a great time! It was the perfect way to celebrate Crosby’s day and cap our month-long birthday festivities!

13Nov2018

Happy Halloween!

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

We had a great Halloween this year! Kenley started the day as Pinkalicious from Pinkalicious and the Pinkerrific Playdate for the character parade at school. She was also Pinkalicious last year for the Kindergarten character parade which shows that the girl knows what she likes. Crosby also had a storybook parade at school and he was Dash from the Incredibles.

By night, the kids transformed into Addison, the cheerleader, and Zed, the zombie from the Disney Channel movie Z-O-M-B-I-E-S. The movie is super cute and the kids love the soundtrack so it was a quick and easy decision on who they would be this year. Unfortunately, Crosby made a last minute decision to go without the green hair and zombie make up, but they still looked super cute.

We headed around our neighborhood to trick-or-treat and check out all of the decorations. Our neighbors really go all out! It seemed more crowded this year too! The policeman on duty was driving around all night playing the Halloween theme song which was super creepy, yet awesome.

We had such a fun night!

***

A look back… 2011 // 2012 // 2013 // 2014 // 2015 // 2016 // 2017

27Oct2018

Five Years Old

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

Crosby is five years old!

He started VPK (voluntary pre-kindergarten) in August which is his last stop before moving to elementary school. We had his parent-teacher conference last month and got a very good report. He’s doing well in his class and is a sweet boy when he wants to be.

He also started tee ball last month! This is his first sport since we tried soccer a couple years ago. I’m happy to report it has gone much better than his soccer days, though he’s had his moments. At times, it’s a struggle for him to concentrate on anything except playing in the dirt. He also doesn’t like it when his teammate takes a ball that is remotely close to him. Overall, I think he’s had a good time and I’m hopeful he’ll play again in the spring.

Crosby’s first love is still Legos. He is obsessed with anything and everything related to Legos, including building, taking apart, and rebuilding. He talks about them, reads about them, and probably dreams about them.

What is your name? Crosby
How old are you? Five
What is your favorite thing to do? Ride Star Tours (at Hollywood Studios)
What do you want to be when you grow up? A policeman, I mean, a Power Ranger?
What is your favorite food? Pineapples
Who do you like to spend your time with? Mommy and Daddy
What do you do really well? Listen
What makes you laugh? Telling jokes
What is the best time of day? When we go on trips
What are you afraid of? Bears
Who is your best friend? Elliot
What do you like to do with your family? Go to Disney
What do you love to learn about? Um, I like to learn about trees
Where do you like to go? On field trips
What is your favorite book? Hark! A shark!
If you had one wish, what would it be? I can’t tell you.
What is your favorite color? Red
What is your favorite TV show? Ben 10
What is your favorite animal? A woodpecker
What is your favorite movie? Star Wars and Jack Skellington
What is your favorite drink? Hot cocoa
What is your favorite holiday? Winter
What is your favorite restaurant? Tijuana
What is your favorite place to go? Tijuana
What is your favorite song? Jack Skellington
What is the best part about school? Going on field trips
What is your favorite cereal? Those chocolate cereal
What is your favorite snack? Cheese dip and breadsticks
What do you like to take to bed? I don’t know
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play
What is your favorite fruit? Pineapples
What is your favorite ice cream? All the kinds
What is your favorite outfit? The one that I’m wearing right now
Where do you live? At home
What is your favorite sport? Baseball

Happy birthday to our sweet boy!

19Oct2018

7 Years Old!

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

Kenley is 7 years old today!

The tradition continues with our birthday questionnaire!

What is your name? Kenley
How old are you? 7
What is your favorite thing to do? Playing with my friends
What do you want to be when you grow up? A tooth fairy
What is your favorite food? Tacos
Who do you like to spend your time with? Mommy and Daddy
What do you do really well? Put away my clothes
What makes you laugh? When Daddy tickles me
What is the best time of the day? Centers…in my school
What are you afraid of? Rattlesnakes
Who is your best friend? Ashlyn
What do you like to do with your family? Go on roller coasters
What do you like to learn about? Math
Where do you like to go? Legoland
What is your favorite book? Fancy Nancy
If you had one wish what would it be? That I could fly
What is your favorite color? Pink
What is your favorite TV show? Fancy Nancy
What is your favorite animal? Giraffe, I mean panda, or elephant
What is your favorite movie? That’s a hard question… Incredibles 2
What is your favorite drink? Grape juice
What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
What is your favorite restaurant? Chic-fil-a… I mean, Wendy’s
What is your favorite place to go? School
What is your favorite song? Taylor Swift
What is the best part about school? Centers
What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms
What is your favorite snack? Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
What do you like to take to bed? Minnie
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Go on the playground
What is your favorite fruit? Watermelon
What is your favorite ice cream? Strawberry
What is your favorite outfit? A dress
Where do you live? (says neighborhood), Orlando
What is your favorite sport? Soccer

Kenley just finished her fall soccer season. She played awesome with this team (when she focused) and scored a goal! She shows a lot of potential and is very athletic. She is also competitive, I’m not sure where she gets that, ha! She was usually racing the boys on her team to see who would win during drills, even though that was not the point of the drills. We are considering keeping her in soccer through the winter until the spring season starts. She is also going to do tumbling during extended day. She is certainly not going to be a gymnast, but it is something she is interested in and can do with her friends right at the school. She wants to be able to do a handstand and a cartwheel so badly.

First grade is going very well! It has been a big adjustment from kindergarten and she also transitioned from one classroom to another after the start of the school year. We’re anxious to have her first parent-teacher conference next week. It felt like it took us a while to get into the swing of things this school year and I can’t believe that the first nine weeks just ended!