He's no longer a teen

My oldest turned 20 today( actual birth time 3:07 am) and this mama can't believe it's true! It seems like just yesterday he was running around playing with sticks, army men and legos. I can picture me walking into his room and my dental floss being tied from one end of his room to the other. What I thought was a mess was the escape route for his army men. He loved to build, create and use his imagination for all sorts of things. I  figured back then he would probably be an architect or engineer one day. Today, he is earning a degree in mechanical engineering. 

Happy 20th Birthday Griffin!!!

In honor of the double digit girl….

I thought I would post a few of her selfies for her birthday!

Happy 10th Birthday Ella!

Lego Americana Road Show

The girls are studying government and civics this year for school. Since there daddy loves history, he is taking over this subject for the year. We are planning a field trip to DC in the Spring and I can't wait. I will be going as a chaperone :) 

When I found out about the Lego Americana Road Show in Birmingham, I knew this this would be a great introduction. If you have never heard about it you can go here to read all about it. I love to look at big creations made with legos. This did not disappoint! Some of them were massive and amazing to look at.

Since this was a field trip, I wanted to make it productive. Before we left, the girls drew names of the different monuments they would be seeing at the Galleria. They were responsible for locating and learning about their particular monument. They were going to have to report about it later.

Here are pictures of Laney standing in front of her monuments. Remember these are all made with legos!

Washington Monument

Statue of Liberty

Supreme Court

Jefferson Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Ella's monuments

The White House

Liberty Bell

The US Capitol

Independence Hall

Old North Church

They did a great job putting all those legos together! The capitol took the longest to build at 1700 hours.  After doing the math, we figured it would take them around 28 days to finish. That is….if they worked day and night. I am sure it took a lot longer than 28 days. 

If this comes to a town near you, I highly recommend it!

We have a Lt Col in the house

A couple of weeks ago, Carmel found out he was promoted to Lt Col. We are so proud of him and all his accomplishments. He works hard everyday to make sure his job is done right and done well. About a week ago, he had a pin on ceremony. It was held on a C-130. I thought the plane was an excellent choice.

We hopped aboard to watch as he repeated the oath.

Then the pinning began.

After all the pins were in, we stepped off the plane for a few more pictures in front of the plane and then headed inside to celebrate with some cake and punch.

My mom came also but she went inside to cut the cake. I forgot to get a picture with her.

When someone is promoted, it is customary to pass out coins to special people. We all received one!

It was a special day for a very special person!