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!

Cheesecake and Cousins

Last month before school started, we traveled to North Carolina to see my sister and her family. On the way there, the girls and I met a good friend at the Cheesecake Factory in Atlanta. We were neighbors during our first stay in Ga. Sadly, we have not had the chance to be neighbors since then. I am so excited they have recently moved from New York to just one state over (3 hours away).  I see many visits in our future.

Can't go to the Cheesecake Factory without getting cheesecake. We have been a few times but I always forget what cheesecake I had last. I need to keep an ongoing list so I will try different ones.

We got  caramel this time and it did not disappoint!

We spent a few days at my sister's house.

Ella and I left to go home while Laney stayed behind to help my sister by watching her kiddos.

First day of school…...

a month ago! I know….I know….your supposed to post school pictures on the first day. Well…the way I look at it….these days I am lucky to even have the time to put them on here. Have I told you lately how glad I will be when December rolls around. SCHOOL WILL BE DONE FOR ME!!!!! I am tired of not having much of a life due to all the requirements. I have to write and reflect so much more than I ever expected that I really don't want to write anything extra. That means this blog has taken a backseat lately.

Enough of my ramblings!!!! I forgot to take a picture of Griffin in front of his trailer for his first day. I guess he is to old and to absent for first day pictures anymore. This year the girls wanted a photo shoot for pictures. I personally think it was to avoid starting the important stuff like school! 

Here is Laney on the first day of 8th grade and Ella's first day of 4th.

We took a few together shots and then realized Ella had her sign upside down. Yes….their teacher is very observant. 

Because I will keep it real……they went back inside right after this photo shoot and put back on their pajamas for school.