St. Louis Day #1

We loaded up the Sequoia and headed up Interstate 55 to St. Louis after the kids finished their last day of school on Friday. They were excited for a road trip and Gary and I were looking forward to a long weekend in a city neither of us had really toured.

We had considered stopping at Lambert's, home of the "throwed rolls" for dinner on Friday, but since we got away so early and the portions we had heard were HUGE at Lambert's, we decided not to have a 3:30 pm dinner and kept driving to St. Louis. We made it to town with no problems and found our hotel after 3 attempts to exit the interstate. Gary's GPS has a slight delay in the voice and we kept missing our exit!! Finally, we checked in and the girls were bummed we could not see the arch from our window. I thought we probably could based on the fact that is why I chose the hotel I did and then Gary and I checked for ourselves and what did we see right outside our window?? The ARCH. The girls were oblivious to the 600 ft tall steel structure looming outside!!

We decided to eat only local on our trip and picked up a great guide to local eateries in the area. We ventured out to a restaurant called Blueberry Hill. It reminded me of Huey's based on their menu but was a great little place to eat. It had lots of "collectibles" throughout the restaurant including a showcase of trinkets from the Smurf's, PeeWee's playhouse, and other tv shows along with the Elvis Room and the various Wurlitzer jukeboxes. Neat place and yummy food. For dessert we found a place called The Cup, which sold huge and very tasty cupcakes. It was a cross between Muddy's and Gigi's from home. The icing was taller than muddy's but they were still very yummy. The girls picked out the "confetti" cupcakes which were the basic vanilla ones with sprinkles. I chose the carrot cake and Gary chose the dark chocolate. All in all a great first night.

The girls were restless at bedtime. The not so fun part of being in a hotel on the road is we all try to go to bed at the same time but with different night time habits. Caroline missed her CD player with the Curious George soundtrack and Anna missed her Ipod docking station and Gary and I missed our sound machine. The girls finally stopped giggling and we called it a night.

Off to do some sightseeing and have some fun on Saturday!

view from our window...where were the girls looking??

anna and i at dinner

gary with caroline at dinner

Last day of school...say it isn't so???

I cannot believe today is the last day of school for the girls!! Caroline is wrapping up her time in Early Childhood at Harding and will be moving to Junior Kindergarten in the fall. Her class enjoyed time on the various moon bounces as well as an ice cream sundae party. All of her class was there including the 3-day week folks. It was great and we will so miss her teacher Miss Ann. Miss Ann is such a Godly woman and has given Caroline such a great foundation both spiritually and academically. Caroline keeps asking if Miss Ann is going to be over in the kindergarten area because she wants to give her hugs!!

Anna is finishing up 2nd grade. How is this possible??? She has had a fantastic year. She has loved her teacher, Mrs. Kolznak as much as we have loved her. Anna is getting so big, height-wise but also in her ways of thinking and acting. She has learned so much and I can only imagine what 3rd grade will bring. Her teacher was so thoughtful and during their party on the last day of school, Mrs. Kolznak presented each child in the class with an award that she felt best fit them. It was very meaningful to the parents and the kids and all the moms were crying by the end. Anna received the "computer whiz" award. She thought that was perfect and that her daddy would be so proud. Really showed me what a special woman Mrs. Kolznak is that she ensured each child had an award to receive and that she shared a special story about each of them with the class. She, too, has given Anna such a great foundation of learning. She allowed Anna to explore new subjects and to learn things that were outside of the normal curicculum. She is such a Godly woman and someone that I was so pleased we could share the year with.

On to the craziness of summer...leaving this afternoon for St. Louis for Memorial Day weekend!

caroline with miss ann anna with her computer whiz award
anna with mrs. kolznak

All grown up!

Caroline had her final early childhood spring program this morning followed by her graduation ceremony. Cannot believe we have graduated from early childhood for both girls. Caroline's class sang 3 sweet songs and then 3 additional ones with all of the 3's classes. They were so cute. Amazing how different the programs are each year and how the kids actually know what they are doing when they are this age. Caroline was so excited to wear her cap and gown and walk across the stage. Bittersweet to see her reach that milestone and for her to tell Gary and me that she is "definitely ready for Junior K". I am so proud of all she has learned this year. She has had a fantastic year with Miss Ann and Miss Rhonda and she is ready for summer!!

sweet caroline at the start of her program
collecting her diploma

so proud of caroline!!

caroline with grandparents

caroline with more grandparents

Awards Day X 2

Anna's school split up their awards into 2 separate sessions. The first consisted of Accelerated Reader, Citizenship, Presidential Physical Fitness and Cub Sports participation. Anna received the Presidential Physical Fitness award which was based on several different athletic "tests" including a run, sit ups, etc. I very much remember doing this at Campus School and always wanted the certificate. Anna was proud as there were only a few in her class that scored high enough to earn recognition. What was super cool was that 5 kids in her school performed well enough to be recognized nationally!! Anna played soccer for school in the fall as well as cheerleading and earned recognition for that as well. Her classmate Parth won the AR award for the second semester. He was by far the winner with his massive amount of points. Anna was proud to be in the top 5 in her class and the only girl in the group. They were recognized with a special lunch with a friend and a movie! The kids in her class voted Kennedy and Cole for the citizenship awards. Sweet kids!!

The second round of recognition included academic awards and perfect attendance. For second graders, there was a National Geography Award and Perfect Attendance and Anna made a clean sweep! We had no idea she had even taken the national geography test and that she scored in the top 10% nationally. So proud of her!! She was excited and surprised to be recognized for that along with several other classmates. She did earn perfect attendance for the year. We seem to have a healthy household which is great!!

Three cheers to Anna for her success...she is already spying the medals and trophies that you can earn starting in 3rd grade for the academic honor rolls. Love my sweet girl!!!

proud anna with her 2 awards
kennedy and anna making the clean sweep for the class!

Spring Soccer

Anna and Caroline have never played spring soccer before....but we ventured out this year. Anna played in the Bartlett Rec league with a few friends from school on an all-girls Under 8 league and Caroline played with her same team from the fall at Hope.

Anna developed so much this spring and I have to credit her coaches for bringing her out of her shell. It is very different to play only with girls. She needs a bit more aggressive style play but she did great. Her first game was the weekend that Gary and I traveled to New Orleans for Gary's Ironman race. Of course she scored 2 goals in the very first game and we missed it. Luckily all of her local grandparents were there to soak it in and text us updates. Uh, that would be Dad texting updates as Mom has no idea how to do that or what that means!! Anna was so excited. She did go on to score more and in front of the beaming, proud parents. Once the season started it seemed that every single Monday night practice was rained out. We had a crazy spring weather-wise and it all seemed to be on Mondays. Her team fared well in the league and seemed to be evenly-matched. She did enjoy it. She wants to try out volleyball in the fall with school and then return to soccer in the spring.

Caroline longed for a goal since her sister seemed to be kicking them in quite often!! Caroline plays pretty well for her age group and seemed to catch on a bit more this spring season. Finally, she scored a goal. You would have thought it was the world cup. Gary, as one of the coahes, was already on the field with her and lifted her up and gave her high-fives. She ran over to the sideline for more hugs, cheers and high fives from family and friends. Luckily at this age, this type of celebration is cool with the refs, as Caroline was still in the game. She was proud, collected her medal and is looking forward to the fall.

Great spring season....now to recollect our Saturdays/Sundays from our girls' sports....I can hear the naps calling me now!!

caroline after her final game with her medal

all the zyrieks excited for caroline's first goal

anna playing goalie....i'm silently praying that the other team does not make it on our end of the field....
pre-game warm ups

anna with emily and kennedy upon receiving their trophies

coach brent and tim with anna

Welcome to the world Graham!

My brother Blair and his wife Kim welcomed their second son into the world today! Graham Michael Perry was 8 lbs 6 oz. We are so excited to have a new cousin for the girls and a new nephew for us!! He was so sweet and quiet when we visited and can't wait to see him again soon!! Congrats!!

proud dad to 2 sons!

caroline loving her new cousin

i spy a babysitter in a few years

Three Piggy Opera

I have heard from many Harding parents how cute the Three Piggy Opera is that the second grade classes present annually in the spring but really could not have imagined exactly how cute and funny it would be until today! Anna had been mum on exactly what we should expect. She was assigned or actually she volunteered to be the wolf. Not traditionally a part that is assigned to the girls, but loved that she took on this challenge and one that required her to be in the spotlight for much of the program. She would not tell us anything and so we were so surprised this morning when we saw the program. We had a front row seat for our family and were so proud of Anna and all of her class. Each second grade section had their own performance with Anna's being at 8:30 a.m. Caroline loved it and was thinking about what part she would play in second grade. She asked Gary "How many days until I am in the Three Piggy Opera?" Calculating roughly we told her 1,400 and she responded by saying "that's not long"!!

Anna was a cute wolf and did a great job with her singing and acting. She received lots of compliments afterwards and gladly posed for pictures in her costume. So proud of Mrs. Kolznak's pack and all the talent they displayed this morning!

anna was thrilled to be the wolf!

cute set created by some faculty members

anna makes her debut...hungry for little pigs with her knife and fork!
the straw pigs
the stick pigs
the brick pigs...hilarious muscles!!
anna telling the pigs she was going to blow their houses down
so scary!! : )

the class after the finale!!
so proud of anna!!
caroline thought it was awesome!!
papa and mimi were on hand
so were gramma and grampa
and aunt lizzie!
the talented mrs. kolnak
love how amelia is smiling while anna and kennedy are in character!!

Grind it out Grizz!!!

This city surely does have the Grizzlies spirit. The team has been in Memphis for 10 years and has slowly built up a very viable and competitive team. We have attended a few games throughout the season but it really was at the end of the season that we started watching a lot or all of the games and hoping for a playoff spot. Anna was even into the games and logged onto ESPN Gamecast on the iPad during the games. Not such a good thing when we had set our Tivo and were behind on the game. Anna has a hard time not telling what is currently happening in the game! Caroline always checked out what color uniform the players were wearing and asked if Z-Bo was in the game. The Grizzlies played so well in the first round of the playoffs against the San Antonio Spurs and won that series 4-2. I think we were the only ones in the family not to attend a first round game so we vowed to go in the second round. The Oklahoma City Thunder is a team just like Memphis...young, small market, newer franchise and so we thought this was a good matchup. We immediately won game #1 and this was shaping up well. We finally took the girls to game #6 in Memphis on Friday night. They were THRILLED to say the least. They loved their yellow growl towels that were given to them upon entrance to FedEx Forum. They loved even more that every seat had a white "Believe Memphis" shirt on it. Of course these XL size shirts were dresses to them, but they quickly accessorized them and made them their own.

On a side note, the entertainment of the night for Gary and I outside of the game was the two females in front of us who pulled out full sized scissors and proceeded to "trim" their XL shirts on the neckline and sleeves to make it "sexy". First of all, how did they get through security with these scissors and who needs a sexy version of the Believe shirt? So funny and made for some good laughs during the time outs.

The Grizzlies came back from a 10 point deficit to win the game. Such fun and so glad we went. Yes, they lost game #7 but their season was one to remember and will carry over into next year with some excited, onboard fans! We love the Grizzlies. Caroline pointed out that yes, we love the Grizzlies, and even Memphis Tigers, but we LOVE the Auburn Tigers the most and if they were in the playoffs, we would be at their games first. Love it.

gary and anna with their growl towels. i think i was hit in the eye by anna and caroline about 25 times, but it was still fun!

we believe!

before the game and ready for it to start!

Field Day

Continuing with the theme of not so great weather....the day slated for track and field day at Harding started with overnight thunderstorms and ended with much cooler temperatures. Anna was sad that it was raining but that did not stop the fun. Most everything was moved indoors with several things in the covered areas outside. The sun did make a brief appearance in the afternoon but had everything been outside it would have made for some muddy kids! The second graders all wore green t-shirts and sweat bands (love that the girls wore them on their legs!) and were split into 2 teams. Anna's team had lots of passion and really was competitive. Gary and I each spent about an hour watching the kids and enjoyed that time a lot. Anna's team came in 3rd place for the 1st through 3rd grade teams. Lots of fun with a popsicle party at the end. I always loved field day growing up. At Campus School we would go over the track at U of M and also the field house for our activities. Nice to have great facilites right next door. I was always competitive and loved winning. Glad to see the kids have lots of energy to spare!

anna and gary

competing in the long jump...i definitely think we have a future track star

part of the "green machine"...kennedy, emily and anna

clown shoe relay...very fun!!

Mother's Day

I was glad to have my mom back in town this year for Mother's Day. Last year was the first year she had been out of town as she was helping with my brothers' kids while my brother and sister-in-law were overseas. We enjoyed a nice day at church and then something new for lunch. We went to the Botanic Gardens for their Mother's Day Jazz Brunch. What a treat! The weather was perfect...a little warm in the sun, but after such a crazy spring of wild weather, we took a calm and sunny day. The girls enjoyed the Japanese Gardens area where lunch was set up. The food was yummy, the girls fed the koi fish in the ponds and we all took a carriage ride around the gardens when we finished. It was great and relaxing and best of all I did not have to do any of the cooking!! When we got home I requested "quiet time" for the family, which mostly meant "Mommy wants to take a nap". Everyone obliged and I got in a quick 1 hour nap which was very refreshing.

For dinner we had Dad, Julie, Lizzie, Blair, Kim & Benjamin over. We made homemade spaghetti for dinner and enjoying getting everyone together. The kids love having their youngest cousin (not for long as Benjamin will soon have a little brother) over to play and Benjamin thinks he has stepped into Toys R Us when he comes to our house. Fun times and good fellowship and of course I took no pictures of the evening festivities.

Overall, I am so blessed to be a mother to Anna and Caroline. Please oblige while I am sappy. I know they try my patience and leave me very little peace in a day, but I would do anything for them. I pray daily for their good health, their futures and our family. I want them to have the luxury of being anything they want to be when they grow up (which at this point in time has Anna being a teacher and Caroline a fashion diva). I would not trade my time with them for anything and I know one day, when there is peace in the house and the girls are at Auburn (PLEASE!!) that Gary and I will look around and wonder where the time has gone!!

all the girls before church

the 3 generations after lunch feeing the koi pretty girl caroline awesome day!!
big girl anna
on the carriage ride