Sav's 8th Grade Graduation

It is so hard to believe that my sweet little Savannah is old enough to graduate from 8th grade but that's exactly what happened on June 10th. She's growing up into such an amazing, beautiful young woman!

These two!

And they're off...Savannah's last day of middle school!

The graduation ceremony was wonderful although the Vice Principal pronounced Savannah's name incorrectly. I'm still not sure how one does that with a name like Savannah but oh, well. She's official!

Let the picture taking with friends begin!!!

Mary and Celine;

the twins, Michaela and Mary;

Alexa;

Abby;

and Emily.

The whole gang!

And that's just a few of the many, MANY pictures we took. I am so grateful that Savannah has surrounded herself with such great friends; what a difference that can make in a young person's life. Middle school was a great experience for her but time to bring on high school!!

Xander's Baseball Season

A few years ago Xander's baseball team, the Orioles, made it to the championship game and they were told they were going to be playing on the big field under the lights. For some reason that didn't happen and all the boys were so bummed to have to play on just one of the regular fields. Ever since then Xander has been dying to play on the big field. Although this had been a fun season, Xander's team was by no means one of the better teams and so it looked like once again Xander would miss out on that big field dream. Except at the end of the season the league decided to draw  team names to see who would get to play on this most coveted field. The gods were smiling down on Xander because his team was selected and on a Thursday night in June he and I headed to Cal Ripken Sr. Field for his big playoff game!

The boys were in heaven hanging out in the dugout!

A final pep talk by the coach...

and one last cheer!

My cute baseball player living his 11 year old dream!

First time up to bat...

and he's on.

Xander playing in the outfield.

He's definitely got the arm for it!

Another time up to bat and he got hit.

He was able to eventually make his way to home and get a score.

His coach was really great and was able to help Xander improve in so many aspects of his game.He was always positive and very encouraging.

Close call!

And we're still working on the whole sliding thing.

In the field he played first...

as well as short stop.

At 10:30, when they started another inning, I realized they were going for a full 9 innings which to me was absolutely ridiculous. School night, people! Plus I had Savannah's graduation in the morning, a lot of packing, and then an evening departure for our vacation. The other team was ahead with little to no chance of us coming back for the win so, although I hated to do it, Xander and I headed home. He was such a good sport about leaving early and told me that he was so tired and just wanted to go to bed. One of the moms messaged me later to let me know that we had indeed lost. Oh, well, it was a great opportunity for Xander and another fun season.

3rd Grade Picnic

A few days before the end of school was the 3rd Grade Picnic, an event I always enjoy, especially when the weather is as beautiful as it was that day. Noah has thoroughly enjoyed having Ms. Hill as his teacher!

Time to ditch mom and play football with friends.

Time for some relaxin' in the sun...

and a little hang out time with mom.

Noah doesn't stay still for long!

Back to some run around fun!

Goofing off with friends.

Noah and some of his best buds - Kaden, Eli, and Logan.

A Story About a Blue Dress

While shopping for some new clothes, Savannah mentioned that she needed a dress for Social and Graduation. Lucky day, we were able to find this great bargain on a cute black dress at Old Navy that would work for both occassions. Only problem? A few days later Savannah started seeing pictures of what her friends would be wearing to Social and all of a sudden that cute black dress just wasn't cutting it. Savannah started scouring the internet and found her dream dress - an electric blue lace dress, very pretty and surprisingly very low cost. But that low cost worried me as well as the fact that it was coming from a store I had never heard of. I hate ordering clothes online if I'm not familiar with the place so I told Savannah I would take her shopping again. We spent an afternoon at the mall with zero success. There were plenty of cute dresses but Savannah had set her heart on this particular blue lace dress. I told her we would try two more stores the next afternoon and, if we didn't find anything, we would take our chances with the online store but she needed to realize that if the dress arrived and it was too short or too small there would be no time to get anything else. I said a prayer that morning that Heavenly Father would help us find a dress she liked in one of the stores we were going to; I was just not in the mood to waste time and money on an iffy online purchase. Too many people think that Heavenly Father is only there to answer the big, important prayers but I know that he answers the prayers of a desperate mother over a seemingly small, insignificant thing. We walked in to Kohls and within minutes found almost an exact replica of her dream dress. Same color, same lace, and being right there in a store we were able to verify a perfect fit! I am so grateful for the tender mercies of a loving Heavenly Father.
And doesn't she look beautiful?

Savannah and Celine, best friends since kindergarten, heading out to their 8th grade Social. Crazy!

They are ready to hit that dance!!