Opryland

Today was all about the Opry!

The Grand Old Opry

Backstage in Dressing Room #1

Lots of picture with guitar opportunities here in Nashville.

Standing on stage in "The Circle"

Future Opry comedy act stars

Fun boat ride on the General Jackson and great lunchtime entertainment. Think it was more country music than the girls had ever heard!

And we ended the day with a visit to the Gaylord Opryland Resort and here are the girls horsin' around with some random "art" at the resort.  We also took a little boat ride around the little river and watched a fountain show to music. The fountain show was like the little baby sister to the show at the Belagio in Vegas. Or maybe more like a distant cousin.

Downtown Nashville

We spent most of the time at the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum.  Although we are not really into country music, I think that the visit was enjoyed by the whole family.  The museum was primarily made up of artists' guitars or other musical instruments and outfits from the beginning of country to modern day artists.  I think that the girls enjoyed looking at the instruments and when we got to the sparkly more current artists' outfits, that was a bit hit.  Taylor Swift had a rhinestone guitar on display that Ella really liked.  

We decided to take the tour of RCA Studio B which was really neat.  It was an old timey recording studio used by a lot of the country greats and of course Elvis.  Elvis is everywhere in Tennessee, even outside of Memphis.  It was a fun experience but the girls got tired of standing so they decided to share a seat next to one of the old recording devices.  A super cute photo op!

Addy is standing in front of one of the mics and podiums used by a lot of the old country stars when they were in the recording studio. 

Broadway is the main drag in Nashville full of honky-tonk bars and clubs, restaurants and boot shops.  There were some really tall boots and this is Ella standing next to a pair that was half as tall as she was.  The girls liked to go around the story and say which ones were their favorite. 

We visited the Pawn Star's place in Vegas, so we couldn't miss American Pickers Nashville Store.  No major purchases, other than an Antique Archaeology hat.  

We met up for dinner to celebrate cousin Laura's birthday.  Unfortunately we didn't get a picture when Laura was around, but the girls really enjoyed being able to celebrate with her.  Here are the girls with Aunt Connie at her house before dinner. 

Memphis

The first half of the day started with a car ride and 30 of Elvis' top hits to get everyone ready for Graceland. Not sure the music was a huge hit with the Wolf family, but Graceland was certainly worth the stop. It was quite a throwback to the 70's. The green shag carpet in the Jungle Room brought back memories of my childhood.

The girls seemed to enjoy the planes and the pink cars that Elvis had. I think they liked the mansion tour as much as any 4 and 7 year old would. 

Standing by the bed in Elvis' plane.  

Big plane!  It isn't very often that you get to walk around underneath a plane. 

Elvis' pink jeep. 

Elvis' front porch. 

The girls hangin' in Elvis' backyard. 

Then we made our first trip to a Triple D "dive". We thank Guy and the Food Nerwork for taking us to Uncle Lou's fried chicken. I know we would have not stopped there on our own!

Time to get to the final destination. Nashville here we come!

Family Vacation Day 1

Lots of quality car time. We had lunch at Wendy's for the 3rd time in about 3 weeks which is a record. As a result of our frequent Wendy's visits, it became Ella's #1 request when it came to lunch options.  Except she calls it Dorothy's.  Took us a while to figure out what in the world she was talking about - we immediately went to Wizard of Oz and thought maybe she was thinking we were in Kansas.  Nope, she just likes Wendy's, I think because of the good kids meal prizes and Frosty's. 

 Today we stood in Texas and Arkansas at the same time.

 Walked across a big dam bridge. 

And had our dinner delivered to our table by a train at the All Aboard Cafe in Little Rock. Ella is looking up at the train that is coming to deliver our food.

Lakehouse Weekend 2014

A fabulous time was had by old and new friends!  It is so fun how all of the kids love to hang out together now. 

 Water in the lake is 20+ feet below "normal", so the water is a bit murky by the dock.  The girls don't care though!

 Ella and Ainsley holding hands jumping off the dock!

 Addy continued to love the water sports - tubing, kids style surfing (she almost got up to standing), and riding the jet ski.  But this year was a breakthrough trip for Ella, she rode the tube a lot with Michael or me, but then she rode by herself the last day.  She also rode the jet ski with us.  I expect her to be unstoppable next year!

 Cute kids!

Good times with great friends!

4th of July 2014

 Check out the post from 4th of July 2013 to see how much they have grown! 

 So much fun having Granddad and Meme come play for the weekend.

Wouldn't be the 4th without fireworks.  Ella was excited to have Meme to hang out with her inside this year!

 Chocolate s'mores faces

Not long after her first trip into the water, Addy was talking non stop with another kid.  We had no idea who he was and figured she got very social all of a sudden and had made a new friend.  Turns out it is a boy in the same grade at her school.  His family has a house in the same beach neighborhood.  I am not sure how much they hung out during school, but they are BFFs now and had a blast playing with each other over the weekend. 

Happy Birthday Michael!

Horseshoe Bay Weekend

While the girls were playing with Granny, Jean, Tom and Betsy, Michael and I were playing with friends at Lauren's wedding in Horseshoe Bay.  Such a fun weekend catching up with everyone!

LOVED hanging out with my girls!

Happy Birthday Granny!

I am sad that we missed the fiesta, but I know that the girls had a blast celebrating Granny's 91st birthday with her! 

Circus Camp

Circus camp is definitely the highlight of Addy's summer!  She was super excited when she got assigned to the skate performance - it was amazing how much she learned in only about 10 hours of practice. 

No children were harmed but this picture sure makes it look a bit like she was being strangled.  This was by far her favorite part of the act!

Really incredible stuff, not only were the kids working at it, but the coaches doing the tricks with the kids were fantastic.  

Mommy Addy Day

For the first time in a really long time, we had a Mommy Addy Day on Monday.  I let Addy pick what she wanted to do, so we went to the Museum of Natural Science.  It has been a long time since we've been there and the dinosaur exhibit is now huge.  And good news is that Addy is no longer afraid of the dinosaur exhibit, so we spent a lot of time in there. 

She really liked this alligator-like dinosaur.  We also visited the butterflies.  We then topped off the outing with a hamburger from Wataburger!

Summertime!!!

 Let the swimming begin!

This time last year Ella would not put her toes in the pool.  Now she is jumping in the shallow end by herself!

Last Day of 1st Grade

1st day of 1st grade August 2013

Look how much she grew!!!!

Last day of 1st grade May 2014

Memorial Day Weekend

The weekend was cut short a bit because Monday, Memorial Day, was a makeup "snow" day, but we still had a great time.

 The girls made the most of the gross seaweed that had taken over.  Michael slaved away to clear out some room for us to play, which I greatly appreciated.  I get the creeps just putting my toes in it, the girls love playing in it.  It is gross. 

We had a super fabulous time when Aunt Jean, Uncle Tom, Betsy and Crystal came down to play.  Certainly the highlight of the trip, the girls loved it and pretty sure our next visit to the beach will include a lot of questions about when Jean, Tom, Betsy and Crystal are going to come back down to the beach to play!

Animal Project Expo

Part of the spring semester at Kolter was spent on a research project.  The theme was animals and each kid picked an animal to research and learn about.  They wrote a report and then had to do a presentation at the Expo.  Addison chose the seahorse and learned all kind of interesting facts about them.  Her report is super informative and then she did an underwater scene out of modeling clay.  She has her seahorses and then the green plant life and the coral.  Apparently seahorses change color to blend with their environment, so the pink seahorse is meant to blend in with the pink coral behind it.  She did a great job!

Dancing Ella

Ella took dance and gymnastics this spring and had a great time in both classes.  Her gymnastics was on Mondays so I got to see that class regularly, but dance was Wednesdays so I didn't get to see it until parents day at the last class.  Ella was a bit under the weather, so she wasn't much into photos (not that she is even when she is 100%) but she did great and listened to the teacher and everything she was supposed to do.  Seeing a bunch of little 4 year olds "dance" around the room is super cute!

1st Grade Awards

The week before school was out, Addison had her 1st grade awards ceremony.  Here she is with Dr. Shetzer her principal after she got her awards.  Addy got honor roll and perfect attendance.  The perfect attendance is the greatest achievement I'd say, especially with the trouble she has with her allergies...she managed to not get sick this year which was a huge accomplishment! 

 Addison and her super good friend Caroline.

 Ms. Patel, the greatest 1st grade teacher!

Addison and her other super good friend Josie.

Mother's Day

We had a lovely relaxing Mother's Day weekend at the beach.  Got some super cute kiddie made gifts from the girls, which are my favorite.  This was the icing on the cake though.  Addison's Chinese teacher had them fill these out and for anyone who really knows me, you will totally agree with some of the responses and be quite surprised by others...

30? years old = I like this one, her teacher told them to put a ? if they weren't sure how old their moms were.  I technically tell Addison I am still 29, but I'll take 30 too.  
Sleep = she nailed this one
Rice Crispy chocolate squares = not a lot of cooking here, but they are super good!
Favorite food = fish, I do like fish and of course the ironic part is that I never really ate fish until I was in my early 20's.  Addison has consumed more fish in her 7 years than I did in my first 20!
We like to go on walks and exercise = I do like to do that now, irony of this one is that I didn't like going on walks and exercising until my 30's

Can't wait to see what treasures I get next Mother's Day!

Magnet Performance

End of school means end of year performances.  At Kolter the performance is tied in with the foreign language magnet classes, so there is very little English spoken in the show!  This year the kindergarteners and 1st graders performed together.  All of the language classes did a piece and it was to the theme of The Very Hungry International Caterpillar.  Addison's Chinese class did a song and dance about fruits to coordinate with the part of the story where the caterpillar ate all the fruit.  We had no clue what she was singing, but it was super cute. Addison was front and center in a super cute outfit her Chinese teacher had for some of the girls.  Here is Addison in her debut Chinese performance. 

Crab Festival

We are having fun exploring new things in 2014.  Last visit to the beach, a flyer for the annual Texas Crab Festival caught my eye.  We'd been down at the beach house on the weekend of the crab festival before but I never thought of going.  For the sake of trying something new, we spend some time on Mother's Day at the festival.  Sunday was definitely a slow morning at the festival, not a lot of folks, but we got to enjoy some live music, there was a guy doing balloon animals for the kids, and we had some fried crab munchies for lunch.  I think we'll definitely give it another try next year.  Maybe visit on Saturday when it is a bit more lively.  Was a great end to a nice and relaxing weekend at the beach this time though!

These were some of the most elaborate balloon characters I'd ever seen.  The girls asked for mermaids and this is what they got - very fun and huge!