Franklin, TN

 We headed down to Franklin to do some running around for the new house, fun things like picking out tile and paint. We wanted the day to be fun for the kids as well so we picked out a pretty neat little place to eat lunch. 

It is a real grocery store that is a restaurant. 

The kids had fun looking around at all the stuff. The atmosphere was great and the food wasn't bad. 

After lunch we walked around the downtown area and found some really fun shops. There is a great toy store, the kids fell in love with it at first sight. It is definitely a town we will have to go back to. 

Go Cougars!

Grace and Ava have been part of the junior cheer squad all year. They have cheered at home football and basketball games. They are both super excited when they are able to go out in front of everyone and cheer with the varsity cheerleaders. 

Gavin loves to go as well because he gets to see his Senior buddy Travis who is a starter on the varsity basketball team. Travis is wonderful to Gavin. 

Gavin also seems to have a lot of upperclassmen friends. I have no clue who's shoulders he is on (I know, great parenting) but he was in the student section all night. 

Ella loved just hanging out at eating the kids popcorn. She was really funny. Every time she heard cheering  she would scream, start clapping and turn and smile at me. 

I can't get enough of her :)

My little Ham

The day after Christmas was pretty lazy. We just had a huge party at my mom's for the entire family the day before so we were all a little worn out. We were all just hanging out in the sitting room talking when Ella comes up to me out of nowhere with this supper goofy grin and says CHEEEEESE. She keep saying it and finally points to my camera which is on the coffee table right next to me. Over the next hour I just kept taking pictures of her when she would come up to me and say cheese.

 I adore her. 

Grace, Age 7

Favorite 

               Music-   Dance 

               Color-   RED      

               Number-  7

               Toy-     Barbie Dog

               TV Show- Phineas and Ferb

               Movie-   High School Musical 3

               Food-    Strawberries

               Place-   Disney World

               School subject-  Math

What do you want to be when you grow up? A doctor.

How many teeth have you lost? 2.

How many are wiggly? 1. 

What is your favorite type of clothes to wear? Dresses.

What is one thing you like most about yourself? My family. 

Grace's Chicago Birthday

Grace was born on December 23, 2003. Since her birthday is only 2 days before Christmas we try to make her day as special as can be. This year, for her 7th birthday,  we let her choose how she wanted to celebrate. She wanted to go downtown Chicago. Aaron was in charge of the research to make sure she knew of everything that there was to do on that day. 

Grace has never been on a train before so she wanted to take one into the city. Aaron had no objections to this at all, I think he was just as excited as she was. 

t

First stop, the Art Institute of Chicago. This is one of my most favorite places to go in Chicago. I haven't been there in years and I was so excited when Grace said she wanted to go. I was looking forward to showing everything I love and hoping she enjoys it as much as I do. 

Marc Chagall is one of my loves. 

His art is almost magical, I can sit and look at this for hours. 

Another great area of the museum is seeing the old Stock Exchange room. I can't begin to explain how much beautiful detail is in this room. The hand painting on the walls and ceiling is unbelievable. 

Monet

Seurat

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1888)

After about 30 minutes in the museum Aaron and Grace were ready to leave. I kept dragging them around showing them beautiful works of art which they had no interest in. I have to admit it made me a little sad. 

We had a little time before we had our next adventure so we hopped into a cab and headed over to Michigan Ave. 

We stopped and ordered some hot chocolate to warm up before our walk over to old Chicago Water tower. 

Next stop on Grace's list, Peter Pan at the Looking Glass Theater. 

This was a treasure map to show us how to find our seats!

The theater was very small, at most it seated maybe 150 people. The stage was in the center of all the seats, if you were late you couldn't come in until the second act. 

  

The pictures inside are not great, I was sneaking them because there was no cameras allowed in the theater. I just had to take one of this hanging light. They were all over and it just looked so interesting. 

We LOVED,LOVED,LOVED this play! It was amazing. So very basic, their costumes to the stage set were very minimal, they made it so you had to use your imagination. 

After the play we walked a few blocks down to Rosebud for Gracie's birthday dinner. The food was wonderful and after Aaron and I had a few glasses of wine and Grace had her mini birthday cake.

After dinner we had about an hour before our train ride back to Grandma's house so we decided to take Grace over to the Christmas Market. We wanted her to see what the German markets looked like and how much fun they are to go to.

We finally arrived home around 8 pm that night. We all were exhausted but Grace said she had a fabulous time! 

Happy Birthday Gracie! We love you!!!