Summer in the City (and elsewhere!)

We have just wrapped up one of the best summers ever!  There's nothing like going through a full year of real school to make us really appreciate a big, long vacation.  We've had technical difficulties this summer, so my apologies for condensing this all in one huge post.

We started the summer with a bang-- one wonderful week with family in Pensacola.

Kata, channeling her 80 year-old self, put on a sweatshirt and held on to that kite for a surprisingly long time one afternoon.

Norah and her Godmother Bridget

Kiting with cousins.

Speaking of cousins...we may never be able to go to the beach again without our new heroes: Cousins Katherine and Caroline!

The Blue Wahoos game was a real highlight (hopefully new tradition?!?)

Cousins even make long restaurant meals fun.

After beach, we went to camp!  Here are a few photos I haven't yet posted.

Kata selfie during rest hour.

Summer means wearing skirts as dresses and painting boxes.

We rode in the Decatur Fourth of July parade!

Norah hit it out of the park once again at her art camp at Callanwolde.

We had a wonderful visit to Indiana at the end of July.  We are beyond grateful to have had what turned out to be one last sweet week with Zedol.  

Baba won the bike coach of the year award!

The girls ate (and approved of) their first elephant's ear.

These slides still exist in rural Indiana.  Awesome.

Beautiful summer day (we had a lot of them this year!)

Wells County 4-H Fair.  Ain't that America.

Fabulous birthday party with Birmingham cousins on the last weekend before...

The first day of school!  These two are, no surprise, currently taking first grade and pre-k by storm.  As for me, I'm counting the days till Fall Break...


Obviously ending our summer with the loss of Zedol was really tough.  We really appreciated all of those who called, sent notes and came to visit us during the last month.  Their teachers and (new) friends also all took extra good care of the girls when they returned to school.  Patrick, the girls and I all feel very supported and loved.  Thank you.

Stars of the May Shows

Kata's ballet show was last weekend.  Kata was a lovely sunshiney ballerina on stage and off!

The next night, it was time for Kata to be in the audience.  She was Norah's biggest fan by far.

It was a little tough to not be in the spotlight after the show, though.  Norah was a beautiful pink flower!

K wasn't out of the spotlight for long!  We had a small birthday party for her at our house on Sunday.  Here she is with the famous Aikaterini, her best friend from school this year.

Getting ready for cake #1!

Blow! (take 1)

Present time at home this afternoon.

Life of the party.

The moment the batteries went into the light saber.

Yesssss!  Barbie Fiat.

Blow! (take 2)

Guyana Girls on the move...again!

The Henrys are moving again!  Two days from now, we'll officially be Decatur residents in our new house!  In the meantime, we're traveling, visiting, soccer-ing, easter-ing, and most of all, packing (again).

We had a beautiful day for more Sunday soccer when Baba and Zedol were in town.

I got an illicit photo of the Cheetas.

Enjoying a great visit from the Indiana grandparents-- Zedol treated us to a meal out at Norah's favorite restaurant!

One beautiful Saturday, we went downtown to Olympic Park and had SO much fun watching the Incredible Dog competition...you know, that dog racing/agility course stuff you always see on TV?  We got to watch dogs jump 21 feet to catch a dummy above a pool of water!  Stella's training starts now.

This is Norah's first visit to our new house!  She quickly found her favorite spot.

All of my loves showing off my favorite spot!

We were treated to two gorgeous days at Tucker Branch during Norah's Spring Break week.

Way too cold to swim (can't say they didn't try, though...) but not too cold for toes.

At the Lookout Mountain Commons, Norah decided she'd try to make it to the top of the pole.  She did. 

Papaw came out for serious conversations.

and Mimi came to hunt for tadpoles

...and dig for worms.

We even got to meet an Atlanta friend in Chattanooga!

The girls got to pick the color for their new rooms.  This is Kata literally bursting with pride over her hot pink wall.

Norah seems pleased with her selection as well.

My beautiful big girl tore it up at the church Easer egg hunt.

Pretty in pink on Easter morning!

Birthday Bean!

To much fanfare, Norah turned six on Saturday.  Six!  And on a Saturday, just like when she was born.  I realized after the fact, that the moment she blew out those six candles, was pretty close to 11:32am on a Saturday morning, the moment six years ago my sweet first-born took her first breath.  

She wanted an Art Party.  So we invited her friends to the local art studio where everyone got to paint mermaids.

Kata got in on the action, too!

Sweet girls, all ready for mermaid story time.

The calmest moment of the morning.

And there she goes...officially SIX!

N with her good pal, Macie.

Baba and Zedol in attendance!

This happened.  

Some pretty adorable fellow six year-olds!

We had a family-style birthday celebration in the evening. Aunt Julie was treated to a Frozen song melody again, and again, and again..

The birthday party also happened to be a Dayton basketball viewing party.  Go Flyers!