Sugar Pie Honey Bunch

St. Pete and the Phillips Family

I LOVE the beach.

I LOVE everything about it - the smell, the sand, the sunset, the fish, sandcastles . . .

Always so hard to leave. Then, I return to our house and want to decorate it in a beach motif! Hard task considering we live in a farm house!

Some things I want to remember:

Mia just floating in an inner tube riding the waves without a care in the world.
Curt and Sab completing the wipe-out course!
Paddleboats in a waterway not nearly wide enough.
Captain Red Beard
Walking out the backdoor in a swimsuit with bedhead.
A Conch in a pocket!
A trolley ride with sweaty palms
Fish - pretty, nondescript, acrobatic otters, all just new and wonderful.
Tired kids riding an early flight home, one fast asleep - hair beaded and happy.

Mia and her sometimes craft friend Captain Red Beard.

Pet the sting ray at the aquarium. Sab was not impressed :)

Love this.

Surprise in a shell.

Seems sooo long ago!

Pure Brilliance or . . . Pretty Close

Sab's 9th(!!!!!) birthday is tomorrow. I can remember turning 9 and the fact that he is at this age already blows my mind. Honestly, it seems like just yesterday Curt was asking where is the manual for him! I'll be sappy more later as we are celebrating his birthday all week :)

On to brilliance. If you ask Sab what he loves most in this world, his reply is money. Yes, I know we should have a discussion about greed, BUT in his defense he does chores and understands the concept of jobs and responsibility. So when someone gives him money in a card, he just can't believe his luck. A bunch of one dollar bills excite him more than a $20. He understands the amount of each, long story short he is into quantity. My oldest (smile) sister mailed him a package yesterday. I was fearful of its lack of weight and suggestions to recycle on the outside of the box. I thought for sure it was a creature of some sort. We, as sisters, try to pay each other back through the gifts we give to each other's children. To name a few examples: drum sets, princess high heels, fisher price light up toys that just never die . .

Inside this TAPED package were tiny balloons filled with one dollar bills. His delight was just awesome. And he was gracious enough to let his sister break a few. Somehow she broke them with her little hand and he was unable. Lots to think consider there!

Straight from scout camp.

The pile beginning to take shape!

In love.

She had a million questions about how this all came about. I pity the next person who gives her a balloon :)

Long story short . . . a great surprise . . brilliance.

My Soccer Bub

I have to be careful . . . Sebastian is becoming computer savvy enough to know that I have a blog and he often appears on it!! He happened to be strolling by my laptop one day and spotted his photo on the screen. Good Lord Mom, he said - what is that and why am I on it? I backpedaled as quickly as I could, but I am fairly certain he mentioned me and embarrassment. Ah, 8 going on 17.

As you know . . . SOCCER SEASON IS BACK!

Let's take a peek at my David Beckham :)

Taking the ball down the field

Quarter break - Coach Deal talking strategy

Disgusted

The last photo just cracks me up. Sab's coach, during Thursday's practice, sat his Team Fire down and said we need to talk a little strategy. The team we are playing on Saturday is older, faster, and has been undefeated for quite some time. We are going to play four defenders and one striker. Sab immediately became disheartened. He said on the way home, "Mom, we aren't going to win. They are better than us." Cue the music and the mom speech (this is where I come in!) - I countered this statement with if you go in with the wrong attitude you won't win and everyone has a bad day now and then, you never know what might happen . . . yep, I was rolling them all out!

Saturday dawns and the other team was just awesome. When I noticed the coach timing their wind sprints, I knew things were a little bleak. Team Fire did a great job though, especially Beckham Phillips here. He took a lot of abuse from bigger players, and took it in stride. That's probably the hardest thing for me to watch. Time passes, the lone striker here looks over at me. I am the most embarrassing soccer mom. I CAN'T HELP IT! So, I yell from the sidelines, "Sab, you can do this."

It could be that he was mad at me, or just frustrated with the score. He took the ball from his goal line and just took off with it. He had four players on his heels so fast. He maneuvered around one, which tripped the player and just full-out sprinted towards the other goal. He scored beautifully! I cried - still am as I type this. He slapped the hands of his teammates, ran back to his position and gave me the most heartwarming Bub grin. He was the first player to score on this team in five games :)

The End.

Tulips Everywhere

My friend Em, will often switch up the schedule of her posts due to something she really wants to blog. So I interrupt this daily broadcast to share these tulips with you. We set out last week, to visit the Ecotulip farm near us. It was just one of those days when you know your kids are not going to cooperate. Sab was into it, but his sister, well, it wasn't her day. So we waited a week. And. It worked out because the tulips were in full bloom - what a beautiful day, what a fantastic farm. If you know me well, you know how much I LOVE flowers. It is rare that I don't have flowers in this house, we won't even talk about my love for plants :)

Row, after row, pink, red, yellow, striped -- aahhhhh!

They don't even look real here!

We have often joked (this is mean I know) that sister here has a few dog-like qualities including her sense of smell. She couldn't get enough . . . . wait for it . . .