Fast Forward Toward Fall

I’m always sad when summer is over. I love the warmer weather, the longer days and the more relaxed schedule that summer has to offer. It has been fast and furious as we have headed into fall. We are busy every evening after finishing a day of school and work! I worked on our October calendar last night and noticed it was quite colorful with all our extracurricular commitments. It is a blessing to be in this busy stage of life where we enjoy events at church, school and within the sports’ arenas. The kids are enjoying school and continue to excel academically. We’ve fit in some dress up days which always amp up the excitement in an elementary school. The boys continue to enjoy the high intensity on the soccer pitch and they are gaining leadership roles at school and at church. This past week, Zander found out that he was voted on as the treasurer of Hawk Leaders at school. Maddox (as a fifth grader) helps on the audio/visual team for his children’s church services in Kidstreet and he was voted on by his class to be their student council representative. One of my favorite things from this past weekend was driving Zander to his soccer game about 1.5 hours away from home. Talking to my teenager the whole ride there made me truly appreciate the stage of life we are in. We were able to celebrate Grandpa’s birthday this past week and my parents made it happen for me to get Cracker Barrel “take out” in memory of Grandma Nancy’s 95th birthday. I’m trying to catch up with friends whenever possible. Carmen met me at Maddox’s practice last week and we were able to chat and run while Maddox had soccer practice. I’m truly blessed by the family, friends and schedule I’m currently experiencing.

Soccer, Soccer, Soccer

Now that Zander is playing for his middle school team and BOTH boys are playing travel soccer, we are fitting in a lot of time on the pitch these days! Zander played three games in the last seven days and Maddox played two. It has been quite warm in the afternoons and weekends which means mama is having a “two shower” day to account for all the sweat! Haha! Zander played goalie for a bit this past week for his school team which is something he has never really done but did pretty well in the position. Although I will add that I enjoy seeing #10 (school number)/ #70 (CCFC number) playing his typical offensive position as winger or striker. Maddox got recognized for his stellar performance at the tournament a couple weeks ago by being nominated for Team of the Week! While he has played goalie in the past and does it quite well, I love watching him as a winger, striker or in the 10 spot! Here’s to a lot more soccer this fall!

Grammy and Grandpa joined the three youngest cousins for Breakfast with a Buddy at our school on Friday and made these kids super happy to begin their day! Finally, we got Zander’s 8th grade school picture and Maddox’s Fifth Grade Fly By submission. It’s hard for me to believe how fast this year is already going …. Please slow down time!

Labor Day Weekend 2026

Zack was out of town all last week for work. Due to some missed flights based on weather delays, he drove through the night from DC to make it home to us on Friday. Beau enjoyed keeping us company as we shuttled the boys to all their extracurricular activities! On Friday night, we got to enjoy Carolina Core’s final game of the season. An added bonus was getting to join Aunt Kelly and her family in her company’s suite for free food and air conditioning! On Saturday, the boys invited their best friends (Jackson and Austin) over to enjoy Partee Shack and then a sleepover. We took the boys to church on Sunday. Zander went to lunch and Top Golf with his youth small group afterwards. On Monday, we spent a few hours at Urban Air. We did the ropes course, the sky rider, the climbing wall and trampolines. It was a fun family outing after all the plans we’ve had recently! I can’t believe it is already time to head back to work and school for another week! The weekends go by way too fast!

Soccer Season

We fit in five soccer games this weekend! Zander had a single season game that was local and their team won at home! Maddox’s team had their first tournament of the year and came home champions! Maddox had nine total goals for the weekend, including a penalty kick that caused his team to win the semifinal match in the last few minutes of the game. In the final game, Maddox had a hat trick scoring two goals as right winger and then having an incredible free kick placement where the ball faded into the goal at the last moment! This caused them to tie up the game and force a penalty kick shootout with their team winning the shootout 4-1! Maddox is pretty excited to have a champion medal at his first ever soccer tournament and is really excited about the year ahead! I see a lot of soccer games in our future for the Houston brothers!

SURFILMUSIC Tour 2026

We have two weeks of school behind us at this point and are getting used to our new routine! I am loving the ages of our kids, our conversations in the car and even the busy schedule with nightly commitments for sports and church! I don’t want to claim we have it figured out but things seem to be falling into place each day! Last weekend, I took Maddox to our local honeybee festival while Zander played a round of golf with two of his buddies from school (Austin and Max). They had a thunderstorm pop up around hole #12 and I’m thankful they knew to head to the clubhouse where they waited out the weather and were able to go to the driving range for a bit afterwards. They got a rain check for the back nine to play on a different day. On Sunday, we had a pool party at the McKillops. You will see Maddox attempted to photo bomb the teacher picture! Haha This week, I had to organize our beginning of grade assessments. Carmen brought me a delicious coffee drink before we started the assessments! I’m so thankful for our friendship! This weekend, Zack and I were able to head to Raleigh for a Jack Johnson concert (one of the only musical groups that we agree on and enjoy together) while Grammy and Grandpa took our boys to Zander’s first soccer tournament of the season in Charlotte! We were all over the state this weekend but we are so thankful for the grandparents ensuring the boys were where they needed to be so we could have a night out! We will have many soccer games in our future as both boys are playing travel soccer this year. Zander found out on Friday that he made his middle school soccer team as well! I see us on soccer fields for the foreseeable future…. Stay tuned for picture updates of all the fall sports!

First Day of School 2026

Here are the annual first day of school pictures. This is year #22 for me, 8th grade for Z and 5th grade for M. Since this is Maddox’s last year of elementary school, I had to document his first day of elementary school just five short years ago. I wanted to also document the first day of school when Zander started kindergarten (he had a stagger start so Zander’s first day was actually the second day of school) to the first day of school when Maddox started fifth grade, representing 9 years of my career where my boys joined me under the same roof for their education. This is such an incredible blessing to have been given this opportunity. Also included in this post, I helped drop off Z for his first day of 8th grade (hence the car photo) and the cousin crew is back together for one last year before Maddox heads to middle school. I love getting to see all three of them around school! We knocked out Maddox’s “fifth day of fifth grade” (with a picture to prove it). We celebrated Beau’s “gotcha day”. He has officially been a Houston for two years now. Finally, last weekend we had one final summer adventure at the Wyndham golf tournament with the original Bakewells and the four kids. It was a very hot day but a lot of fun to be together before the craziness of the school/sports schedule is in full effect. 

Grammy Camp 2026

I went back to work on Monday so the boys enjoyed five days with Grammy (and Grandpa).  After a cracked IPad screen coming into contact with a golf club (accidentally), I was glad the boys didn’t have much unsupervised time this week. Yes, the cracked screen occurred in the two hours I left the boys at home alone Monday morning before Grammy came over to start the Grammy Camp fun! #boys The boys lived their best lives this week, playing disc golf, going bowling, going to the local children’s museum, playing at the rec center and spending time at the pool and the local park. The Kennedy kids joined Maddox on Thursday and Friday for the adventures while Zander went with Grandpa to volunteer at the Wyndham Championship! I think all four kids enjoyed their week with Grammy and Grandpa while the moms went back to work. This past week, Zack and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary! We also joined the Kennedys for a date night at the Dash game. Two dates in one week is a record! We knocked out open house visits for 5th and 8th grade. We are excited that the boys are the “big guys on campus”, finishing out their final years of elementary (M) and middle school (Z). We got to see the latest Spiderman movie (“Brand New Day”) in the theaters. Finally, we celebrated Beau’s 4th “ish” birthday! We love our rescue pup!