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!