The Mellens

Happy Friday!!

• Hope everyone has had a great week. We have had a wonderful week here. The weather is just incredible. Spring has sprung and even though pollen is coating everything, it’s still a beautiful time of year. We’ve all been enjoying more outdoor time and loving the warmer temps. Spring rocks!!
• Happy Birthday to Baby Zoie!! Heather & Mike welcomed their baby girl into the world on April 11th. Our first niece/girl cousin!! We haven’t met her since they live in Virginia, but we are super excited and loving photos!
• Last week was Spring Break, so we went down to Seagrove Beach in Florida. That’s down between Destin and Panama City Beach in the Florida Panhandle. That area used to be much more quaint and secluded. These days it’s much more developed and busy. We still had fun though. I posted a ton of pictures on my Facebook for friends and family to see.
• Today is Macey’s last day of CRCT (standardized) testing at school this week. They started on Wednesday with the reading portion of the test. Yesterday was the Language Arts portion and today is math. It’s surreal that our big girl is taking these tests. Wasn’t she just in preschool?
• Speaking of preschoolers, Mariana will turn FOUR in less than a month. That is just wild, isn’t it? It truly doesn’t seem like it’s been four year since she was born.
• Mariana has four weeks of school left in this preschool year. She has gone three mornings per week this year and will go every weekday morning next year. She LOVES preschool! She’s always excited about it!
• Macey has five weeks of school left. They have some fun activities coming up like a field trip to the Center for Puppetry Arts,  fun run, spring fling, field day and the annual 5th grade students vs teachers kickball game (the other grades get to watch and cheer). Lots of fun things happening – after CRCT, that is.
• Both girls have their dance recitals coming up on May 8th. Mariana’s pre-ballet recital is in the morning and Macey’s tap/jazz recital is in the afternoon. Additionally, Mickey is playing in a co-ed softball tournament at church that day. Whew…busy day!! We are SO looking forward to it.

Hope everyone has  a wonderful weekend!!

We have had a busy weekend going on around here. It’s been fun, of course, but really busy.

On Saturday, our good friends The Herrings had an Easter Egg hunt and cook-out at their house. It started at 11am and we got there just about that time. We had a wonderful time – especially the girls who LOVED hunting Easter Eggs with friends!! Everything was just fantastic and we enjoyed it very much! We hated to leave early, but we had to make our way home a little after 1pm, so I could get Mariana dressed and ready for a princess birthday party.

Saturday adventure number two was a birthday party for Mariana’s preschool friend, Katie. She had a princess party and all the little party guests wore their princess finery. Mariana chose to be Ariel (aka – the Little Mermaid) and I put on her costume from Halloween. Sister has done some growing since Halloween, let’s just say, so I had to put on some blue shorts under her dress. All the little princesses looked so adorable. The birthday girl and here family were very gracious and fun hosts. Mariana had a wonderful time! She was positively exhausted by the time we left, but in the best way possible.

I didn’t feel like cooking last night, so Mickey went and picked up some “hot and ready” Little Caesar’s pizza and crazy bread. You can’t beat $10 for a meal, right?! We had pizza and vegged at home last night. AHHHH!!

The girls went to bed without so much as a peep last night and were up ready to rock and roll again this morning. We are going to see Macey’s school chorus’ production of “Beauty & the Beast” this afternoon, so we’re quite excited about another adventure this weekend.

OH! While Mariana and I were gone to the princess party yesterday, Mickey and Macey worked on Macey’s bike riding skills. She is doing SOOOOO well on her big bike now! She’s still learning, but she made some major progress yesterday. Woo hoo! GO MACEY GO!!

Hope the weekend is great for everyone. I’ll have pictures to share soon.

Blessings,
Kelly

We went out to dinner with our friends, the DeDona’s, this evening. We went to one of our favorite local BBQ places. The food was delicious, as always. The company was even better. We love getting together with Dave, Christie and their daughter Rosemary. It’s always so much fun!! The girls have a ball hanging out together and us adults always laugh like hyenas over all sorts of crazy stuff. Never a dull moment.

After dinner, we went to Yogli-Mogli which just opened in our area. Oh my goodness – that place is amazing! They have several different flavors of frozen yogurt plus just about any topping you can fathom. (They even had Fruity Pebbles although I didn’t get that. Gack!) I had peanut butter mixed with chocolate yogurt with granola and bit of caramel. Hello…YUM! What you do is get as much yogurt and topping as you want and then pay by the ounce. That place was packed and steady with business. It was really cool and FUN!!

Here is a picture of all three girls at Yogli-Mogli. Rosemary has just lost her first tooth which you can tell in the photo. So cute!! Macey is wearing her favorite scarf – note the peace signs. And, Mariana is cheesin’ to beat the band. I love it!

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Thanks, DeDona Family, for a really FUN evening!! Can’t wait to get together again!

Today is a happy day in the Mellen house. Macey was finally able to return to school today!! Poor girl has been really sick this week and missed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from school. This is unprecedented  for her as she has never missed three days in a row prior to this. However, she came down with a stomach virus on Sunday evening and it kept her down for a few days. She felt puny, but overall okay on Monday, but still had to miss school due to the virus and fever. On Tuesday, she felt considerably worse. She slept almost all day which is not like Macey at all. Her fever broke on Tuesday afternoon and she started to feel a bit better. Her appetite and energy levels were still way down, but she was at least feeling somewhat better. Wednesday was a much better day. Macey still couldn’t return to school because she had not been fever free for 24 hours AND she was still not feeling 100% yet. She ate a little bit better yesterday and even had more energy to play which was a beautiful thing to see. This morning, she ate a good breakfast and felt like going back to school. YAY!!!

Macey was so excited to return to school. She absolutely loves school and was sad to miss most of this week. She was VERY ready to get back into the swing of things today. Hopefully, she’ll have a wonderful day today. Today is one of her two weekly PE days, so she was quite excited to get to jump rope there this afternoon. We told her that if she isn’t feeling well, to let her teachers know. We’re sure she will let them know if she starts to feel badly, but we’re also sure she’ll try her best to get to jump rope if at all possible.

In the grand scheme of things, this nasty “bug” was short-lived; however, it was rough and we’re glad that it is GONE now. Macey hasn’t felt that bad in a very long time and we are so grateful that she is well now. Praise God!!

In another happy report, Mariana and I are going to go to CostCo this morning. I cleaned out and defrosted our deep freeze yesterday, so now we actually have room for storage. I won’t say just how overdue that freezer cleaning was, but…it was LONG overdue. Since I’ve been couponing and trying to “stock up”, the space in the freezer is much needed. Hopefully we won’t let it get overloaded this time.

Hope y’all have a HAPPY day today,
Kelly

Since it’s been, oh, FOREVER, since a proper family post here, I thought I would update on each of us. I’ll start with the girls.

Macey

• Macey is six and two-thirds now.
• She is in first grade and absolutely LOVES it!
• She started the Target (gifted) program at her school in January and that has been a wonderfully fun addition to her school week. She goes to Target on Wednesdays and is having a ball!
• Macey loves to read. This school year she has gotten more into chapter books which is a lot of fun. I’m particularly excited to read the Little House series with her – maybe this summer.
• She is still quite the little artist. She loves to draw and also loves to illustrate stories that she writes.
• She takes tap/jazz on Monday evenings and that has been great fun for her. She is looking forward to her recital in May.
• She has learned some fun new physical skills this school year including finally learning to “pump” on the swing, going across the monkey bars and jumping rope. She is now a huge fan of all these things!
• Over all, Miss Macey is positively thriving. She’s happy, smart, sweet and as beautiful as ever.

Mariana

• Mariana is three and three-quarters now. It’s hard to believe that our “baby” will be four in May. Wow.
• She attends preschool three mornings per week and loves it!
• On Mondays, she stays at preschool for an extra hour which includes lunch and pre-ballet. That’s a fun day for Mariana. She has her first recital coming up in May and she is excited about the recital AND wearing a “fancy pants” costume.
• On Wednesdays, Mariana stays at school for lunch and Princess Play Party which is also a hit. They learn about various princesses, do crafts, play games, etc. That is right up her alley.
• She has a wonderful imagination. Her favorite thing to do is pretend to be a teacher. She talks about her “kids” and I often hear her singing songs and reading to her pretend class. It’s just about the cutest thing ever. Macey did that too and I just love to see their imaginations at work. She rarely lets us read to her anymore and prefers to make up her own stories that go along with the pictures in books.
• She loves her baby dolls and is the sweetest little mommy to them. Her favorite is her Bitty Baby that she got for Christmas and named Kate.  She loves all of her dollies and plays with them frequently.
• She’s always been a kid on the go and that hasn’t changed. These days she still naps, but lately she has taken a day off from naps here and there. Maybe naps will phase out this summer, who knows?
• Just like her big sister, Mariana is also thriving. She is such a happy little girl and loves to give out hugs and high fives. She can be a little shy, but warms up quickly in most instances.  She’s getting so big and is just as beautiful  as can be!

Mickey & Kelly

• Mickey was able to leave full-time employment at our church last fall in order to work for himself full-time. Prior to this, for months he had been doing his church job in addition to his own websites, side projects, etc. He was burning the candle at both ends. It has been our prayer for a long while that he’d be able to work from home full time and that prayer was answered last fall. His business is thriving and he stays extremely busy, but he’s really enjoying it. His main job is web development, but he also does consultation on social media, website management, etc.
• Mickey had surgery on his shins in the fall of 2008 to correct what is known as “compartment syndrome.”  This enabled him to resume running which he enjoys very much. Lately he has been running on a mountain trail about 15 minutes from our house and that is working out great for him. He registered for the Peachtree Road Race for the first time and should receive his number in the mail in a few months.
• I am still a stay at home mom and I absolutely love it. I feel so blessed to be home with our girls. This is my dream job and I am grateful for it!
• I manage to stay busy by volunteering at both schools. I am a room mom at preschool and I am a PTA Chair for Macey’s elementary school. Next year, I’ll be moving up to a VP position with PTA, so that’s exciting too.
• I have recently gotten into couponing again. I’m saving a bundle and it’s so much fun! I use Southern Savers which I highly recommend. It’s free and so helpful!!

Life is good for the Mellen family. We are a blessed bunch, that’s for sure.  Stay tuned for more updates, etc.

Blessings,

Kelly