All tagged Melody
Back in May, we celebrated Melody’s 7th birthday. This year she landed on having a unicorn themed birthday party. I didn’t want to just have a re-do of her Rainbow Rangers party which included unicorns. So I decided to take it to a more pastel colored vibe and super girly unicorn stuff! (Wanna look back at all the parties I have done for Melody? Scroll to the very bottom for the links!)
We decided to give soccer another try this spring. We found a program that had practice and games on the same day. It was very similar to last year, but I did feel that received more instruction through this program. Even so, this may be the last time. She did enjoy being goalie, but beyond that, she is more of a cheerleader/dancer/gymnast, ha.
After watching everyone around her lose their teeth, Melody finally lost her first tooth back in March!
So we are still doing gymnastics this year with Melody. She does enjoy it, but there are still some days she almost doesn’t want to go. The problem is gymnastics is on a Thursday. Well by Thursday, we are over all the things and need a break. But she has really improved a lot this year and conquered some of her fears. I look forward to seeing what all she is able to do this spring semester!
We got to go to our first and only game of the 2022 football season back in November. We went to see Ole Miss and Alabama play each other in Oxford. We debated whether to take Melody, but she has a season ticket too. So we figured with it being the only game we could go to this year, why not. Now it was SO cold, but we knew it would be fun.
My cousin recently got married, and she asked Melody to be her flower girl. Melody didn’t really know what that meant at first, but as we talked about it, she was so excited and eager for the big day. My cousin and Melody have grown really close over the last year or so. Melody truly adores her and her, now, husband. A very special part about Melody being Ashley’s flower girl…I was the flower girl at Ashley’s parents’ wedding. Such a sweet and full circle moment!
Well I haven’t posted in a while. This was totally unintentionally, but it was a product of hosting Thanksgiving and prepping for Christmas. But things are looking slightly less busy, so I am hoping this is the first of many “catchup” blog posts coming your way. I mean I have so much I still haven’t posted over the last year alone. Not to mention all the things in the last month and month to come. So let’s jump right in!
For Brad’s birthday, Melody made him a book. It was a fun craft that Melody enjoyed making for him. I always try to come up with fun crafts for her to make for him, and it gets harder and harder. But I found these blank books at Target, and I thought they would be perfect!
I heard of popsicle baths on instagram from Busy Toddler. She has lots of great tips and tricks for little ones. We have done a few with Melody for various reasons. We have done them when she wasn’t feeling super well, and sometimes we do it as a fun treat. But they are fun and unique for kiddos!
Melody has been asking to cheer on and off the last year or so. She has seen Lydia’s cousins cheer in a few instances, and that has peaked her interest. But cheering at our local school requires quite a bit of dedication between practice and games. Plus with her involvement in dance and gymnastics, we just do not have the time. But we found a new opportunity from a local church. It was cheer on Saturdays only for one hour. So we opted to do that. It only lasted 6 weeks, and it was great for what we needed. I think Melody really enjoyed it, and it was enough for her to do and still get to do the other things she loves too.
Melody started first grade this year. It is really hard to believe the summer went by this fast, and now we are at this point. But she is so excited!
We did not really want to do gymnastics this summer since we already had a busy summer planned. But it is impossible to get into our gymnastics in the fall without being part of the summer classes (even then it is REALLY hard). So we did 5 weeks of gymnastics. Melody was excited to finally get to be in a class with Lydia again. But it did add to our summer, and we likely won’t repeat it next year. But she had fun!
Back in June, we got to take part in the American Girl Hotel Experience at TownePlace Suites in Franklin, TN. It was in celebration of both Melody’s and our niece’s birthday, Caroline. Their birthdays are one year apart but two dates apart (May 25 vs May 27). So this was their birthday present from our mother in law. We also celebrated at the American Girl store, but I will speak to that later. Today I want to share all about our hotel experience.
Honestly, I do not know how we got here so fast. I mean check out this post of her first day! The last month of school flew by. We had book fairs, lunches, kite day, field day, and kindergarten celebration (I may be missing a few things too!). Luckily I was able to be there for all of it and see her experience so much that last month. She truly grew up so much this year. Not just physically, but she has learned so much and gained so much confidence along the way. Below are pictures from her graduation celebration and her very last day of school. I will miss her teacher so much, but I can’t wait to see what her future holds! Bring on 1st grade!
We decide to let Melody try soccer this last spring. What sold us was that the only time commitment was one hour on Saturday mornings for 8 weeks (1 week we knew we would miss due to Melody’s dance recital). It was fun, and Melody does want to do it this fall, but I also don’t know if it is for us. I think Melody had more fun cheering than running for sure. She did get better as the season continued, and nearly made a goal a few times. I just don’t know if we are ready to commit to a game plus practice (or even multiple practices) a week along with our current extracurriculars. But we will see!
Melody turned 6 back at the end of May! We celebrated by letting her pick all the things we did and ate.
It’s hard to believe Melody just finished her FOURTH dance recital a little over a month ago. I feel like it was just last year we were walking in that 2 year old for her first dance class, and here we are four years later. Even though this is our fourth recital, we have only had one real recital prior to this year. The prior two years were not full recitals due to COVID (I’ll share each of those posts at the bottom). So this is the first year we are back to normal.
We took Melody to her first college football game back in 2019. We went to a non-SEC game, and while it was cold, she had a lot of fun. We decided to not go to any football games in 2020 due to COVID. But we continued with our season tickets this past 2021 season. We decided to take her to the Ole Miss/Vanderbilt game. This was basically the best game for us timing wise to take her due to Brad’s work travel and such.
