Each summer I get to enjoy a morning at the Bowling Green Ballpark participating in Stand For Children Day.  It's a way to give back to the community as thousands of children from across the area come and enjoy a morning of activities...and my little blondie usually comes with his summer camp! I was running a little head ahead of schedule for once (thank you amazing coworkers), so I picked up a coffee and enjoyed a few minutes of quiet with this wonderful view! Actually, I spend many early mornings looking at ballparks, but this time I didn't have game day nerves.  Ha! We gave out 500 apples this year and met the greatest kids...of course I'm partial to these two cuties!

I feel like we have gone at a "break neck pace" for months on end, so it was a refreshing change to have an almost commitment free weekend. We made the most of it with some quality family time and a lot of summer fun! We spent pretty much the entire day swimming on Saturday and only got out of the pool long enough to eat lunch, snack on some popsicles and head to Eli's fish-fry on Saturday night.  It was much more of the same on Sunday afternoon, which was a fun way to wrap up the weekend. The kids have discovered the joy of dining outside under the umbrella, which is something that helps keep them happy and my kitchen slightly cleaner.  This little Blondie and I have spent so many summers in the pool.  We have floated, splashed, played, and schemed some pretty fun ideas.  He taught himself how to swim and he continues to love being in pool, only he enjoys his sister's imagination much more than mine now.  By the time this...

We didn't have a tournament this weekend for baseball, but that didn't stop us from hanging out with our favorite teammates.  Seriously ya'll, we have the very best players and parents. I value the relationships we have made with these families so much! One of the families graciously offered to host a fish fry, so we braved the excessive heat and headed out to the campground at Beech Bend Park for a night of fun!  Ellie was tuckered out from swimming all day, so Eric stayed home with her while Eli and I had a little quality time.  The food was AMAZING but the boys were much more interested in riding bikes and showing off their mad "skills."  Of course we had to play a campground-friendly variation of baseball too because you can take the player off the field, but you can't take the game out of the player.  Ha! I personally enjoyed seeing how many people we could cram onto the golf cart.  I think this picture is proof that 10 bodi...

Ya'll, today is it..we have FINALLY reached the 180 day mark for our Disney Vacation, which means that I was up before the sun to make dining reservations for our upcoming trip!! Actually, I didn't fall asleep until after midnight and woke up at 3:40 with Ellie and couldn't go back to sleep.  I'm running on fumes and coffee, so let's overlook any typos, ok?  If you're not into the Disney scene, just skip over this little post because it's going to bore you to tears.  If you're a Disney Dork like me or looking to book an upcoming trip, I hope this sheds some light on the planning process and how we make it work for our family.  So here's the deal, in order to make Disney a great experience, you have to plan.  The problem is, the Watsons don't like plans when traveling.  We tend to fly by the seat of our pants, so there was a little learning curve when it came to Disney, but we've got it under control now.   On the flip side,...

We are so lucky that our parents are willing to help us out a few weeks each summer with the kids!  It's wonderful that they get time with their grandparents and even better that we save some money on childcare while also getting some alone time and an opportunity to do some projects around the house.   We started the grandparent tour off with five days at Nan and Grandad's house and they'll go visit my parents for a week next month.  As you can see, they had the very best time!  They ate their favorite foods, got all the sweets they could ever want, snuggled up with bedtime movies every night and got to enjoy some fun activities like the bounce house.  They also went to the country club with Colby where they learned how to jump off the diving board.  I can't even believe they have gotten so big.  Some of my favorite childhood memories were spent at our country club learning how to do new tricks.  Seriously, how did I be...

We had such a crazy weekend, ya'll!  After Friday night's mad dash to Cincinnatti to see Aladdin, we drove back to Lexington for the night since my parents had the kids and we wanted to save money on a hotel room because we are traveling again later in the month.  Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to head back to Bowling Green for TWO birthday parties and Eric's company picnic at Beech Bend Park. We didn't make it home in enough time to catch the first party, and I wrote down the wrong time for the second party because I'm super organized like that. We ended up just making it to the company picnic, but the kids were so busy enjoying the waterpark that they didn't even notice.  My kids are all about some Disney ride, but they were scared to death to ride anything.  We did the Bees, the Tea Cups, and some kind of other baby ride and that was it.  I have no idea why they were being so timid, but it worked out well because we spent most of ...

Two of my favorite activities are going to Disney World and enjoying a good show at the theater.  When the two collide, it's kinda a big deal for me, and that's what happened tonight!  I have been dying to see Aladdin for a while, so when I heard it was coming to Cincinnati, I mentioned it to Eric and he bought me tickets for Christmas.   I have seen the tours of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, and I have to say that even though I loved those shows, Aladdin knocked them both out of the water.  It was spectacular!  If you've seen the other two productions, you how that "Circle of Life" and "Be Our Guest" are just over-the-top wonderful.  But every single scene of Aladdin was that caliber.  The costumes, the sets, the production, was just unbelievable.  And of course, the company was even better.  Eric was such a trooper when my printed tickets didn't scan and I then lost our temporary tickets before even making...

Just because we don't have enough baseball in our life, we wanted to head to the ballpark to watch our buddies in their last games of the season.  Ellie was a little bit undecided about participating in softball this season, but as soon as she heard that all of her friends were on the same team, she determined that she should play next year.  She's already picked a coach and named her future team "The Glitter Hitters." Ha! She's much more concerned about her social honor than her athletic ability, so it should be an interesting season when she finally gets to play.  I can't wait!! After the girls' games, we switched parks and got to hang out with our buddies while watching some of our other friends play.  They were on opposite fields, so I'm not really sure what the final outcomes were, but we were there more for the social aspect. We have been so grateful to play on some amazing teams and have made the very best friend...

This weekend was a doozy.  I attended FIVE graduation ceremonies while Eric headed to White House, TN with both kids for another tournament weekend. They left out a little bit after I headed in for work on Saturday morning, so I was able to make sure they were packed, Ellie was dressed and Eli knew that I was rooting for him.  Clearly I am not an artist, but he was asleep and I needed to leave him a quick note. Eric's parents are so good about supporting our kids and met Eric, Eli and Ellie in White House to watch the pool play games.  They ended up staying all night and I drove down to meet them on Sunday. It worked out well because Eric's cousin was there with his son who was playing in an older age division, so they were able to catch up and support each other's kids.  I wasn't there, but I hear it was quite an exciting day.  In fact, we came back from a 10-0 deficit at one point to not only win the game but to also earn...

Today the Miss America Organization announced a ground breaking decision that will forever change the competition...contestants will no longer compete in the swimsuit portion of the contest. I wish I could be a die-hard pageant girl and tell you that as a former competitor, I am completely shocked and thoroughly disappointed in this decision.  But I'm not.  Before I continue, I want to be entirely clear about one thing: the swimsuit competition never made me feel objectified.  Quite the opposite actually, it made me feel empowered.  It gave me a sense of determination and accomplishment as I worked so hard to be disciplined and treat my body with respect.  But I'm not 21 anymore. I'm now a mother of a daughter who is at an impressionable age and learning daily about what defines beauty - both from what I teach her and from what our culture shows her.  I am also the mother of a tween boy who sees overly sexualized images from every available ...