May 2021

Well we did it....we survived the weirdest, hardest, longest school year EVER!  

We spent all but 3 weeks of Fall Semester at home doing Virtual school and then we stayed home until Mid-February...but thankfully were able to finish out the year back in person!  

It was a hard year with lots of tears, struggles, and a few smiles but we did it and the kids rocked it!  Almost all A's for the big kids and the twins did great also!

May also brought us the end to Sullivan's first ever lacrosse season which she loved.  We have wrapped up with soccer for the most part and also saw our baseball season come to an end!  Now...the big girls just have one tournament in Dallas in June and Thomas has one baseball tournament in town left!! 

Quick update on each kid before you enjoy the pictures:

Hudson:  School was really hard for her this year.  The 4th grade teachers poured on the work and asked the kids to do a lot on their own on top of their regular assignments.  During virtual school, Hudson would sit at the table from 9am until 6pm some days.  But super proud of her...she was able to tough it out, learn how to ask for help and pulled off straight As when we all thought she may come in strong with all Cs for a little while!  She was named to the All-A Honor Roll and won the Presidential Academic Gold Award.  She was also named "Most Athletic" by her classmates!  Her soccer season ended strongly also.  Her team advanced to the State Cup Semi-Finals and lost a tough game 1-2 against a talented team from Memphis.  The first time we played them, we lost 1-5 so the improvement was amazing!  She also went through her first real Try-Out this year at soccer and was super excited to make the Showcase White Team (2nd team in her age group).  This means she gets to make the jump to 11v11 a year early!  She has grown a lot in soccer this year and I can't wait to see what next year brings!  

Sullivan:  Sullivan didn't seem to phased by the virtual school thing.  She got a great teacher who understood how difficult virtual school was and really worked with the kids to make it fun, feasible and worthwhile.  She also pulled off straight As and had a great year!  She played lacrosse for the first time ever and really loved it.  She was disappointed that in girls lacrosse you aren't allowed to stick or body check people, but she figured it out and by the end of the season she was able to catch and throw (a feat that didn't come easy when the season first started).  Her soccer team had a great season also.  They continued to play up a year against boys and finished the league with just 1 loss.  They played a great tournament in Atlanta, playing a year up in the top bracket against some BIG physical teams.  They got beat up but battled to the end and were able to beat a dirty, physical team in the finals that they had tied the day before!  

Thomas: I will start off by saying Virtual kindergarten is not something I would wish upon anyone!  Poor Thomas...his first year of real school and he spent almost all of it on a computer in our dining room!  That being said...he was a champ!  His teachers were all amazing and did everything they could to keep these kids engaged and excited about sitting on a computer for hours a day!  He did well at school, all things considered, and finished the year smarter than when he started.  He really excelled in Math and is getting better with his reading!  His baseball team rocked it this season going undefeated in the regular season and winning the post season tournament!  They are so fun to watch and he is really improving every game!  May also brings us Thomas' birthday!  He is officially SIX years old!  I can't believe it!  We celebrated with a pool party with neighborhood friends and he had a blast!

Tinsley: Thankfully the twins' school was open in person all year!  I don't know what we would have done if they were stuck at home with us all year!  Needless to say, Tinsley had a great year!  She loved school and all her buddies and teachers.  This month she was a trooper, getting dragged to soccer fields and baseball fields or getting stuck at home with a babysitter but she did it all full of sass and hilarious attitude.  She is so pumped the pool is open and is already swimming like a fish!  She can finally stand in the shallow end and insists on swimming without her float (in the shallow end) and has perfected her front flip into the water!

Conner: Conner also loved school and made so many new friends.  So many in fact, that both of the twins have asked to be in different classes next year for the first time!!!  He was also such a trooper being dragged around from field to field but in true Conner fashion, was just happy to be included and content to sit with a stick, a race car and a snack!  He is loving the pool as well and is becoming a good little swimmer himself!

That is about all for May.  Here are some pics of our adventures during the last month of school!

First Day v Last Day of PreK 3

First Day v Last Day of Kindergarten

First Day v Last Day of 3rd Grade

First Day v Last Day of 4th Grade

Our two Graduates

Sweet Sweet Hasil..the best Covid puppy ever!

Conner loved his school performance..haha...he turned backwards and stared at the ground the whole time!

Last Lacrosse Game!

That is about all for now.  Here is a link to the rest of our adventures.

https://thefrericksofnashville.shutterfly.com/pictures/20693

April 2021

 We had a great April!  Which is not something I would have said a year ago!  Tennessee is slowly coming out of the Covid shut down and it is nice to feel a little bit free!

We started April off with a quick but SUPER fun visit from the Boyles!  We were lucky enough to catch them on their cross country trip back home and it was so much fun!  We squeezed in as much as we could in 12 hours!  Lacrosse practice, dog park, playing outside, Dying Easter Eggs and pizza party!  It is so fun to see the kids all together!

We had a great Easter celebration too!  While we couldn't go to church bc of Covid and the nursery still being closed, we still had a great celebration at home.  Egg dying, egg hunt, and the Easter Bunny found us!

Tinsley was very into the hunt!

Sullivan wrapped up Lacrosse and ended up playing pretty well.  They won their last game and actually looked like they knew what they were doing!

We are close to the end of soccer season (kind of) and Sullivan is doing great!  They are still playing against older boys and have really had to battle this year!  It has been good for them!

Hudson's team is starting to play some really good soccer also!  They had a great Tournament in Louisville. They lost in the finals but played up an age group and really played the best they have all year!

Thomas is almost done with baseball also.  His team, The Crushers, is killing it!  He has learned so much and is really hitting the ball well!  In one game a few weeks ago, he actually caught a pop fly and then threw it to a base for the double play!  His team of 5 and 6 year olds are really impressive and fun to watch!

The twins are great!  They are loving school and thanks to the Covid improvement, I was able to go to their school and be the Mystery Reader....They were so excited!

They also both learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels!  They are really good at it, BUT haven't quite learned how to stop just yet!

That is about all for now!  May brings us the end of school, end of baseball, end of soccer and the start of SUMMER!

As always, here is the link to the rest of the pictures of our April Adventures:

https://thefrericksofnashville.shutterfly.com/pictures/20541

March 2021

 We made it another month in this crazy pandemic world and happy to say we can all see the light at the end of the tunnel.

March was pretty lowkey other than soccer, the end of basketball and the beginning of baseball, the start or lacrosse and volleyball...other than than, we didn't have much going on..haha.

We enjoyed a nice, rainy, Staycation for Spring Break.  It was nice to not have to be anywhere or do anything if we didn't want to! Also nice to get a break from school and virtual school!

We did take a few days to see some local sights!

We took our first trip to the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro!  It was really fun!

On the one nice day we had, we also spent half the day at the zoo!

Hudson went to her first tournament of the season in Memphis.  It was a rough weekend playing up in an older bracket.  They didn't win any games but I think they had fun in the hotel which is what really matters!

Hudson also started volleyball again this month also.  No games this time, just a lot of really good training with some older girls! So far she loves it of course!

Thomas wrapped up basketball season.  In their last game of the year, the Lil' Polar Bear brought home their first and ONLY win!  It was so fun to watch!  Thomas improved all year and became a great shooter, pretty good defender but also a great teammate!  He made some great passes and wasn't afraid to pass it around to all his teammates!

Now he is off to baseball!  They have had one game already and from what I heard (I was at soccer) they won BIG!

Sullivan started Lacrosse with Raleigh which is HILARIOUS.  They have no idea what they are doing and were very disappointed to find out that in girls lacrosse, you can't hit the player or their stick with your stick...so of course they were mad!

They have caught on quickly though and get better each time.

They had one scrimmage so far and becuase of the rain, finally have their first game this weekend!

The twins aren't playing any sports this spring...just being toted all over Nashville to watch their siblings!  They did enjoy Dr. Suess week at school...here they are on Wacky Wednesday!

In other news, Tennessee finally opened up vaccines to the whole population and Tom and I were able to get our first dose this week!!!  Like I said...Light at the end of the tunnel!!!

That is about all for now!!

April brings us more soccer, lacrosse, baseball, volleyball and hopefully LESS RAIN!

Here are the rest of our pictures from March:

https://thefrericksofnashville.shutterfly.com/

February 2021

We had a great February but it's hard to believe we are we have reached the one year anniversary of Covid-19!  Thankfully things are starting to look more and more like normal life around here!

Sullivan wrapped up another great Basketball season and the Lady Liberty walked away the 4th Grade Girls Flight League Champions.  Super proud of these ballers!  They lost this season for the first time in 3 years....and it was to the same team, twice, both games by 2 points.  The team was a Travel team from a local club and we just couldn't seem to beat them....UNTIL we met them in the finals!  I wasn't at the game but from everything I have heard we played LOCK down defense and went up 10 pts in the first couple minutes!  So I guess 3rd time is the charm because we beat that same team 24-16 to bring home the Championshipe t-shirt for the 3rd year in a row!

Just when I think Sullivan is tall, she has to gaurd someone like this!

We also FINALLY got a good southern snow storm!  4 inches of snow on top of 2 inches of ice..which made for some awesome sledding!  The kids enjoyed 4 whole snow days and we made the most of it.  Sledding all day, all week!

Tinsley is CRAZY....she may be the most fearless one yet!

Hudson wrapped up Volleyball season also.  Her team did really well and she improved so much!  She is really starting to get the hang of it and it's fun to watch her play!  The end of the season tourney was postponed because of the snow storm so unfortunately she is going to miss it because she is off to Memphis this weekend for soccer but she loves volleyball and can't wait to play again!

Probably the best part of February was that the big kids are BACK IN SCHOOL IN PERSON!

Everyone is so much happier, well except Hasil...she is so sad all her buddies are gone all day!

Lastly, Tinsley, in true fearless fashion, decided to ride a big kid bike! It took her about an hour but she got it!  We are still working on starting and stopping but once she gets going, she does really well! 

That's about all for now!

Soccer is in full swing.  Hudson heads to Memphis this weekend for her first tournament.  Thomas finishes basketball this weekend and starts baseball next week.  Sullivan has soccer games this weekend and also started lacrosse last week!  We are back to our normal CRAZY schedule.

Here are the rest of the pictures from our fun February:

https://thefrericksofnashville.shutterfly.com/

January 2021

Well we survived January 2021...just barely!

First the low lights......the week after Christmas, Covid finally caught up with our house!

Tom, Conner and I went down first followed by Hudson and Thomas a couple days later.  Ironically, we all got tested because Tinsley got sent home from school with a fever....yet she and Sullivan seemed to avoid the Rona....at least for now.

Thankfully nobody had a severe case.  Thomas and Conner were basically asymptomatic and I lost my sense of smell....not taste, just smell.  Tom probably had it the worst but that really consisted of fatigue and a lingering cough.  I think he enjoyed his daily "covid naps" and is still trying to sneak one in every now and then!  Hudson was very stuffed up for about 3 days but that was about it.  I know we are lucky that we didn't get hit too hard but I can tell you that 21 days of quarantine with 7 people in this house was not fun.

The 3 big kids are still in virtual school so they had something to keep them busy.  Unfortunately, that meant I had to keep the twins occupied, quiet and out of the way so they could all concentrate.....and that was quite the feat.

But we made it and are on the other side finally.  The twins are back in school and the house is "somewhat" quiet again!

Now for the highlights - even if they all happened in the last week of the month when we finished quarantine!

Thomas started basketball for the first time ever and he LOVES it.  He had his first game last weekend and he did great.  It took him a few minutes to get the hang of what was happening but then he scored 6 points (out of his teams' 10 total) and had several other close shots.  I think he was most excited about the jersey and basketball shoes he gets to wear!

Hudson finally got to start her volleyball season and is loving it also!  She is so much stronger than last year and is consistently getting her serves in and making some good defensive plays as well.

Other than that....we haven't done much but stare at each other.  We took lots of walks with Hasil and played outside whenever it wasn't freezing or raining!

The girls are back at their weekly soccer practices and Sullivan is finally back out on the basketball court so everyone is happy again!

The biggest highlight of January is finding out that the kids are FINALLY going back to in-person school. A week from today they will be back in their classrooms and I don't know who is more excited...ME or THEM!

That is about it for now!  I don't even have any pictures to share b/c well....we didn't go anywhere or do anything for 21 days!

Here's to a much better and brighter February!