5th Grade Banquet

Every year, Nicholas' school has a banquet to honor all of the graduating 5th graders. It was a beautiful evening highlighted with the entire 5th grade singing, and a video of each 5th grader speaking about what their school meant to them. Nicholas stole the video-show, going on and on about his time. What a ham! Here are some photos from the evening...

I've Got Friends in...New Places!

The 'Holland Happenings' will soon be broadcast from a new locale, moving from our Memphis area location to our new, jaw-dropping, pinch-yourself-so-you-can-believe-it location - South Carolina!  Nick is the new Assistant Director of Bands/Director of Athletic Bands at Charleston Southern University, a small Baptist university in Charleston. We'll blog more on that later, but in the meantime, on to the children!


Nicholas, being the huge fish in a modest pond here in Memphis, is naturally reluctant, hesitant, even reticent to move...okay, downright not into it...BUT, Nick's new boss Marshall (and old friend from UNCG and TN) has 3 children: a freshman in HS, a rising 6th grader (just like Nicholas), and a rising 3rd grader (just like Caroline)!  Isn't God too much?!?

Then, there's Caroline...our little entertainer, bring-the-sunshine-along-with-you, if-there's-not-a-party-then-start-one gal! She's a little bit sad to leave her friends, and her beloved teacher and school, but she is SO excited to be living near the beach!  Caroline and her new pal Katie discovered they already have 104 things in common...(and counting)!

We were in SC house-hunting the week of Nick's birthday, and we celebrated with Marshall and his family over dinner, and here are a couple of shots of the new BFFs...

Caroline & Katie

Andrew & Nicholas

We can't wait for these guys to hang out some more, and for Nicholas & Caroline to make new friends. We are so excited about our new locale!

Baseball for everyone!

Okay, not really...Karen's not playing baseball, and I'm actually playing softball!  Nicholas & Caroline are playing baseball with our church, and having a blast!  Caroline is actually a pretty good hitter - she had a hit in each of her first three games. Their practices lately have been 'optional for extra batting practice'...Caroline's response to that was, "Well, I am the best batter on the team, so I don't need to go..." Ha!

 



 




Nicholas has enjoyed his return to baseball after a few seasons away from it; he's back to pitching (their #1 guy), and one of the best batters.  Here's a line for you...in his last game, he threw a no-hitter, allowed 2 unearned runs (1 hit batter and 1 walk came around to score). He walked 3, and struck out 8 (3 looking). He went 1 for 2 with a strikeout and a homerun. Yep, having a good time in his return to baseball! 


I'm having a great time playing softball again - I haven't played in many years, and it's a blast! We didn't have a practice, so I didn't have very high hopes for us...I show up for our first game and I'm surrounded by guys that play year-round in various competitive leagues! Yikes! I'm the guy that everyone tolerates (translation, the worst guy on the team!)...they are good guys, and enjoying jawing with each other. One of they guys I knew from our men's ministry already, which made it even better.

Look what I found....

One rainy winter Saturday, while I was busy doing something in another part of our house, this was created on our kitchen counter.  A sweet gift from Nicholas....oh! how I love that boy!

Happy Birthday Olivia!!

Just wanted to send out a shout to our niece (and cousin for Nicholas and Caroline) Olivia!  She is 7 today!  Miss you sweet girl and wish we could be there!

The Princess & the Frog Faughter/Daughter Ball

In March,

Caroline took an elective class at her school during their spring break. The class was "The Princess and the Frog", and they studied New Orleans culture, cooking, dancing, and the movie. It was really neat!  My favorite part was the "Father/Daughter Ball" towards the end of the week (and the 'grand opening' of the girls' restaurant on the last day, where they served beignets and mint juleps!)

The Father-Daughter Ball was the first time that Caroline and I had a special time for just the two of us.  They made beautiful invitations during their class, and she delivered it to me with tremendous pride. She had her hair in curlers the day of the ball, and put on her prettiest dress. I wore my 'royal attire' as instructed, with my tuxedo & tails coat, but with a pink shirt to match :)


I lost count of how many times Caroline thanked me for taking her to her first ball, and for our Father/Daughter date...I had no idea exactly how much it would mean to her for me to spend some time with just Caroline and her daddy...an incredibly meaningful evening!  It definitely challenged me to carve out special time for my baby girl much more than I had...

It was quite simply, a magical evening with a beautiful little princess!

Lack of updates.

Tornado sirens, severe thunderstorms, flooding, power outages, straight line winds for 3 weeks.  Just thought I would let you know why we haven't updated our blog in forever.  We have many updates-- just haven't been able to spend much time on the computer.  Thank God we are fine--only lost power for 14 hours and no damage to our house.  When I talk about the school day with Nicholas and Caroline they now say "we didn't get to do XYZ because we were in the hall in the "turtle" position!!"

Fun Times.......or not!