First Day of School!!

Amelia is ready for her first day!



Amelia and Claire wait for the school bus



getting on the school bus



Mitchell... going to Middle School!!



Millie, Abbey, Clara, Emily and Mitchell wait for their bus


Wow... I can't believe that it is time for school already! This year we have two shifts of waiting for the bus... Amelia's comes at about 7am and Mitchell doesn't have to be ready until about 7:45. I have to admit that it was a little scary putting Mitchell on that bus to Middle School this year! Can you believe that the time has gone by that quickly? It seems like yesterday that we moved here and I was driving him to Oconee Primary for his first day of Kindergarten! Just another HUGE reminder to cherish each moment with your children... I can't wait to see how their day went!

"Seussical"!!!

This weekend Amelia was in her 8th musical with Oconee Youth Playhouse... "Seussical, the Musical". It was so cute! Amelia was a "Who" and looked adorable in her costume. All of the kids worked so hard rehearsing long hours all summer and it all paid off! We all really enjoyed going to see the performance on Friday night followed by a treat at Scoops ice cream parlor. Amelia performed again on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, so they were busy! Then they had a fun cast party after the last show. They had fun socializing, eating, watching their DVD of the performance and autographing each other's t-shirts. Amelia is already looking forward to her next performance!

Happy Birthday... the big 4-0!!

Yes... today I am officially OLD!! I guess that turning 40 isn't really that big of a deal... it just sounds so much older than saying you are in your 30's! I had a really nice day today with my family celebrating my birthday, eating a lot, and opening presents! I got my favorite things... clothes, movies, book, money, and Dave's big gift to me which was season tickets to the Broadway Series at the Classic Center here in Athens. I can't wait to see all of the shows (I LOVE stuff like that)! Later on when more of my friends are in town after the summer Dave said that I will have to plan on a fun girl's night out to celebrate more. But today was a great day with my wonderful family!

Passport Camp

For the past three years our church has taken the kids to a church camp called Passport Kids Camp (there is also Passport Youth Camp for our older kids). It is a wonderful camp and the kids all have so much fun there! I have been fortunate enough to see first hand just how great the camp is by being a chaperone for our church. The camp we have been to is a 4H camp, so the kids get to stay in cabins and experience a "real" camp lifestyle (some of the Passport camps are located at college campuses... it moves to different locations all summer). I got to stay in the girls cabin which was really fun and a great way to get to know the girls so much better... they are a great group of girls and so funny! Each day begins with a morning celebration, which is very upbeat and lively and gets the kids going! It is a lot of fun! Then the kids break off into their Bible study groups for an hour, and the adult chaperones also have their own Bible study time. Then the kids go to recreation until lunch time... lots of fun games! After lunch they have three, one hour rotations where they go through a Missions time, camper's choice, and swimming. At night there are different activities... the first night is everyone's favorite.. Rec Fest. The Bible study groups compete against each other (like the Olympics) in different crazy games. I was on the chaperone team... so much fun! Everyone gets really wet and messy, which the kids love... the messier the better! The other two nights they had an International Market where the kids took items to trade, and a Variety Show where we get to see both amazing and strange talents. We had a blast with our great group of kids, and they are already looking forward to next summer! The Passport Camp staff was amazing (so full of energy and fun!) and taught our kids a lot about this year's camp theme "Trading Spaces", which was all about putting yourself in someone else's shoes and thinking about how you should treat people who are different than you. What a great lesson for all of us!

Family Vacation... the final chapter

Yogi



Dave in front of his childhood home in CT



Dave's church in CT



Mitchell and Amelia with Gramps and Gran Ann

As you can see, we had an amazing vacation! One more thing that we were able to do while in NY was go over to Weston, CT to show the kids where Dave grew up. We had so much fun and were even invited to see inside the house! Mitchell and Amelia really loved seeing that! We also saw Dave's church and all of the schools that he attended... a real walk down memory lane for him! What I didn't tell you yet is what we did at the very beginning and end of our trip, which is very important information... we visited family! Before heading up to NY we stayed for 2 nights with my sister's family in Greensboro, NC. We had a very relaxing time visiting with them... swimming, tennis, grilling out, and just visiting. Sorry to say the only pictures that I took at their house this visit was of their dog, Yogi (who is a very sweet Labradoodle). After we left DC at the end of our vacation we stopped again in NC (Winston Salem) and visited Dave's parents for a while. We were able to have dinner with his Dad, brother, sister in law, and two of his Aunts, then had a nice long visit with his Mom at her place. After a great visit there, we headed back to Georgia where we arrived at home at about 2am. It felt like we had been gone forever! Callie, Bailey, and Jake were waiting for us when we arrived, thanks to my parents picking them up from the kennel earlier that day! We ended up sleeping until about noon the next day to recover. We really made some great memories on this trip!

Family Vacation... Part 4

What a great time we had in DC!! We definitely got our exercise here... we must have walked many miles! We got to see so many things in the short time that we were there (just 2 nights) and learned so much. It is really neat to learn so much about our nation's history, and I think that Mitchell and Amelia really got a lot from it. They really liked visiting here, and probably their favorite thing was the Air and Space Museum... we even went there twice! Dave and I have both been to DC once before with Camp Sunshine trips, but it's just one of those really cool places to see through your children's eyes also... they were amazed by a lot of it! Plus, we were very lucky to get a hotel with its very own Starbucks right in the lobby... how great is that?

Family Vacation... Part 3

On the day that we left West Point to head towards Washington, DC we made a stop at Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty. We were told that it was much easier to visit from the New Jersey side... and they were right! We got right onto the ferry without any lines and rode over to the islands. The first stop was Ellis Island, where we enjoyed reading some of the history... this didn't hold the kids attention for very long, so after about 30 minutes we got back on the ferry to go to the Statue of Liberty. We all loved seeing this... it is truly amazing to be standing right next to such a large statue! We climbed up as far as they let you go now (Mitchell and Amelia counted the MANY steps, but I've forgotten how many there were), and took in a great view of NYC from there. After a quick lunch here, we headed on to DC!

Family Vacation... Part 2

One day that we were visiting the Flemings we all went into New York City for the day. We took a double decker bus all over the city where we could get off at any of the many stops that it made throughout... we had never ridden one of those before! We saw several places, including Central Park, Rockefeller Plaza, Times Square, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the American Girl Place, and the Empire State Building. We also had fun shopping around the M&M store and on the streets for our NYC tshirts! One of the most interesting things that we did, though, was take the NY subway system back to our car at the end of the day. How confusing! It took us about 20 minutes just to figure out what line to take... it was also hot and VERY dirty down in the train area, complete with VERY large rats! Let me assure you that this wasn't our first choice of transportation in NYC, but our bus passes had run out for the day and this was way cheaper than 7 of us trying to take taxis across the city! It was an adventure, though! We finally made it back to the car, found a place to eat a late dinner, then headed back to West Point. We had a very fun day, and Mitchell and Amelia loved getting to see NYC!

Family Vacation... Part 1

Our family just got back from a wonderful summer vacation where we had the opportunity to see many new and exciting things! We counted that we traveled through 11 different states and also DC, so we definitely covered lots of miles! We did so many things that I have decided to break the vacation down into a few parts. Part 1 is our visit with good friends Steve, Barbara and Davis Fleming in West Point, NY. What a great time there! We had never been to their home in West Point (where they live on post), so we thought that it was about time for a visit. I think that we were all amazed at just how beautiful it is there! The first thing that we did there was go to their 4th of July celebration at Trophy Point, where we listened to the Army Band play patriotic music, watched great fireworks, and just had a wonderful time catching up with the Flemings and taking in the beauty of Trophy Point overlooking the Hudson River. Another day we got to go on the official tour of West Point and hear more about the history... very interesting! Then Steve took us all on more of a behing the scenes look at some of the campus. We very much enjoyed our visit to West Point and spending time with good friends!

Swim team, 2008

We have just finished another fun swim season with the Summer Hill Barracudas! Mitchell and Amelia both did very well in their events this summer and had so much fun at all of the meets. The season ended at the county meet where all the swim teams in Oconee County compete against each other. The Barracudas came in 2nd! Mitchell and Amelia were both happy with their times and both came away with a few medals! The county meet lasts about 6 hours and is a long day, but all of the swimmers get plenty of down time and have fun playing games and relaxing together in between events. It is a great summer activity for the family!

Camp Sunshine

Dave's cabin of boys (dressed as tacky tourists for a parade)


the special opening ceremony


Cathy's cabin (the blue team for "wacky olympics"!)



saying "good-bye"!

Dave and I had another great week at Camp Sunshine! This was my 16th year to go and Dave's 14th year... we both can't imagine a summer without it! People always ask what Camp Sunshine (a camp for children with cancer) is like... it is one of those things that you just can't put into words. It is a week where we get to watch children with cancer have a normal time... and a total blast at camp. It is one of our biggest rewards of each year to be with these special children for a whole week. Dave and I both have the opportunity to get to know some of the kids on a more personal level by being cabin counselors. Dave had a great group of 11 year old boys and I had a very sweet group of 12 year old girls... they were all so much fun to be with! We hope that we will get to continue this special tradition for a very long time!

Amelia's 9th birthday!!

Amelia is 9!! We pulled off a big surprise for her birthday this year... we thought that she was going to go insane trying to figure it out! We sent a secret invitation to her friends and asked them to bring earrings as a gift to Amelia because we were going to take her to get her ears pierced at her party. We had Amelia open a card from the family first which revealed the big surprise and had a gift card from Claire's in it to pay for everything. She then opened all of her friend's gifts and now has a wonderful collection of new earrings! After opening gifts we loaded up all of the girls into our vans and headed to Claire's... they were all so excited! Thank goodness Amelia had lots of support for the piercing because she was nervous, even though she has wanted to get this done for a long time. They did both ears at the same time and Amelia only cried for about a minute. Then we gave out gift cards to all of the girls to Claire's and they got to have a blast shopping for themselves! Then we headed home for mexican food and an Oreo Delight cake (Amelia's request). Amelia was very excited about her surprise birthday theme (she had known that she was having a party, but not what kind) and had a great day!

Annual trip to the farm

Every summer we make a wonderful journey to North Vernon, Indiana to visit a lot of Dave's family. There are lots of Uncles, Aunts, cousins... and lots of kids around! The smaller cousins have the best time running all over the farm, playing with the barn kittens, feeding cows, horses and goats, taking tractor rides, swimming in the pond, eating lots of food, etc. It is one of the most relaxing vacations that we take each year and we would not miss the wonderful family gathering! We all look forward to this trip every summer!

Mitchell's 11th birthday!

We can't believe that our baby is 11 years old!! Mitchell had a great idea for his birthday this year and we all had so much fun with it! He wanted to go white water rafting so we let him invite 3 friends to come along with us. We rented a house in Bryson City, NC for the night before rafting. We all left right after Vacation Bible School on Thursday and headed up to NC. Mitchell and his friends had fun playing for a while before we had grilled cheeseburgers for dinner (Mitchell's favorite). Then he opened his presents and they all watched a movie. The next morning we went to the Nantahala Outdoor Center to get ready for the rafting. We all had so much fun! The boys all got to ride on a raft together with Dave and the rest of us rode on the other raft. Thanks to Granddad, Grandmama, Debbie, Angie, Nicholas, Brandon and Reese for making this trip so much fun for Mitchell!
Mitchell also got another family celebration at home on his actual birthday... and more presents! What a great birthday!

Vacation Bible School

Vacation Bible School at our church is always a fun week to look forward to after school ends. I helped again and Mitchell and Amelia had a blast going around with their age groups. This year's theme was a beach theme... Surfin With the Scriptures and was so much fun! What a great way to start off summer vacation!

Last Day of School!!!

Yea!!! The last day of school is finally here! Mitchell and Amelia both had end of year parties today and had a lot of fun. Amelia's party was outside and was a cookout for the whole 3rd grade (the 5th grade cookout was on Thursday). They had so much fun just hanging out, eating and playing games with water balloons! The 5th grade parties are also very fun for them. Each pod (which is 5 classes) has its own party and it looks more like a big block party. All of the students are all over the pod in whatever classroom they want to be in. They got to eat pizza and just hang out for the last time together (they will be split up between 2 middle schools next year). The last picture is of Mitchell and his "brick". His science teacher (and homeroom teacher) Mr. Julian told his students at the beginning of the year that if they made an "A" on every single test this year and kept an "A" average in the class that they could paing their own brick in his classroom. Only seven students got a "brick" and Mitchell was one of them! We were so proud of him! He painted his brick with a Clemson theme... go Tigers! Now that we are done with school for the year we can focus on all of the fun we will have this summer!