End of School Year Fun

Yea!! The end of the school year is finally here! It was a little rainy for class parties yesterday so Amelia's class had fun picnicing on their beach towels inside, playing games and winning prizes. After school our house filled up with several neighborhood friends... it was nice not to have to worry about homework or ballgames! Last night Amelia had 2 friends sleep over and they had a blast with makeovers... they were even doing "blind" makeovers which resulted in a very funny made up face for Amelia! Today Amelia and Isabella gave Bailey and Jake a bath and then had a water fight... fun summer times are here!

Amelia's Awards

May 20th was awards day at Oconee County Elem. School. Amelia received awards for Battle of the Books (being one of the top 4 teams), Continental Math League, and for making all A's this year! We are so proud of Amelia!

Bring Your Daughter To Clemson weekend

Last weekend Amelia and I attended our 2nd "Bring Your Daughter To Clemson" weekend. Luckily, the weather held out for us and we only got a light sprinkle of rain a few times throughout the weekend. They kept us busy with lots of fun activities including a tour of the greenhouses, tour of the Geology museum, a fun chemistry lab, yoga class, bowling, and a door decorating contest! We also spared some time for Clemson shopping and ice cream! Amelia gets to experience the dorm life while we are there... I think that she will love college!

Strawberry Time!

Every Spring we go to Washington Farms to pick strawberries... some of the best you'll ever eat! Amelia especially loves to pick them and eats as many as she places into her bucket! I also made jam with some of them... some to keep and some to give away. We love them!

Mitchell's Award

May 12th was Oconee County Middle School awards night and Mitchell received an award for making all A's in every class that he took this year... there were only 31 of these awards out of over 200 students in the 6th grade class! We are very proud of Mitchell for this accomplishment!!

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! We celebrated with my Mama on Saturday night at dinner and gave her gifts... Dave and I are so blessed to have such wonderful Moms! Sunday I enjoyed spending the day with my family. The day started out with a pancake breakfast then church together. After lunch we all went to the pool for the afternoon and played and relaxed... we enjoyed the sunshine! I was served a very special dinner of steak, shrimp, zucchini, squash and corn... all from the grill... YUM!! I am very blessed to have such a great husband and children and I loved spending the whole day with them!

Spring recital

Amelia had a busy weekend with her spring recital... she performed on Friday night and Saturday afternoon and even managed to sneak in a softball game on Saturday morning! She performed very well and we all went out for dinner and icecream after the show to celebrate... we are proud of Amelia!

Field Day

Friday was field day at Amelia's school... or "concrete day" as the kids called it since there aren't any large grassy areas at this new school to play on! Despite the day starting out misty and gray they were able to participate in all of the games and had a great day... Amelia came home tired!

Career day

Mitchell's class did research projects on different careers and Mitchell chose to interview his great Uncle George who was an Air Force pilot for over 30 years... what an interesting career! Uncle George also came to Mitchell's school to speak to his class about being a pilot... the kids loved it! Mitchell really appreciates the time that George spent helping him!

Baseball

Mitchell's baseball team has been having a great season... only 2 losses out of 11 games! Mitchell has turned into quite the player! Tonight he had some wonderful hits and even got to do some pitching for the first time... we are very proud of him!

Spring Show

Amelia's spring recital is this weekend! It is a great show with some very talented kids (although it can get a bit long)! Amelia and her friend Merritt had their dress rehearsal today and looked beautiful in their costumes... we can't wait to see the real show!

Friday night was the Oconee Co. Relay For Life event... a wonderful fundraiser for cancer! This is our 3rd year going and we always have so much fun! It's a relaxing evening for me and Dave because we can just give the kids some money and tell them to have fun... then they hang out with their friends for the night playing games and eating lots of good food. The lighting of the luminaries is the most moving part of the night... all of the lights are out except for all of the luminaries honoring people with cancer or in memory of someone. The whole stadium gets silent, the bagpipes play and it is a special time of reflection. Hopefully a lot of money was made!

Children's Sunday

Today at our church was Children's Sunday where the children run the entire service... always a wonderful Sunday! Amelia had a great solo in one of the songs that her choir sang and I thought that everyone would enjoy hearing it!

Fun baseball night

Mitchell is playing baseball again this spring on a major league team the Yankees. This has been a really fun season for Mitchell because several of his friends are on the same team... and they are having a great season! On Tuesday night Mitchell and Brooks were playing Owen and Will's team... all four of these boys are in youth group together at church. Their youth minister, Hannah, came out to see the game... what a great treat for these boys to have her support in their activities away from church! The game didn't end until 10pm and the Yankees won... great for Mitchell and Brooks!

Spring softball season

Along with tennis, Amelia is playing on a softball team this spring. She has moved up a level and is playing on the minor league team the "Charmers". Her team is the cutest and they cheer during the entire game and support each other. Of course they love to win, but it's great to see that they are having so much fun whether they win or lose!

Girl's Night Out!

Last week Amelia and I had a night out all to ourselves! We ate dinner at East West Bistro and saw "The Wizard of Oz" at the Classic Center in Athens. It was great to have some one-on-one quality time with Amelia and we had so much fun together!

Amelia's tennis

Amelia has really enjoyed her tennis clinics this year and recently started playing in some of the tennis matches in the Athens area. She has improved so much this year and has done a great job in her matches... playing singles and doubles. We are very proud of her!

Happy Birthday Granddad!

On April 19th we celebrated Daddy's birthday with a yummy steak lunch. The wonderful lunch was completed with the Chocolate Extreme Blizzard ice cream cake from DQ (now you can see where my love for LOTS of chocolate comes from!), presents, and a confetti drop courtesy of Mitchell and Amelia. What a fun celebration!

Turtles

OK... now it's time to reveal the results of spontaneous shopping while out with your kids on spring break... 2 baby turtles! They are very cute... and who knew that such tiny creatures could require SO MUCH stuff to care for them? So maybe we should have done a little more investigating before purchasing... oh well, what's done is done, and I have to admit that all of us (yes, even Dave) are enjoying watching the cute little turtles swimming around! It's actually very relaxing to just sit and watch them... which we all did after we finished creating their new home on Saturday night. Did you know that these turtles can live up to 50 years? We will keep you posted on that one!

Easter Sunday

We had a nice and relaxing Easter Sunday. Mitchell and Amelia were excited to find their baskets filled with new goodies! One of my favorite things about Easter is going to church and filling up the big cross with flowers... what a beautiful reminder of the real reason that we celebrate... Christ has Risen!! After the church service we had lunch out with friends, then had those same friends over for a honeybaked ham dinner... YUM! What a blessed life we all have!!

Spring Break!!

We had an awesome Spring break trip to Myrtle Beach, SC this past week! Three moms (including myself) braved a road trip with our six kids... we had quite the variety of ages ranging from 5 years up to 11 years and they all had a blast together! One of the most fun things about it was that we stayed at a campground in two large campers... there was so much to do there! We had a couple of chilly days there but still managed to get a lot of time on the beach and in the sun. It was definitely an action packed week full of swimming, tanning, playing games, gem mining, bike riding, a delicious fish fry, and playing with our new turtles! We were not ready to come home!

Palm Sunday

Today is one of my most favorite Sundays at church... Palm Sunday. The children come down the aisle waving their palm branches and sing Hosanna... it is such a sweet sight! After the church service all of the children went outside to hunt for Easter eggs and fill their baskets with lots of candy... then we all head back in for a wonderful covered dish lunch. What a great beginning to the Easter holiday! Mitchell and Amelia are also very excited because we are leaving tomorrow (bright and early) for Myrtle Beach... Spring break is here!!

Catching Up

We have all been so busy having fun times that I am just getting around to catching up on our blog! Two weekends ago Mitchell and Amelia got to participate with their church choirs in hosting the junior choir from First Baptist Greenville, SC. This was the 5th year that they have taken turns hosting each other for a weekend of fun. It's neat because the kids remember each other from previous years and have formed some new friendships. They arrived at our church on Saturday afternoon where the kids played games and rehearsed for the Sunday service. Then they all headed out to Summer Hill Recreation Club for a swim party. They all had a blast swimming in the indoor pool and enjoying a pizza dinner! Sunday morning they rehearsed again before Sunday school and enjoyed a breakfast together. They sang beautifully together during the service! They are already looking forward to next year's reunion in Greenville!





This past Friday Mitchell and Amelia had the day off for a teacher workday, so Dave also took the day off and we headed to Fernbank to see the Dinosaurs Alive! exhibit. We really enjoyed the exhibit and the related IMAX film. We also headed down the road to The Old Spaghetti Factory for a wonderful lunch of pasta, salad, bread, and chocolate milkshakes... Yum!! Mitchell and Amelia really enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant and eating on the trolley!

On Saturday afternoon Mitchell played in his first ping pong (or table tennis) tournament! He had a great time playing people of all ages. Out of the 4 people that Mitchell played he beat 2 of them and was defeated by 2, so overall he did very well! We all had fun watching the expert level people play... their matches are crazy!

Snow Days!

Well, the schools were closed again today and I can say that all of the kids have had the BEST time playing in the snow for the past 3 days!! On Sunday they played for hours outside as the snow came down in the biggest flakes we have ever seen. Monday there was still plenty of snow to play in and the neighborhood kids gathered in our front yard again for another full day of play... and they were all thrilled at the end of the day to find out that they had another day out of school today! Today they are getting their last fill of the snow before it disappears... they have been outside for most of the day and it doesn't look like they will be in anytime soon! The last 3 days have provided happy children, red cheeks, lots of thrown snowballs, one bruise on Mitchell's face (from taking a shovel to the face while building their fort), and MANY, MANY wonderful memories!! What a treat!!

Snow!!

It has been a few years since we have seen this much snow here in Athens, so we were all very excited to see it starting right after we got home from church. The snow has accumulated very quickly and it looks so beautiful outside... the snowflakes are HUGE! After the ground had a good cover we ventured outside to play for a while... even the dogs had fun! Maybe we'll have a snow day tomorrow!