Charleston Soccer Trip

For the first time in seven years, we took a trip to Charleston to take part in a soccer tournament.  We haven't done this since I was pregnant with Emily and I'm hoping that this year re-started the tradition.  The whole team rents a house together (or two or three houses, depending on numbers).  The guys play soccer during the day while the moms take the kiddos to the pool or beach.  Then we all meet up together for dinner in the evening.  This year we had ten (ten!) kids in our house and we couldn't have hand-picked a nicer group of kids.  Everyone got along so well and behaved beautifully.  We really enjoyed taking Abby along for the trip.  Hoping to catch everyone again next year - same time, same place!

Last Day of 2nd Grade!

Can't believe it - Emily has finished another year of school.  This has been a great year for her with an excellent teacher and a class full of friends.  I can only hope that third grade will be as great!  She left for school dressed in her school shirt and armed with a water gun for our newest tradition - faculty water gun fight after showering the bus riders.  However, she ended up getting checked out early to go home with a girlfriend and play in the sprinklers all afternoon.  I can't blame her - when I went to pick her up, they were having a tremendous time.  Let's get ready for summertime!

Ready to spray some teachers!

Music medal for being part of the recorder group this year!

Sweet Ms. Byrd and Emily

Field Day!

Best day of the year - Field Day!  Emily and her class had a great time at Field Day this year.  Our PE teacher puts on a great event - the students really enjoy all of the activities she plans.  I remember Field Day being pretty scary for someone as non-athletic as I am; however, our Field Day has activities that everyone can enjoy.  Great weather - not too hot, like last year - and loads of fun. Our principal even got doused with a cooler of water at the end of the day.  Great way to round out the school year!

Parachute games were always my favorite part of field day!

This was right before I joined the tug of war lineup.  We didn't win, but we tried really hard!  I think Emily was proud of me for joining in with the other moms.

Symphony on the Sand

We took Emily and a friend to Callaway to hear the Atlanta Symphony perform an open air concert at Robin Lake Beach.  What a perfect evening!  We couldn't have asked for better weather and the performances were extraordinary.  The girls had a great time playing in the water between songs and really enjoyed the fireworks at the end.  We brought along binoculars so that they could see the musicians up close and I snapped some funny pictures of them goofing around.  Aren't they cute?

Spring Break in Athens

When asked where she wanted to go for Spring Break, Emily replied. "Athens - to see Sanford Stadium!" So we obliged by taking a road trip to Athens and touring around the campus for the day.  It was so much fun to see her getting excited about college - wherever she ends up!  We had a delicious lunch downtown at the Grill and then walked all around exploring the campus.  We ended up at the bookstore - also her request - and brought home some new Georgia gear to wear at home.  Great way to spend Spring Break!

She loved the way students were hanging hammocks from the trees and settling down to study - or sleep.

This bronze bulldog looks like the animal from Ghostbusters that chases Louis Tully - just minus the horns and blazing red  eyes.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of my blogosphere friends!  This year was especially special - Abby's birthday fell on Easter Sunday, so we had a double celebration.  We had a great time celebrating her big day with family and friends.  Hope your day was wonderful!

Dyeing eggs earlier in the week - The girls picked some weird crayon-melting set.  Really burned the fingers and turned out strange looking eggs.

Not sure what this face is all about!

Pretty girl ready for church!

Happy Birthday to Abby!  13 years - my goodness!

Back in Time

It's always great fun to take Emily and Abby back in time at the Providence Marketplace.  The church pulls together tons of volunteers to man all of the craft booths and activities for the children and they do a fantastic job.  Emily and Abby are major crafters, so they love getting to make clay pots, woven bracelets, and perfumed oil.  They also are always fans of the camel ride - even though you sometimes have to wait a REALLY long time in line!  Another great year traveling back to old Jerusalem!

Adventures at Line Creek

We took an afternoon adventure to Line Creek Nature Center and hiked around the trails.  We had such a great time wandering through the woods, meeting people and their dogs, doing a little splashing in the water, and getting completely worn out!  What a fun way to spend an afternoon.  We even met a very nice teacher who was doing coursework toward her master's degree while sitting in a shallow place at the water.  Gotta love educators!

What bugs you?

Science Fair 2012 is officially over!  Abby put together a fantastic project dealing with potential alternatives to poisonous ant killers.  Just an FYI - you can temporarily repel ants with vinegar and chalk, but they'll eventually come back.  You're better off sticking with Windex or plain old Raid.  So proud of all of her hard work!  Papa is glad that he doesn't have to wrangle any more fire ants.  And doesn't her board look great????

Cousins

Jace and Jackson came to visit Nanny and I was fortunate enough to have my camera in the car.  I was able to snap some cute shots of the cousins playing together in Nanny's yard.  Love to see all the kiddos having fun together!

Jace wanted to show me his "funny face."

Right after I took this picture, we realized that they were standing in a pile of ants.  Boo.

Love this one!  Such funny faces.

They planned this picture.  Street toughs!

This is hilarious to me.

Home with Flu

Emily caught a genuine case of the flu this year (that's right - we didn't get flu shots) and was out of school for an entire week.  The flu wasn't nearly as bad as all of the makeup work!  Donald, Cici, and I took days off to stay home with her during her convalescence.  We played loads of board games, watched loads of Brady Bunch, and read loads of books.  Not too bad, considering the circumstances!  John and Ringo got in on the action, also, as you can see from the picture below.

S.S. Americano

Who needs loads of toys when you have a cardboard box?  Emily and Abby appropriated the large cardboard box that my car's new wheel was shipped in.  They filled it full of animals and christened it the S.S. Americano, after their favorite song from the Wii Just Dance game.  They had loads of fun until the cats started shredding the styrofoam packing inside.  The S.S. Americano had to head to the scrapyard after that!  Love their creativity!