La, La, La, La, La

For Sissy birthday, Papaw and Mimi sent her karaoke Cd's including, High School Musical I, High School Musical II and Miley Cyrus. My 'performers' sang and choreographed for Jon and I. OK, they all sang. . . . Caleb and mostly Abigail choreographed. Sissy grinned, no choreographing, and she was not happy that I photographed the event!

Boys of Summer

Ms. Lori emailed and asked if we wanted Rough Rider tickets, well duh! Funny thing is Mr. Bryson called later to see if we wanted to join him at the game! Guess our friends know we like baseball! Summer is coming to end, baseball season is almost over, bummer!

Happy Birthday, Frankie & Wyatt!

Today is Frankie's birthday, she's 23 years old! We began her day with breakfast in bed and opening gifts, Cd's, DVDs, clothes, and more girly stuff! One of her gifts I purchased months ago, and hid, you probably know were this is going! I looked for three days and could not find it! So, this morning Jon told Frankie that we were starting a new birthday tradition, called 'Find Your Own Present!'

Today was also a special day, because Frankie's middle sister, Jackie gave birth to a little boy today, Wyatt James. He was 16" long and weighed in at 4lbs 5oz. Even though Jackie had to have an emergency C-section, her mom tells me she is doing well. Isn't that a great name, Wyatt James!

Happy Birthday, Sissy! Mommy loves you!

Homeschool Kick-Off

Tonight we kick-off our homeschool groups 2008-2009 school year. We had 300+ homeschoolers in attendance! It was so wonderful to see that many people. Since I'm on the Board of Directors, the kids helped with set up and clean-up. The kick-off was an ice-cream social, always a good idea! Frankie served ice-cream with a few of the older homeschoolers. Imagine that, she was standing closest to the 5 gallon bucket of Braum's chocolate! A girl after my own heart or at least my own taste buds!

Chemistry Class

This just made me laugh! We were discussing the properties of matter, and each child had a large magnifying glass and were checking out common household items. In this photo Caleb is checking out a rubber band, but he wanted to view it all stretched out. No problem, he just held the magnifying glass with his toes.

This was not the description in the teacher's manual!

Homemade Fun!

Following services this evening we had a 'Back-to-School' ice cream social. Everyone brought homemade ice cream and then judges from elementary, middle school and high school judged the entries for the Grand Prize Winner.

Abigail made vanilla ice cream with caramel and Heath bar chips, yum! Caleb made chocolate ice cream with cut up Twinkies! Awesome! Abigail's ice cream made it into the final running.

Following the announcement of the winners, Mr. Bryson had the group sing Happy Birthday to Sissy! She turned beet red, but loved every minute of it! I know this isn't a great photo, but it was just so packed in the fellowship hall with people, I couldn't get in a good spot to take her picture!

Momma's Girls!

If I ever put together a list of my favorite movies it would look something like, The King & I, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins. Sissy and I have watched these together many, many times. In the girls room Sissy even has a 'Maria' Barbie and two 'Eliza Doolittle' Barbies. Abigail was asking who the Eliza Doolittle Barbies were, so Saturday, the girls and I watched My Fair Lady. I love that movie! (But beware, there are some unnecessary words in it) I wish ladies still dressed liked that, all those bows and ribbons and lace! Obviously, Jon worked Saturday!

Spoiled Puppy

Although we began school two weeks, we only started with four subjects. Partly because I had not decided on curriculum yet. This year I have decided to move away from the Bob Jones Home Sat, mainly due to the desire to combine some of Caleb, Abigail & Frankie's classes. Today was the book fair in Plano. We met the 'Gungans' and finished our curriculum shopping. Following the book fair we went back to our house to give the kids time to play on their last day of summer. I posted this picture because I knew Jon would be indignant that Padme' was on the coach. She is NOT allowed on the furniture, however, Sissy and Richard were taking turns with the other kids playing Indian Jones on the PlayStation, and when Richard said, 'Padme' come' she hopped up on the coach, laid down and curled up with him. Definitely a no-no!

School House Rocks!

School is back in full force . . . Yippee, NOT! I snapped these today while we we're playing a reading comprehension game. The kids were on the couch with pillows between them so they could not see each other's answer cube. The first picture shows how most questions went, no 2 cubes on the same answer! When they did get on right, they were fist bumping! Here are the winners of our 3 rounds:

Round 1 - Main Idea - Frankie

Round 2 - Logic & Reasoning - Abigail

Round 3 - Figurative Language - Caleb

Apparently our brains are still a little rusty from too much sunscreen!

Sissy's Party

Tonight we had a surprise party for Sissy. Frankie was surprised to see a cake with her name on it at Life Group. She has a few more days until she turns 23. It's crazy when you buy a pack of 2 dozen candles for your child's birthday and use (almost) all of them! She's hoping for some Jonas Brothers, & High Musical gear. . . . hmm we'll see what the birthday bunny brings! Mommy loves you!

Wow, what a wedding . . .

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Today was Rachel Mimms wedding, absolutely elegant! The church was packed, what a great tribute to their families. Following the wedding was a sensational reception at Loft 610. Frankie and Abigail delighted in striking a pose for the photo booth. Caleb mingled and socialized with the attendees. Sissy stood to catch to bouquet with the girls, and brother took his chances with catching the garter. Abigail commented the the garter would have gone further if Clayton used a rubber band shooter. All of the kids loved the bountiful buffet with giant shrimp. Jon's favorites would have been definately the food and the jazz music. My personal favorite was the custom mix ice cream bar with the smorgasbord of mix-ins on the marble slab! Great revelry in a chic setting!

Bunko Babes

My 'girls' came over for Bunko! We played and ate and had fun. One of the highlights was when Ms. Lori taught the 'girls' how to use a bendy straw to blow air into your armpit and make . . . um, raspberry sounds. You know a noise signifying derision, reminiscent of flatulence.

Truly an action not typically found in polite society, but quite popular among 5th grade boys at camp. One of those funny, but wrong, so wrong, moments! And yes, I did know Lori was coming and I did have bendy straws on hand! But, I did not inhale!

Hot & Cold . . . don't mix

As parents, we have taught our children the dangers of placing ice/cold beverage in a hot/warm glass. This is definitely one of those stupid, stupid moments.

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I had run up to Sonic to purchase a bag of ice. Then pulled out my giant punch bowl out of the dishwasher and poured the bag of ice into it. The idea being, it would be easier for the kids to scoop ice out of the punch bowl than pulling the bag in and out of the freezer.
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The bowl was still warm, so when I picked up the bowl to place it in the freezer, it shattered, complete with leaving a piece of crystal sticking out of my right wrist! My first impulse was to shake the glass off my wrist, which was followed by blood squirting out my wrist!
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Shortening the story, a visit to my doctor, a tetanus shot, an MRI and now an upcoming appointment with a wrist surgeon and I will be back to normal, minus a very pretty punch bowl. I'm thinking of investing in an ice bucket, a pretty metal ice bucket!

Camp Nana & Pap-paw

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While Caleb and I were at camp this week, Abigail went with Roy to his grandparents home near Austin. They played in bounce houses, went swimming and literally 'climbed the walls.' Saturday we drove to pick her up and finally, we were all back together!

Camp - Day 6

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Each year at camp they lay out this giant plastic sheeting, then coat it with water and 'no-more-tears' shampoo, for a Giant Slip n' Slide. These photos are precious to me. The first year Caleb went to camp four years ago, he did not want to go down the slip n' slide, so our youth minister strapped Caleb on his back and they went down together. This year, he was worn out from camp all week and did not want to do the slip n' slide. He was content with watching the fun. Until . . . . a pretty girl, Hannah, came and asked him to go down the slide with her! The group hug photo is Caleb, Hannah & Kassidie. All great buddies from church. Hannah didn't want to see him missing out, so she made the effort to include him. It's just funny that when Richard and Blake did the same thing, it did not have the same results!

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The lower photo is Caleb and Blake on 'Twins Day.'

More Camp Fun

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One of the coolest things at the new camp was the lagoon. Kids took turns swimming at the pool and the lagoon.

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The cable-suspended water slide, is made of slick vinyl. Campers ride a rush of water.

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The lagoon also had an awesome zip line over the lagoon. The zip line had a 50 foot platform to jump off! There was a smaller 20 foot platform with a trapeze swing.

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The camp also featured a ropes course, climbing wall and a 'Human Sling Shot'. I missed the photo of those, but there were alot of fun thing and new experiences for the kids. Caleb liked the zip line and the giant slide!

Camp - Day 5

These are just some fun shots from camp. Caleb and Kassidie are doing the giant Twister game. Looks like left foot on green, right foot on red, and head on green! Our intern this year Chad, was phobic about anyone messing with his drink. So naturally we messed with him at every opportunity! The photo below is the group of 6th graders from our congregation.