Falling off the Face of the Earth (I didn't)

Back to School 8/10/11

Wesley's Birthday  8/13/11

Sam Plymale's Wedding 7/23/11

Mom, Dad, Grace & Thomas to the Fair 8/19/11

State Fair 8/21/11

Getting Cub Scout Uniform! 8/30/11

Labor Day White Party 9/4/11

 Putting on Makeup All By Herself 9/5/11

Mommy Put On Makeup for Her 9/5/11

Aquarium at Gatlinburg 8/3/11

 Walking in the Village 8/4/11

 Conver and Womack Gatlinburg Vacation 8/2-8/5/11

 Playing in the Creek 8/4/11

 Newfound Gap 8/4/11

Hiking the Appalachian Trail 8/4/11

Messy Games Night at FPCC Youth 8/31/11

Day 1 & 2 of the Beach Trip!

This was taken at the wedding on July 31st of Graham and Sarah. They had tiny bubble containers and the kids loved blowing bubbles while the Bride was having dinner. She seemed to enjoy it too. There were several other kids there also blowing bubbles. The only real problem was that she had also provided tiny cardboard boxes with red bows that she intended her guests to fill with whichever candy they liked -either mints or Hershey's kisses. The kids ate the candy and then filled the boxes with bubble solution! You can just imagine had that went..... But they never figured out that it was simply not going to work. So, between the 5 of them, they emptied all the bubble bottles on the table!

This picture was taken on Aug. 2nd! This is the first time David has seen the ocean! He loved it! Thomas and Grace enjoyed being at the ocean with their Aunt Leslie and Uncle Bob and of course Uncle Jon! They didn't quite understand the concept that their cousin was really too little to play, but that's ok, he didn't seem to mind!

Little bitty Gracie, and the Great Big Sea.

I sent these back with my blackberry, but it posts them in random order! This one is at the wedding again. Grace was wearing my hat. It was hot, but not too sunny, so all in all a great day. She is showing Grammy here how her Princess, "her name is Sleeping Beauty" is sitting in her chair getting ready to watch the wedding.

Working hard on those sand castles, it takes a lot of sand you know. Especially when Grace keeps flattening the thing over and over!

Here are 2 more wedding photos! We initially sat down on a whole row on the Bride's side. It was agreed that we should probably move, so we up and switched sides. One of her family thought it was funny, and as I passed, I said, "Well, we wouldn't want the bride to think we like her or anything..." She laughed. But poor Sam had gone to the car to get the wedding card we left there, and when he got back, just as the Grandmas were being seated, he had to look all over for us. Then I elegantly waved like crazy, and he had to walk around the back and come sit down. :-)

Now, the best part of the wedding is when the pastor said, "Graham, you may kiss your wife" and then when he did, Grace (in row 3) yelled, "Ewww Yucky!" He didn't hear, but Sarah did and looked out and giggled. I was soooo embarrassed and it was soooo funny! Sam and I both put our hands over our mouths and I mouthed "I'm sorry!" to the bride. She enjoyed it I think. Graham's Mom heard and loved it.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

School Starts Tomorrow!

Well Thomas and Gracie are starting at their new school tomorrow!

I'm a little bit nervous about letting them go to be honest. I don't know why. I guess because I've loved having them home all summer. Now I have to go back to the way it was before:

Wake them up, rush them around getting dressed & teeth brushed etc, try to make them eat something really fast, drive them over to school half asleep, and turn around and leave......

then at the end of the day.....

Rush in, pick them up (usually in a big hurry to be somewhere...) grab their stuff and jackets or whatever, run them out to the car, whiz out of the parking lot, dash to some place or another (Bible Study- always late, Mom's on Tuesday, Linda & Leigh's on Friday) get them to eat dinner, have maybe an hour together, brush teeth, etc, make them rush through bedtime "NO No time for books tonight, it's really late!" And finally at 11pm I get to have 30 minutes of time to myself, but.....

I've not spent ANY decent time with the kids that I wasn't fussing at them to hurry or get something done.....

This summer was so different.

We'd get up at 8 or 9am, brush teeth and get dressed. Come downstairs for breakfast, a lot of times together -All 4 Of Us!- and then Sam would leave for work.

Then Thomas and Grace would do some school work with me for about 2 hours. Usually ABCs flashcards first (they got really good at those) then some worksheets. We also read books together. Or did some projects like animals collages or making our own solar systems...

Then we'd all go in the living room to watch Sesame Street and then Word World.

By then it was time for lunch. Sam would come home about 1 or 2 for lunch and we'd make lunch and eat that together, before I had to leave about 3 or 4 for work.

Some days we even got to go on field trips to places like the park, the zoo, the pool, the library, etc.

Then Sam would put them down for naps after lunch.

When I got home from work about 6:30 or 7, we would trade again, since Sam had to go to Karate. The kids and I would go to Mimi's on Tuesday and some Thursdays. Some Thursdays we got to hang out with Derema and Lucas.

On Mondays, Sam stayed home with us and we had Family nights.

On Wednesdays we still get to go to church for Bible Study, but it's not stressful, it's nice. It's our big outing for the whole day.

Then on Friday nights, we go over to the Convers' and have dinner with them, and sometimes the kids stayed over, usually not though.

The weekends were about the same, but without the weekly stress, there was a lot less need to de-stress on Saturday, so we actually got to sleep in some and go out some.

Even going to Church seems nicer on Sunday because we have gotten used to the routine of getting up and getting ready, eating breakfast, and getting out the door together.

So, what can I do to make tomorrow, more like today?

That is the question......

We Went to the Aquarium Today!

Robin and I took the kids to the Newport Aquarium today!

They had a good time, with the exception of the little kids having to wear their monkey-backpack (Gracie), and Doggie-Backpack (Wesley), which they really wanted to run around like Thomas and Samantha. I think Robin and I will both have sore arms tomorrow from them pulling on us.

I think their favorite parts were a huge frog-nasium they've installed right in the middle, (it's a playground like at McDonald's but with very low lighting and tiny frog cages inside all over!) and the jellyfish room.

In the jellyfish room, they have a big wall with a video of jellyfish floating by, and when you swat at them, they actually move!

We also took them in the giant candy store at the exit, and they all 4 ran around (ok Robin and I too!) trying to decide which 1 (ha ha) they would get. I ended up with a giant round lollipop for Grace, a bag of gummy sharks and alligators for Thomas, and chocolate covered pretzels for me...I also have several other bags of candy....no comment.

Everyone is exhausted, and the little ones fell asleep in the car coming home.

MJ

ps- Below are the pictures:

They got balloon animals from a man on stilz (which Grace was amazed by)

The bottom left picture shows Grace standing on a clear-glass floor looking down at fish -mostly waiting for alligators to swim under....

Newport Aquarium

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