At the birthday party, Tyler ended up in Brian's lap where he started lifting him up. He was laughing so hard and kept saying "ready...ready" with Uncle Ray keeping him going. It makes me smile just watching this video of some of the craziness of our family....
Monday, August 29, 2011
Video from trips 2nd birthday
At the birthday party, Tyler ended up in Brian's lap where he started lifting him up. He was laughing so hard and kept saying "ready...ready" with Uncle Ray keeping him going. It makes me smile just watching this video of some of the craziness of our family....
Triplets turn two!!
Time flies when you’re having fun, right?!? Well, my cousin Kellie gets to have lots of fun with her 3 triplets and 1 other son, so I am sure that her time flies!!
The family met over at their house to celebrate the boys turning two. They are growing up so fast and getting cuter and cuter by the day!!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Happy Birthday Dale!
http://www.heritagemakers.com/projectBrowserStandAlone.cfm?projectID=1846658&productId=15&sponsorID=365353
Here is Justin's:
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And here is Jennifer's:
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Back to School
Well, like it or not...the summer is officially over in our house. The summer flew by this year, and even Jennifer was asking where it went. I'm not sure if that meant we were really busy or if she is just getting older. At the beginning of the summer, we always have these dreams of all the things that we want to do over the summer. And while we got most of them done, there just isn't enough time to do all we want to do...
And this year, we were supposed to start Aug 1st and our school board changed the calendar to Aug 15th taking away our fall break and winter breaks. I was SOOO not happy about that decision-as were most of the people from what I understand. While I really didn't want to go back to school Aug 1st, I REALLY liked the breaks and they fell right around the kid's birthdays which was great. But the greater powers didn't listen to my votes and did what they wanted.
Even on Aug 15th, neither kid was ready to go back to school. However, Jennifer was more ready than normal because she was so excited about her new adventure. This was a BIG year for us. Justin is starting middle school and Jennifer is starting High school. WOW!!!! That just blows my mind really! I can't believe that I don't have anyone in preschool or elementary school anymore. They grow up right before your eyes and its so easy to miss it!!
Justin gets the easy mornings this year, for sure. He doesn't even have to get up until 8:00. In our house, middle school starts adding some responsibilities. They have to start getting themselves up and not counting on us to wake them up. They walk themselves to the bus stop each morning watching the clock themselves to keep an eye on the time. (I don't really like this one but NO middle schooler has their parents walk them sadly). They make their own breakfast and if they want to pack a lunch, they do that as well. So, basically they don't need us in the mornings and should be self-sufficient. Jennifer did a great job with it and I expect that Justin will too.
Jennifer,on the other hand, has the early mornings. We were waiting and waiting on her bus schedule and expecting a 7 am pickup but when the schedule came out it was pickup at 6:32!!!! We about passed out!! Are you kidding me?? Thankfully, we found another bus that picked up about 45 minutes later and we will go to that one. She will have really long days this year. Assuming she doesn't stay after school for anything (which will happen sometimes) , she will get home around 6 each evening. The first day the bus pulled in at 6:02. Whew!! That's a long day!
Justin did great his first day of middle school. He is already very familiar with the school layout and where things are,so he has a huge advantage over his sister when she started there and his mom(yes I went to the same middle school!!) when I started there. He was a little nervous, but not bad. He knew a lot of the kids in his class, and that helped. And he made a new friend on the first day. Of course, they change classes and he didn't have any problem finding his classes or opening his locker. Which everyone knows is the biggest deal of middle school -LOCKERS!! He has all AC classes this year, which will be challenging but I know he will do well.
Jennifer has a really tough schedule as well. She is in all honors classes this year, and I know she will do great too. And then on top of that, Jennifer will have 2 drama classes and 1 dance class each day. She had a great first day. She reported that she LOVED every minute of it except the bus ride home in the afternoon. She will be on the bus between 2 1/2 -3 hours every day. She will have to learn to sleep or do homework on the bus, like the other kids do. She was so excited to start because she is doing what she loves!! She and her new friend Alexandria had all the same classes together except for one so they could help each other find their way around the campus. It will be an exciting ride at this school!
And this year, we were supposed to start Aug 1st and our school board changed the calendar to Aug 15th taking away our fall break and winter breaks. I was SOOO not happy about that decision-as were most of the people from what I understand. While I really didn't want to go back to school Aug 1st, I REALLY liked the breaks and they fell right around the kid's birthdays which was great. But the greater powers didn't listen to my votes and did what they wanted.
Even on Aug 15th, neither kid was ready to go back to school. However, Jennifer was more ready than normal because she was so excited about her new adventure. This was a BIG year for us. Justin is starting middle school and Jennifer is starting High school. WOW!!!! That just blows my mind really! I can't believe that I don't have anyone in preschool or elementary school anymore. They grow up right before your eyes and its so easy to miss it!!
Justin gets the easy mornings this year, for sure. He doesn't even have to get up until 8:00. In our house, middle school starts adding some responsibilities. They have to start getting themselves up and not counting on us to wake them up. They walk themselves to the bus stop each morning watching the clock themselves to keep an eye on the time. (I don't really like this one but NO middle schooler has their parents walk them sadly). They make their own breakfast and if they want to pack a lunch, they do that as well. So, basically they don't need us in the mornings and should be self-sufficient. Jennifer did a great job with it and I expect that Justin will too.
Jennifer,on the other hand, has the early mornings. We were waiting and waiting on her bus schedule and expecting a 7 am pickup but when the schedule came out it was pickup at 6:32!!!! We about passed out!! Are you kidding me?? Thankfully, we found another bus that picked up about 45 minutes later and we will go to that one. She will have really long days this year. Assuming she doesn't stay after school for anything (which will happen sometimes) , she will get home around 6 each evening. The first day the bus pulled in at 6:02. Whew!! That's a long day!
Justin did great his first day of middle school. He is already very familiar with the school layout and where things are,so he has a huge advantage over his sister when she started there and his mom(yes I went to the same middle school!!) when I started there. He was a little nervous, but not bad. He knew a lot of the kids in his class, and that helped. And he made a new friend on the first day. Of course, they change classes and he didn't have any problem finding his classes or opening his locker. Which everyone knows is the biggest deal of middle school -LOCKERS!! He has all AC classes this year, which will be challenging but I know he will do well. Jennifer has a really tough schedule as well. She is in all honors classes this year, and I know she will do great too. And then on top of that, Jennifer will have 2 drama classes and 1 dance class each day. She had a great first day. She reported that she LOVED every minute of it except the bus ride home in the afternoon. She will be on the bus between 2 1/2 -3 hours every day. She will have to learn to sleep or do homework on the bus, like the other kids do. She was so excited to start because she is doing what she loves!! She and her new friend Alexandria had all the same classes together except for one so they could help each other find their way around the campus. It will be an exciting ride at this school!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
School orientation
Right before school , both kids had orientation on the same day. We had to drop the car off with our friend Robert and he so graciously let us use his car for the day. While it may not look like much, he really loves this car and is so proud that he only paid $100 for the car and its still running great. The kids were soo embarrassed that we were taking them to their new schools in this car and we laughed and laughed all day long about the car. This first picture is taken in the Pebblebrook parking lot where we had to park far away from the crowd because I was concerned about backing this car out. Jennifer is smiling but saying under her breath "Hurry and take the picture, people are coming!!"
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| Look at that front end!! |
This picture was taken at Martins where we went to lunch. I was trying to act so proud of "my car" for the day. Robert laughed so hard when I sent him this picture via text.
He was in an accident that wasn't his fault. He told the guy don't worry about it because he was hungry and tired and wanted to get home. So, he just duct taped the front end.
Justin was so proud to get his locker and open it for the first time. This has to be one of the best things about 6th grade!!
And we finished the day at a cupcake store where we had the most delicious cupcakes!! This surprise made the kids really happy!!Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Summer 2011
I know I haven’t blogged much this summer. The summer has flown by and I don’t know where it went. I have been extremely busy with real estate this summer and then every time I am not working I am trying to create fun times with the kids. We have done most of the stuff that we wanted to do this summer, but haven’t gotten to spend time with as many friends as we wanted. So, now we have 2 weeks to play catch up from work and get ready for school and still make some time for fun.
It has been an unusual summer for us as it is the first time that we didn’t do swim team. We have been swimming for the last 7- 8 years and just seemed a little odd not to have practice every morning. We started sleeping in almost immediately.
Dale actually took the kids to Six Flags for the first time without me since I was working and he hadn’t gotten to go in a long time. We have been to White Water a bunch as usual this Summer but still need to fit in a few more times.
We went bowling some with the free bowling program. We went to the zoo with some friends (another post). We went to the lake almost every week again this summer. We went skating with the church.
Justin went to his first Summer Camp and first OVERNIGHT camp with Johnson Ferry Baptist Church this summer. There is a separate post about that. Jennifer helped out with VBS by leading a group this year, and loved that. She had the first grade class and did a great job with them. I got several compliments from others about the terrific job she did.
She also had a week of summer classes that were totally optional at Pebblebrook. She loved loved loved this, and declared her minor after experiencing all the areas of concentration (drama, technical theater, vocals, and dance). She is officially a drama major and dance minor. She is excited to start this new chapter of her life. She even got used to wearing her leotards and tights into Walmart and Publix after the first day.
We also met another family with a daughter who is going to Pebblebrook and will be a drama major and dance minor at Dave and Busters and enjoyed getting to know them. They are mutual friends of our next door neighbors. Jennifer and Alexandria are a day apart in age, and so it will be nice to know some other kids when school starts.
We also joined Netflix this Summer, which is the only time we really have to catch up on the movies we don’t get to see during the school year. I signed us up for it and Justin helped me figure out how to use the Wii (which was super easy) to stream and watch movies and shows instantly. This has been out for a while, but it was super new to us. And pretty darn cool!! We were able to show the kids some movies and shows that we grew up watching. We will probably cancel part of the service once school starts back but we have thoroughly enjoyed it this summer.
A new show for us which we all really enjoyed this summer was Cake Boss. This is a show about a bakery in New York that makes extreme type cakes. It is funny and amazing to see the cakes they make. So, one day at White Water, the kids and I decided we should make a cake. We brainstormed for about an hour while we relaxed in the lazy river about what type of cake we should make, and how we should do it. They even came home and drew up the plans for the cake.
We decided to make a real estate cake with a house and a for sale sign and take it into the office. So, a couple of days later, we went to Michaels to get the stuff. It is amazing how cake decorating terms have become commonplace in our house this summer. So, we made several cakes and several pans of rice krispy treats. I mainly let the kids do everything by themselves, and they did a great job.
They made the cakes, assembled them, and made the icing and dirty iced it then put the topcoat on there. They had a lot of trouble with the house and ended up just laying it down. The for sale sign stayed up better.
We ended up taking it to the office, and I made them bring it from the car to the office, where a big deal was made by everyone. The kids were hilarious “fighting” with each other by using lines from the show such as -“I’m holding up my end, you just hold on to yours!” and several others using their best Jersey accents.
Everyone loved the cake and the office took a picture of the kids and cake and put it on their Facebook page. I was proud of their effort and that they stuck with the project because they learned that they make it look very easy on TV, but its really not so easy. As soon as we walked out, Justin started asking what kind of cake we wanted to make next....Jennifer and I just looked at him and rolled our eyes!!
It has been an unusual summer for us as it is the first time that we didn’t do swim team. We have been swimming for the last 7- 8 years and just seemed a little odd not to have practice every morning. We started sleeping in almost immediately.
Dale actually took the kids to Six Flags for the first time without me since I was working and he hadn’t gotten to go in a long time. We have been to White Water a bunch as usual this Summer but still need to fit in a few more times.
Justin went to his first Summer Camp and first OVERNIGHT camp with Johnson Ferry Baptist Church this summer. There is a separate post about that. Jennifer helped out with VBS by leading a group this year, and loved that. She had the first grade class and did a great job with them. I got several compliments from others about the terrific job she did.
She also had a week of summer classes that were totally optional at Pebblebrook. She loved loved loved this, and declared her minor after experiencing all the areas of concentration (drama, technical theater, vocals, and dance). She is officially a drama major and dance minor. She is excited to start this new chapter of her life. She even got used to wearing her leotards and tights into Walmart and Publix after the first day.
 |
| This is the first time she has been dressed like this in a long time. |
We also joined Netflix this Summer, which is the only time we really have to catch up on the movies we don’t get to see during the school year. I signed us up for it and Justin helped me figure out how to use the Wii (which was super easy) to stream and watch movies and shows instantly. This has been out for a while, but it was super new to us. And pretty darn cool!! We were able to show the kids some movies and shows that we grew up watching. We will probably cancel part of the service once school starts back but we have thoroughly enjoyed it this summer.
A new show for us which we all really enjoyed this summer was Cake Boss. This is a show about a bakery in New York that makes extreme type cakes. It is funny and amazing to see the cakes they make. So, one day at White Water, the kids and I decided we should make a cake. We brainstormed for about an hour while we relaxed in the lazy river about what type of cake we should make, and how we should do it. They even came home and drew up the plans for the cake.
We decided to make a real estate cake with a house and a for sale sign and take it into the office. So, a couple of days later, we went to Michaels to get the stuff. It is amazing how cake decorating terms have become commonplace in our house this summer. So, we made several cakes and several pans of rice krispy treats. I mainly let the kids do everything by themselves, and they did a great job.
 |
| Jennifer made the rice krispy treats -about 3 pans full! |
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| Justin made the cakes-3 sheetcakes |
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| Dirty icing the cake |
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| Justin rolling the fondant |
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| The finished product!!! Ta-da!! |
They made the cakes, assembled them, and made the icing and dirty iced it then put the topcoat on there. They had a lot of trouble with the house and ended up just laying it down. The for sale sign stayed up better.
 |
| What a sweet cake...but even sweeter kids!! |
We ended up taking it to the office, and I made them bring it from the car to the office, where a big deal was made by everyone. The kids were hilarious “fighting” with each other by using lines from the show such as -“I’m holding up my end, you just hold on to yours!” and several others using their best Jersey accents.
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| Transporting the cake is always nerve-wracking! |
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| At my office presenting the cake |
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