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We finished the first week of school and so far, so good. We have the carpool situation working now so that Madi doesn’t have to be at school so early for Bailey to work on the Safety Patrol. And, even more exciting, I found out one of our neighbor’s has dance with Madi! I had signed up all 3 girls (Bailey, Madi and Avery) for dance on the same day. That should have been great, right?! But, Avery is supposed to be there at 3:15 and that has always been a stretch to get the big girls out of school and get into town by then. I also didn’t know when I signed her up that the elementary schools were all changing their hours, so they get out 10 minutes later than before. Avery was 10 minutes late last week. I knew that wouldn’t work for every week, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it differently. I have to have Madi with me because her class starts at 4:15. So, now Thayer will pick everyone up on Thursdays and Madi will ride to dance with our neighbor. I will already be there because I’ll be able to take Avery and get her there on time. Once Madi is done at 5:15, we come home for supper and Thayer takes Bailey back at 7:15 while I go to Praise Team practice. Yeah, it takes rocket science to figure out our schedules! But, Thursdays seem to be our only crazy day.
I’ll try to remember to take a picture of Avery this week. She has been so excited about dance that she wears leotards all the time…I’ve had to force her to keep her shoes in the dance bag because she almost scuffed up the floor with her tap shoes and we thought she had lost them ($48 shoes that she only wore to dance class twice!) last Friday, but thankfully, they were just hiding in one of my shoe boxes in my room (along with her new tennis shoes). She is going to be very, very good at dance if the first two weeks are any indication.
The girls will be trying out for a play in 2 weeks. This will be the second time all 3 have tried out together. The last time, they all got parts, so I’m hopeful the same will be the case this time. I’m not sure how we’ll handle it if 1 or 2 get parts and not all 3. It is “Miracle on 34th Street” and will held the week before Thanksgiving. It would be a great way to get into the Christmas spirit…not that I need help in that department!! But, if they get in, our calendar will be much more full. But, I’m up for the challenge!
Today was our first day back. Everyone had to go today, including me, which means Avery had to go too even though she doesn’t start until Sept. 8. Aside from horrible traffic this morning and this afternoon, they had had smooth, great days. Bailey was thrilled to learn she was on Safety Patrol. I’m not so thrilled since she volunteered to do morning duty and afternoon duty while her friend is in a cast for the first 8 weeks of school. So, she has to be there 15 minutes earlier in the mornings and stay about 10 minutes later each day. Madi was even less thrilled…but her time is coming next year and we’ve already done this once for Julia. I was surprised that the elementary school decided to move the pick up time to 3 pm. Every other year it has been 2:50. How am I supposed to pick up at two schools at the same time? We decided we’d start picking up Julia first since Bailey has to stay later anyway. Even more of a question is how will we ever get Avery to dance by 3:15 on Thursdays?
Not that I expect I can keep this up, but I was smart enough to have them shower, fix lunches and decided what they wanted for breakfast last night. I also thawed a roast that I started this morning so our supper is just about ready. Homework is done and being checked while I type. Looks like I will have time to get my walk in tonight before dark! But, before I start thinking “mom of the year,” I need to remember that dance is on Thursdays and the fall play auditions are Sept. 15. Maybe I can hold it together for a few weeks anyway!
We were so glad to be back with our church family this Sunday. We missed last Sunday while we were vacationing in SC. Although we had a wonderful, restful time, it was great to get back and see everyone. I think the break was really good for Thayer…he needed time to recharge!
We had a great membership class today after church and also enjoyed a great night out with our Life Group tonight. We aren’t officially meeting this year yet (we’ll start the Sunday after Labor Day), but we have had a fellowship in July and August to get to know each other better before we start our Bible studies. We decided that although we love having our kids right upstairs, we should all go out (Adults Only!) for the August fellowship. We were missing 3 people, but had 14 meet at Logan’s and we had a blast talking, eating and laughing! 11 of the 17 adults (13 counting us) have been together in group before, either last year or the year before, so we already have some great relationships! I can’t wait to see what God does in our midst this year! We love being at church, but Life Groups are where its at!!
The girls are about to have to go to bed…9 pm is super early for the summer, but I’m getting them up around 7:30 tomorrow so that they’ll be ready for the 7 am wake-up call on Tuesday. I can’t believe the summer is already gone! We’ll enjoy one more fun day tomorrow and then, back to the grind! I’m really dreading this year…it will fly by just like all the other ones and this time next year, Avery will be starting school…and I’ll have to go to my 20th high school reunion. Ouch!
Have a great week everyone!
Well, there’s no denying it…summer is over. We went to Open House at Norwayne last Wednesday and at Northeast on Thursday. We’ve met the teachers: Julia has 3 teachers for he main classes and 2 elective teachers, Bailey has 3 main teachers also (she did not get on the same team Julia had in 5th grade) and Madi has the same teacher Bailey had last year. Avery will start 4 year old preschool in 2 weeks and will be in the Frog class. My dining room is overflowing with backpacks, notebooks, pencils, paper towels, hand sanitizer, and Clorox wipes. They’ll never be able to carry all those bags in by themselves! We slept in late yesterday and today for the last times until next summer. Come Tuesday morning, we’ll be back in the routine. <Sigh.> It could be worse…it could be this time next year when Avery will be starting Kindergarten. <Double sigh.>
Here’s a look at our summer:
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| Make a Smilebox scrapbook |
There are a few other things we did that I don’t have pictures of…we threw a surprise 60th birthday party for my parents and had a really great time catching up with old friends and some extended family. Also, Bailey and Madi attended Camp Kidjam and had a fantastic time in July. It met at Wake Forest University. We always stay busy, but this summer has been ridiculously busy and flew by! I am always excited about the start of the new school year for all of us, but I’d love a few more weeks off! Oh well…
Wow! I haven’t blogged in 2 weeks…I’ve probably lost all 10 of my readers by now!
We have enjoyed a whole week of vacationing with our families in SC. We left last Sunday after church and will be going back home tomorrow. It has been a great time of relaxing, eating, and spending time with our parents and my brother, sister-in-law and my nephew. I have loved being spoiled…I haven’t cooked the whole time I’ve been gone, and I’ve not swept, vacuumed, taken out the trash or finished a whole load of laundry either! But, I’ve probably gained 5 pounds! As much as I love being at home, I know we need to get back to reality…school starts in 8 days and dance starts this week. We will celebrate Julia and Madi’s birthdays this week too: Julia will be 12 (what!!!) on Wednesday and Madi will be 9 on Friday. Back to the grind…where did the summer go?!
While we were home, we celebrated my parents turning 60 with a surprise party. They believed we were going out to eat for Julia and Madi. Their church is adding on a huge addition, so my brother told them he wanted to swing by there to see it after dinner. Since they have a key to the church, that wasn’t a problem. There were tons of people waiting there…friends from church, friends from way back, family and of course, all 5 grandchildren! They had a really nice time and appeared to be surprised…I can’t believe Avery didn’t tell them! We had a 25th anniversary party for them almost 15 years ago that they had found out about!
We were able to worship at my home church, North Anderson Baptist, this morning. We love to see all the people and are very excited about their new building. It was the church where we were married 14 years ago this month and I have so many memories from growing up there. Tonight, we attended NewSpring Church, where my brother works. The pastor there was the youth minister at North Anderson when my brother was in the youth program. It was an exciting service and we always enjoy being able to worship there. We very much missed being at Gateway this morning, but man, was it great to have a day off!!
Here’s a few pictures from the party:
Mom realizing what was going on…
Daddy with Madi and David Geddes (his cousin, Earlene’s husband)
Vanessa and the girls, holding our new cousin, Julia
(she’s named after my grandmother, too!)
Michael and Matthan
Amy and Avery
Today is Thayer’s 37th birthday. We celebrated on Friday because we knew we wouldn’t have much time today as we started our version of VBS today, called the S3 Blast (Super Sonic Summer Blast). Our theme this year is “Xtreme!” We are learing about extreme love, extreme courage, extreme trust and and extreme obedience. This morning was awesome! We had a martial arts academy come show us some extreme karate. Then, we heard from vikings singing opera about how Moses and the childen of Israel had to trust God. Tonight, we learned about courage and how Shadrach, Meschach, Abednego had extreme courage. The skit was great tonight as well. It was about the Nebby Awards and featured a Joan Rivers like character who was interviewing people on the red carpet as they were going into the awards show where Nebby K. Neezer was picked to win the award he started himself again. Tonight was Xtreme Hair night. Here’s how we looked…the color had already faded from the girls hair, but for some reason, mine was still bright…I guess it clings to colored hair better than normal hair. It was toilet paper tubes in our hair, if you are wondering!
Here are a few pictures from the birthday:
He got a GPS (which is for both of us…birthdays and anniversary…which happens to be Wednesday, our last night of VBS…that wan’t good planning to have it start on his birthday and end on our anniversary!), a Seinfeld Scene It game and Croc flip flops.
All you neat freaks are flipping out because my daughter’s bare feet are on the counter, huh?!
Tomorrow is Xtremely Tacky night…I’ll try to post out attempt at that tomorrow.
