Turning 5

Maryn turned 5... in October. So I'm a little late. :) She had a dress-up tea party. We turned the Sunroom into a dressing room with all of her dress-up clothes out for the girls to try on. A couple of older girls who are friends of ours were on hand to paint their nails. We also made bead necklaces and princess hats. They had a lot of fun.


nail station



princess hats












dressing room



Happy very late birthday Maryn!!!

My Birthday and The Girls' First Day of School

I had a big surprise for my birthday. 3 of my favorite boys came to visit!! Dad and I went to the airport to pick up Debbie and I saw her walking towards the baggage claim with a boy who looked to be about 4. That looks kind of like Ford, I thought. They get closer. Behind them is a man walking with another boy, about 3. My jaw drops, crying, hugging. You can picture the scene.

This rascal is such a joy! Emma says she will marry him one day :) Her Lukie!!


And these two have the most fun together. This trip was Lego heaven for them!

The only thing that would've made it better would have been if this sweet boy and his mom could have been there!




The girls on their first day at Salisbury Pres Preschool. While we were very sad not to be at Sonshine this year, the girls have loved their new school. I have been especially happy to see how excited Emma has been to go to school. If you recall any from last year- bike day where she cried the entire time or any other party when she spent the whole time in my lap- she was less than overjoyed about school. This year she has grown up so much! She loves school- gets out of the car with barely a "Bye, mom!" which means she is going to a place where she feels safe and loved.


Sweet sisters!

Parker's First Day of School

My baby was going to kindergarten. He was really excited. I was not. The night before I was so sad putting him to bed. I had an extra year with him since we had chosen to send him to TK instead of kindergarten but it wasn't enough. I'm sure the move had something to do with my feelings. Public school had not been my plan. Moving to Richmond had not been my plan. But it was God's plan and Parker has done really well. He loves school, loves riding the bus, has made friends, and loves his teacher.

Parker requested pumpkin muffins for his first day of school breakfast. I had no idea finding pumpkin in September would be so difficult. After trips to several grocery stores I finally found some at Whole Foods.








Parker, I'm so proud of you!!

Update

As usual its been a while... here are a few pictures of what we've been up to.


This is how Emma spent a lot of her time in her two year old class. Her teachers were always so excited when she had a good day. Hopefully this won't happen next year!

Easter Parade


School Easter Egg Hunt


For spring break we took a trip to Auburn and Dothan. The kids and I had a blast!


Maybe Parker has a future in long jumping??



Emma and Baby Duncan, not so much a baby anymore!


For Parker's birthday we took Cam and Carter, Parker's two best friends, to play putt putt. They had a great time. I think their favorite part was that the last hole was a toilet that you hit your ball into and it flushes. Boys!



Our soccer player


Diet Coke and Mentos experiment at Parker's birthday



TK Graduation

War Eagle!

So I've had a little pressure from the family (Dad!) to update my blog. :)
If anyone still reads, thanks for hanging in there!

We were able to go to Arizona for the National Championship game. It was awesome!! An amazing experience.






Mark's friend Brian's license plate happened to be this year's slogan.



Our friends the Uttley's who went to the game with us.


Brian and Mark


And while we were in Arizona the kids were with Grandma and Grandpops-

making cookies








doing puzzles and making silly faces


and more silliness


painting fingernails


and toenails


making bouncy balls


cheering for Auburn


and playing Twister.

Thank you for keeping the kids for us so we could go to the game!!! We love you!

First Day of School

Not very good lighting but this is Parker, Maryn and Emma's first day of school. This year they are all going to Sonshine so I will have two days a week when I don't have any of my children. So far it has been great! The past two weeks were an "ease-in" period for Emma and I had to pick her up at 11:30 instead of 1. Needless to say I have been at that preschool A LOT. It's a little sad to not have a day where we can just be lazy in our pjs. They are all doing well, loving their teachers and making lots of friends.

Seattle with the Big Kids

Joseph and I took these cuties to Seattle at the beginning of August. (Warning- lots of pictures) We had a very rough start in the Atlanta airport- a 3 1/2 hour delay that got us into Seattle at 2 am. The kids were really good considering we spent about 7 hours in the airport since we wanted to get there early to wear them out walking around, riding the moving sidewalks and the train. And then they slept the entire plane ride. We didn't intend to take the red-eye but did and it worked out pretty well.



We did a lot of fun things- the Space Needle, went to see the Blue Angels take off, Space Museum, the zoo... but one of the kids most fun activities was to work in Dede's garden. The boys spent hours digging in the yard and Parker loved working in the garden. He pulled weeds and helped her plant flowers. One of my favorite parts of our trip was hanging out with Joseph, my dad and Debbie after the kids went to bed. There's just something about eating dinner without having to coax bites, be the referee, fill cups and plates that is so nice. We had a wonderful trip. Thanks Dad and Debbie!!

This is so Maryn. Ford worships Parker but he and Maryn play well together too. They spent a lot of time coloring.






You can't see her face very well but check out those feet. Try not to tell her how cute she is. It's going to her head!


Future gardeners


The Space Needle on a typical rainy Seattle day. But the temperature didn't get above 63 or so. I couldn't have cared less about rain coming from 95 degree weather with 100% humidity. It was glorious!


Starbucks for everyone! They even have it at the top of the Space Needle!


After checking out the Blue Angels- don't know why I don't have pictures of that- we went to the Boeing Air and Space Museum (not sure what its called exactly but you get the idea). Ford in a plane


Playing in a helicopter


So typical


Our last day we went to the zoo.




oops... from the museum and out of order



While I had Parker and Maryn in Seattle Emma spent the week with Grandma. They had a blast. Uncle Greg was there and he and Grandpops read Miss Emma lots of books. They went to visit friends and family; she was a social butterfly but didn't go far from Grandma!







Thanks Mary Sue for keeping her!!

another new post below...