SWIM SWIM SWIM

That's just what we did this week. We went swimming three times. I am trying to get as much swimming in as possible before the Fall comes. This has been our big success story of the summer. About 6 weeks ago we went to the pool with friends and the kids could have walked on water they had so many floating devices on them. They had life jackets, arm floaties, and a swim ring. I realized I was probably enabling them. We actually took our life jackets back to wal-mart (to help me not rely on them, not to mention those things are expensive). We just went to the pool as much as possible. After a few weeks passed, Avery was getting it. She saw her friends swimming and she decided it was time to learn. This is HUGE because she was SO AFRAID of the water.

Back to (Home) School Party

(CLICK ON PICTURES TO SEE THEM BETTER) We had a back to (home) school party for Avery. It was for homeschool kiddos from our church. We wanted Avery's kindergarten year to be special. She knows she has started school but not much has changed in her life. We just are now doing some school lessons at home. She will go to a few classes at a co-op that starts this Thursday. So to celebrate her first year of school, we threw a luau. There were 9 kids here. We had a great time. We played lots of games. We had a noodle toss (through a hula hoop), we had a sack race through the front yard, we had an ice game (where they had to get ice cubes out of a kiddie pool with their toes), we had a water balloon toss and the best of all was the human pinata. I took an old shirt of Ted's and attached some candy (with needle and thread) and the kids chased him all over and pulled the candy off of his shirt. They all got a big kick out of that! We put the water slide up in the back yard and the kids played on that as well. We served lunch and all visited.
While at the party the moms decided that we are going to start our own "homeschool support group". I am really excited about that. Our first meeting will be next month. It will be great to trade ideas and discuss our experiences.

Avery's FIRST DAY of Kindergarten

We started our first day of homeschool yesterday (Tuesday the 15th). We have been doing a reading lesson book this summer so it wasn't much different. Avery is learning to read and is on lesson 47 in her "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" book. She is almost half way there. She is doing GREAT. I am so proud of her and it blesses my heart to no end to hear her read. I must say I am a proud teacher. Yesterday we did a math lesson as well. She worked with patterns. Easy stuff for her now... I'm sure it'll get challenging as we move through the math book. She also played a matching game for fun. It was a good day. I look forward to teaching her. I know some days will be hard but I'm excited for our year. Aidan is at times right there with us. I see him absorbing some of what we are talking about so who knows he may get a good dose of Kindergarten this year as well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTIN!

Yesterday (August 14th) was Kristin's 19th birthday. We had a surprise party for her here at our house. Kristin is one of Charlotte's best friends. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and all hung out. It was such a fun night. Charlotte and Janie did all the planning and inviting ... Ted and I just provided the house and the burgers and dogs. They did the rest. It was fun to get to host the party. We love having students over to our house. The kids got to stay up real late so they were beyond excited. They loved all the decorations as well.

DAN AND KATIE'S WEDDING DAY

This past Saturday, August 12, Dan and Katie got married. Katie is daughter of Blair and Debbye (Debbye is my mentor). They had a beautiful wedding here in Knoxville. It was a fun time. Ted and I went and enjoyed hanging out with a table full of Fellowship Bible Church friends. Dan and Katie are on staff with Campus Crusade. They will be living in Conneticut.

AMERICAN IDOL TOUR!

Ted and I went to the American Idol concert last Thursday (Aug 10th). I can't believe I forgot to blog about it. We went with the Blockers (Amanda and Chris). We had a great time. We had a great time in the car. We were pressed for time so we just ate at the concert (snack bar food!). The show started with Mandisa. She was wonderful! Nashville is her home so there were lots of Mandisa fans there. Her voice is amazing! Ace joined her on stage. There were some tweenies out in the audience crazy about Ace. Then Lisa and Paris came out and sang. Followed by Bucky. Kellie Pickler was next and she was a hoot! She is so funny. After the intermission, Chris Daughtery started the show back up and we were WAY IMPRESSED with him. The guy is amazing! Elliot came out and sang with Chris and that was probably one of my favorites all night. Katherine sang next and then Taylor. It was a lot of fun. We got home at 2:15am. WE ARE TOO OLD to be out that late. It was a great time though. I am so glad we went! I thought I was a huge Idol fan... I am not compared to the people that were at that concert. Their devotion made me look like I was a two-percenter for SURE!

MY FIRST RACE!

Yes, I finally did a 5K!!! (IN THE RAIN!- UP HILL BOTH WAYS! o.k. not really up hill both ways but it was raining) It was fun... and felt like such an accomplishment. I did the race with my friends, Becky Mazon and Chelsea Dyer. They both are runners. I am NOT. I ran half the race and walked half. Becky coached me through it. She is the one who inspired me to start this thing (and Carri Wellborn from watching her while she was training when I still lived in Texas). I finished in 38 minutes. Next time I do it (which will probably be in the Fall sometime) I am going to try to beat my time (just by a few minutes). After the race we went to the ceremony where they announced the winners. The guy who won finished in 17 minutes (SHOW OFF - just kidding!). Chelsea ran ahead of us and she finished in 30 minutes. After we went and celebrated at the Cracker Barrel and had some GOOD breakfast. What a fun morning!

A Fun Summer Day in Knoxville

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On Saturday we went BERRY picking. It was so much fun. We went to this little patch off of Ebenezer road and picked black berries and blue berries. Charlotte came with us. The kids enjoyed picking the berries... and tasting along the way. Addison was picking everything she could get her hands on. It was a sweet time!

WATCHING FIREWORKS

I wrote about our 4th in the blog below but here are a few pictures of the kids watching the fireworks... PRECIOUS! You can't see these pictures too well but it was a sweet site I captured on camera! YOU CAN CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM BETTER.

July 4th Parade and Fireworks

We had a great 4th of July. We started our day with a parade in Farragut. It was fun for the kids to get candy and fun trinkets while we watched the people go by. We went out with the Mazons.. it was fun and HOT. Later that day we went to the Swobodas for their 4th of July celebration. They just moved into a rental house and they have a GREAT back yard. They had lots of people over for a cook out. We had burgers and lots of yummy sides. We brought our water slide and their were many other games. The kids had a blast. We had a great time too. My favorite part of the day came when we all went to the Mazons afterwards to do fireworks. It was SO MUCH fun. Johnny bought a huge pack of fireworks... the nice ones. I was amazed. We always did black cats and lady fingers growing up... this was the REAL DEAL. The kids had a blast watching and then they got to do sparklers at the end. It was a really fun day!

JULY 4th CELEBRATION

We went to the Blockers last night for their July 4th celebration. The church that is just in front of their neighborhood has a huge fireworks show every year. You can see it from the Blockers back yard so we go over and celebrate with them each year. This year we took the water slide and all the kids played in the Blocker's back yard. It was very fun. We got over there around 7pm and the fire works came on at 9:15... the kids loved it. (A few covered their ears). I held Addie and watched the fireworks... I couldn't help but watch her as well. Her little face was so amazed at the sight! It was precious. All the kids were watching the fire works and standing on Amanda and Chris' fence. It was too cute! What a fun night!
PS- I had to add the picture of Annie Beth (Mazon) covering her ears... she was not fond at ALL of the fireworks. She held her ears for a while after the fireworks were over... she was afraid they were going to come back on. too cute.

Watch out LANCE ARMSTRONG

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The kids got bikes this weekend. It was a crazy trip to Wal-mart. FUN THOUGH! Avery got a bigger version of her princess bike (it's purple too). We passed her old one down to Addie. Aidan got a big boy spider man bike - HIS FIRST BIKE. They have had such a great time riding out in the drive way. Ted made some bike paths for the kids on the driveway. They have had such a fun time doing laps. Avery likes to count how many laps she can do. She did 11 the other night.
Addie doesn't quite know how to ride yet. Ted has to walk her around on the bike. She won't move her feet at all... we have to work on that. It's funny to see her on the bike in her princess dress but very fitting. She always has on dress up clothes and she is convinced she is a princess. I asked her what her name was the other day and she said "Ariel". I also think it's so funny that she calls Cinderella "Caca" (pronounced KaKa). What fun!!!

Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw are in town

Ted's parents came in for a visit on June 29th and are staying until July 3rd. We have had a great time with them. While they were here we have hung out outside quite a bit. They bought the kids new bikes so they have been riding out in the drive way. It has rained a few of the evenings while they have been here. Aidan and Paw-paw watched the rain (it was coming down hard). They enjoyed doing that together.
We ate some gumbo last night. We also put up the water slide so that Ted's parents could see the kids in action. We have had a great time.
The kids are enjoying having their grandparents around.