Life's About Change...

A few weeks ago, I had to sit down with my son and tell him some hard news. One of his closest friends was moving away. He and his mother and sister were finally going to be able to join his father who is in the Army in Kansas after being separated for nearly 3 years. We were thrilled for his family to be reunited of course, but my heart broke for my little boy whose tears ran down his cheeks. This is one of the hardest things to face in childhood and it is hard as a parent to watch. I tried to reassure him that they could stay in touch by phone (they have spoken every two to three days religiously), they could "face time", they could skype, they could e-mail and even write letters, but they truth of the matter is with no family here in TN to return to visit and with us not having much reason to travel to Kansas... this goodbye was probably a pretty permanent one for the boys. (Of course, I didn't tell Evan that). To top things off, they were moving quickly. Just two weeks. They moved Zack's birthday up so that he could have one last hoorah with his friends. It was definitely bittersweet. We also had a little playdate before they left and that goodbye was definitely hard. Pretty much everyone was crying (even Chloe and Zack's sister Emma who don't even know each other) when we left. I am pretty sad, too, as I am losing a teaching partner whom I've worked with for the last 6 years, but I know this will be best for their family. I'm praying for a smooth transition for them and much, much happiness in the future. Poor Evan will be so bored now in the afternoons after school!

We will miss you, friends!

More Summer Fun at Dollywood!

Just another fun-filled summer day at Dollywood....

Shooting Star! It's a long way down!

Dad's first and probably last time on the Dizzy Disc (he doesn't do rides with dizzy in the name).

Great fun and more great memories! Someday I'll have to make Dolly a promotional video:).

I Love the Sea (or pool, whatever the case may be)!

 Well, I predicted that Chloe would be swimming before the summer was over and I was right! Chloe is swimming up a storm. In fact, she hasn't worn her life jacket in weeks. She leaps right off the steps (she refuses to jump off the side, not sure why) and takes off!

 She floats beautifully and swims easily. She is a natural little water dog. She doesn't use her arms much. I'm not sure if this is because she is trying to pretend to be a mermaid (which is her favorite thing to pretend in the pool) or if she just hasn't gotten the hang of it. She is just barely tall enough to touch in the shallow end and has to stand on her tippy toes and tilt her chin back to come up for air, but she manages just fine.

Every day when she swims, she says, "Mommy, I love the sea!". This is from Little Mermaid, II. I'm so proud of my little mermaid!

Crazy Summer Days

We have had a wonderful, wonderful summer! I am so dreading seeing it come to an end (in less than 2 weeks, gulp). We had a great vacation and then returned to immediately take a mini-vacation to Wilderness in the Smokies as the kids and I tagged along on a conference Matthew was attending there. That was lots of fun. The kids and I spent the days at Dollywood and we all spent the evenings together at the Water Parks at the Wilderness. Matthew was fortunate to receive a promotion this year and will now be the principal of a different middle school in our school system. We are so happy and excited for him, but it means he's had to work most of the summer so the kids and I have been entertaining ourselves. We've seen several movies, had some playdates, attended some birthday parties and spent lots and lots of days at home and at our next door neighbor's pool. I still have more pictures from this summer to share, but while I'm getting those ready, I thought you would enjoy some crazy kidisms from this summer!

But first, one afternoon the kids entertained themselves in the playroom. I noticed Chloe sitting at her vanity and Evan was curling her hair and putting her "make-up" on. Hmm, I didn't want to interrupt. After a time, Evan said Chloe was going to do a fashion show. This is what I saw...

And then, Evan informed me that Chloe owed him $10 out of her birthday money because that is what she agreed to pay him for her make-over. I agreed to $1.00. He said, "Ok, I'll give her the family discount."

Some other crazy kidisms from the summer:

Chloe:
"I'm better than right. I'm correct!"
"Curse your soul! I'm sleeping with Mommy!" (she wasn't happy her daddy was asking her to sleep in her bed).
(Bending over) "Feast your eyes!" (this was from the movie Brave, you know, where the men wear kilts, ahem).
(At breakfast time) "Give me a fork! I'm gonna cut that baby up! Sayonara egg!"

I got an i-phone this summer! Yay! Evan has been begging me for my Blackberry (which doesn't work anyway).

Me: You don't need a phone, Evan.
Chloe: Yeah, you don't need a phone or a blackberry!

Chloe fell asleep really early one evening, so I carried her up to bed. Unfortunately for us, she woke up around 10:00 and came downstairs as Matthew and I were watching a movie. She comes into the family room and says,
"Well, I see you guys are hanging out."

When she received her "Super Slushy Maker" (the one thing she had repeatedly asked for) for her birthday, she was so excited! She said, "Frozen fun for everyone!"  Those advertisers know what they are doing.

She also told me we need to buy the NeatDesk thingie because it is the "only scanner that thinks".

Evan has had many adventures this summer as well. He decided he wanted to write, direct, and produce a movie. So, he spent days and many pages of a composition book writing the script of his zombie movie. He kept asking quesitons, like "Can we use ketchup for blood?", "Can we use the car in one scene?" We still haven't actually "shot" the movie, but maybe soon.

He also received a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-it yourself Book" and has spent many hours writing and drawing in that.

The latest adventure we have taken on is Geocaching. Have you heard of it? Basically you download this app to your phone and then you can search for hidden boxes (caches) near you. These things are hidden all over the world. We couldn't believe how many there were within just a few miles of our (very rural) home. So, we went on our first adventure last night. You basically send the longitude and latitude coordinates to the GPS in your phone (we also entered them into the GPS in our car, to help us out) and then you follow a map and compass to the treasure. It gives you a brief description and a little clue. This particular adventure was called "The Old Homestead". It was supposed to be a cache that had been placed on some property that his family had once owned. Supposedly some relatives still lived there and knew about the cache. We followed the map and compass (and spoken directions) to some private property in our town. We were looking around in some pine trees for the cache because the clue was "O Tanenbaum" when the property owners came driving out of their driveway. I was kind of embarrassed, but they were nice. The descriptions said they knew about the cache, but they didn't seem to. Matthew spent quite a bit of time trying to explain to them what we were doing and why (kind of hard to explain why) and then finally, the man told us that his 4 year old grandson had found the camouflaged tube in a different pine tree a few weeks ago and that it had a little yellow rabbit inside. Too, funny! Evan was pretty disappointed that it had already been discovered. It said, you could take the item if you replace it with something of equal value, so the kids had brought a few toys just in case. But, it was a fun adventure for a summer evening. We are going to try another one tonight.

We have loved our laid-back, lazy, FUN summer!

Independence Day!

We enjoyed a low-key 4th at Grandmother and Granddaddy's this year. We had a yummy cookout and then our own little fireworks display.  I tried to do a little photo shoot with the kiddos, but they mostly just enjoyed showing off their personalities:).

Personality showing through.

Evan wasn't really interested in pictures.

Apparently smiling for your mom is not cool anymore.

Giving me a half-hearted attempt.

This is apparently what's cool.

This is his response to me asking him to smile.

And this... this is very cool.

Turtle man is the coolest!

Ready for fireworks after a quick haircut!

Home of the "brave"

Happy 4th of July!