1st Grade!

We have a first grader in the house!

Exhausted....

ex*haust*ed /ig'zostid/ Adjective

1. Drained of one's physical or mental resources; very tired.

2. (of resources or reserves) Completely used up.



July has been a blur! Can't believe that it will be August next week.



Today I'm having one of those days, that I'd have rather turned back over in bed and slept the day away.



I have some fun photos to post of our summer, but just haven't gotten around to it yet.



Where has July gone? Somewhere I've lost it admist all that we've had going on:

1. Jon's schedule is crazy, but we're getting used to it and he's still loving the new job!



2. We've been looking at some houses closer to the parents and are interested in a smaller school system, but I've been completely overwhelmed by how hard the decision is to move from what we've established as "home" here in our town.



3. Avery has spent 3 weeks at different camps - she has loved it! I, on the other hand have driven all over creation getting to work, driving to pick her up, take her to camp, take her back to her school, go back to work, and then working late in the evening after the kids go to bed because of the hours that I spent away from the office shuffling her to camp. Thankfully, Jon was able to run point on one of those weeks since he worked the evening shift.



4. This past weekend started out by getting caught in a thunderstorm at the Silverhawks game. Austin woke up with a terrible ear-ache in the middle of the night on Friday. After an hour of crying, Jon took him to Medpoint to find out that his little ear was severly inflamed. So 3 hours and antibiotics later, we were all back to sleep for a few hours.



5. Family reunion all weekend - 1 hour drive each way, kids swimming for 8+ hours each day, hot sun, lots of food = tired parents and over-tired kiddos.



6. And since we weren't already tired enough, Avery and I arrived at the county fair before 8:30am yesterday to wait in line for Lady Antebellum concert passes! Why do I do this to myself?!? We left for a few hours and came back to the fair with Austin to look at animals, ride rides, and eat more food. We sent Austin off with my parents then and headed off to the grandstand to get our seats. Avery was such a trooper yesterday - I was so proud of her. Never complained about being hot or tired. After all of the anticipation and waiting, Lady A didn't dissapoint. The concert was fantastic! At one point, I thought Avery was going to fall asleep right there in the bleachers, but we were standing and dancing to the last song and she had the biggest smile on her face. It was awesome.

7. I climbed into bed at 1:00 this morning.....you can imagine how focused I am today at work.

Church Camp...

Church camp has changed since I was a grade school student....

Avery has been enjoying day camp this week at our church - Rock walls, Zip line, waterslides, flying monkey, euro bungee, singing, skits, and learning about God's word!

SpringHill Camps came to town and Avery has had so much fun.

Tomorrow, we have the celebration and ice cream social - she'll be tired!

The verse that has been their theme this week is:

"Here is what I am commanding you to do. Be strong and brave. Do not be terrified. Do not lose hope. I am the Lord your God. I will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

It's so fun to hear about all that she has done each day.

Birthday Boy & Graduation Girl

We celebrated Austin's 4th birthday party over Memorial Day weekend with a basketball themed outdoor party. It was so hot that day and we all enjoyed the unplanned water fight in the backyard. We even had a vist from the Kona Ice truck to cool us all down.

My sweet little boy is getting so big! 4 just seems so old - just look at his 4 year pictures that we took over the weekend. He's all boy and loves to give his sister a hard time. This year he has learned to play soccer and t-ball and is finally enjoying riding his bike (last year he took a bad spill the first time out and didn't get back on the whole summer).

But he still loves to cuddle and gives the best hugs and kisses!

Friday, May 28th was Avery's last day of Kindergarten! Wow, that year went by quickly. The school had a small reception for the Kindergarten families and awarded each child a nice certificate.

Avery has learned so much this year - she's reading books, telling time, counting coins, and loves to draw pictures. She's been playing soccer for a few years now, and I've just started giving her piano lessons. She'll be headed to a week of Church Day Camp this summer along with Volleyball and Basketball summer camps at the high school. Busy Busy!

We're ready for 1st grade!

Earlier this month, I celebrated my 34th birthday, I shop in the big kids section at stores like Target and Old Navy(not baby or toddler section), I am 12 years older than the new college graduates that have started working in our hotels, and I listen to the oldies station on our radio at home (they played a Prince song the other day). I'm no spring chicken. :)

Road Trip

Saw this on Yahoo.com today and thought I'd add it to my bucket list.

America's Top 10 Road Trips

I've been on 3 of these already (Big Sur, Hana Highway, and Red Rock Arizona), so only 7 more to go!

Who's up for a Road Trip?

Survivor Finale

Survivor is a pretty big deal in our house. If you know us at all, you know never to call our house between 8-9pm on Thursday nights. You can, but you'll probably get voicemail. Jon and I have watched all 20 seasons! It just never gets old - best reality show out there, in my opinion.


Our neighbors are big fans, too. So in honor of the season finale of one of the best seasons in recent history, we had a little Survivor action in our backyard yesterday.

We had the neighbors over for dinner and then we all participated in a Survivor-like obstacle course. And yes, I do have a Survivor soundtrack CD. Pathetic, I know.

The kids had a ball, so did the parents! Team Princess even had a little turmoil within the team very similar to Team Heroes this year on the real Survivor - everyone wanted to be in charge.

Future Survivor contestant? Look at that concentration!

(and yes, in case I forgot my son's name, he still has his name tag on from church 7 hours earlier)

We ended with a puzzle! Guess who took home the Immunity Idol?

Team Princess! Way to go girlies!

Someday, maybe I'll submit an application for the real show, but until then I'll be okay watching from the comfort of my couch. Only about 3 1/2 months until season 21!

Happy Mother's Day

Avery brought this card home from school for Mother's Day.

Wonder what the teacher thought after reading #1?? :) Who's in charge, here?

Austin's class invited their Mommies for a tea party on Friday and they could show us around their class. Austin is drawing a Mother's Day picture on his little chalkboard. I'm so blessed to be able to be the Momma to these two little people. Certainly, it is not always easy, but at the end of the day when I'm tucking them into bed and giving hugs and kisses, and looking into their sweet little eyes, I know I am loved!

Thanks Avery, Austin, and Jonny for making it another special Mother's Day weekend~

I'm so lucky!

Little Fish

Over the past 2 1/2 days, Austin spent a total of nearly 4 hours doing this over and over in Indianapolis this weekend.

This boy has no fear! If he jumped once, he must have jumped 500 times.

Chasing the Winter Blues Away

If you are looking for a fun afternoon activity in the middle of the winter, here's a fun one -thanks to the creativity of my sister-in-law, Heather:

1) Separate into two teams - Men vs. Women

2) Create a suprise scavenger hunt list of 10-15 items that would be difficult, unique or embarrassing for the members of the opposite sex to find in your local super store.


3) Drive to your local super store and set a time limit

4) Document all found items with a digital camera- all members of team must be present.







5) After all items have been documented on camera, be the first to call the home phone number and leave a voicemail as a team, singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Side notes: Strange glances, laughter, and smiles are to be expected.

Monday Musings

1) It's amusing to me that everyone brings out the flip flops and summer clothes as soon as it hits 45 degrees in Northern Indiana!

2) It takes me all day on Monday to get focused on the work week - by the time I hit my stride, it's time to go home.

3) Sometimes I wish I could get a sneak peek as to what life will be like when I'm 60 - am I making the right decisions now for the future? Would I change anything if the sneak peak wasn't what I was expecting?

4) I'm really out of shape - I played Wii tennis and boxing like a mad-woman on Saturday night with the neighbors and I could hardly raise my arms to get dressed yesterday morning.

5) The bathing suits on the front of the Target ad yesterday confirmed my thoughts that I am getting old - I prefered the "Mom" suit on the 2nd page with more coverage.

6) Next week, my little girl will be 3/4 of the way through Kindergarten - where has the time gone?

7) It makes me smile that my little boy loves to play with his sisters' Barbies - he's going to be a sensitive little jock!

8) It's nice to see my hubby's smile again - it was missing for a few months, but a new job brought it back to life.

Pop Culture!?!

Just now I overheard Avery playing with her Barbies.

One little Kelly doll was talking to another Kelly doll and said this:

"Sometimes I live with my Dad and sometimes I live with my Mom. But I like living with my Dad because he has a DS (as in Nintendo)."

So I stepped in and said:

"Avery, we all live together - why are you pretending that this little girls' Mommy and Daddy live apart?"

She responded:

"Well, Jon and Kate don't live together anymore."

Oh Boy! If you think they are not listening to the TV.....they ARE!

I remember a story that my Mom used to tell me about a time when she was not feeling well and she was lying on the floor. I believe I was four, but I was concerned for her and asked what was wrong. She told me that she was sick. I said, "that's okay Mom, Steve was sick too and he's all better now". Steve was a main character on the soap opera that she watched. I don't think she watched another episode after that comment.

GAME DAY!

We're excited today - it's the Super Bowl and the Colts are playing!

Jon has two autographed footballs that are very special to him and it's ironic that the two he has are signed by the two quarterbacks that are playing in today's game: Peyton Manning & Drew Brees. (For those that don't follow football: Peyton Manning plays for the Indianapolis Colts and Drew Brees plays for the New Orleans Saints, but he was an outstanding quarterback at Purdue.) We're proud of the former Boilermaker that is playing in the Super Bowl, but our loyalty remains with the COLTS - GO HORSE!

In honor of the game today, Avery and I and a couple of girlfriends had a girls' morning yesterday and had our toes done to show our support (actually stole the blue and white idea from my friend, The Blissfully Happy Housewife). Now we are literally dressed from head to toe in BLUE.

The last time the Colts were in the Super Bowl, they won and we're hopeful that today will be another big win! We're off to watch the game with the neighbors.

School Project

Avery chose to participate in the school's Mindscapes project. It was an optional science, history, and art fair that took place last week.

We decided to do a Family Tree project and it was a lot of fun.

We started several weeks ago collecting pictures of all of the relatives, and enjoyed looking at old pictures along the way.

Avery is becoming quite the little artist - I let her draw the tree and branches and she did a great job. We printed off an apple template from the internet and I helped her cut out several apples and leaves to put on the tree.

I wanted her to learn something by doing this project, so we came up with four questions for each person on our tree.

1) What color are your eyes?

2) What color is your hair?

3) What is your height?

4) What year where you born?

She called everyone on the phone to interview them and captured the answers on the tree. The grandparents helped answer the questions for the great grandparents that aren't with us anymore.

It was fun to see Avery's "wheels" working as she put everything together.

Last Thursday, we had the chance to go to the school for an ice cream social and to see everyone's projects. She was one of only two students from her class that entered a project. We're so proud of our little Kindergartner!

I thought it turned out really nice - now we just need to figure out where this huge project will occupy space in our home.