Mary Scott's Fall 3K Fieldtrip

Anna and I joined Mary Scott for a class field trip last week to frolic among all things fall... apples, pumpkins, hay bales and farm animals. The children kept smiles on their faces the whole time as evidence they were certainly enjoying themselves. I had fun watching Mary Scott interact and play with her school friends... she looks so forward to seeing them each week on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Otherwise, I was chasing Anna all over the place. She is one active little girl! She didn't miss a beat - joined in everything all the older children were doing. We all enjoyed the beautiful fall morning!

Mary Scott leading us through the corn maze

even Anna gave the corn maze a try!

having fun looking at the pigs

Mary Scott and friends
jumping on a hay trampoline... fun, fun, fun!

a horse is a horse... of course!

taking in all the farm animals

Anna enjoyed the animals, too

GT HOMECOMING 2009

We hit the road this past weekend for a trip Brian and I have anticipated for a while. We headed to Atlanta Friday afternoon to drop off the children with Brian's parents and brother and sister-in-law. Benjamin, Catherine and Mary Scott were super excited about having a sleep-over at their cousins' house, and little Anna experienced her first night without me. Brian and I were equally excited to have a night away. We love our kids dearly and deeply, but it sure is refreshing to get a little break from the demands of parenting 4 children. Once we'd given each of them a big ole' hug and kiss good-bye, Brian and I headed to meet up with some old friends, his college room-mates and their wives, for dinner in Buckhead. We enjoyed a delicious meal at Bricktops made even better by great conversations as we caught up on the happenings of life over the past 14 years - an abridged version at least! And what a treat it was to sit through the entire meal without getting up once -no trips to the bathroom, no "be quiet, we're in a restaurant", didn't even have to cut up any ones food! After dinner, we all climbed in our party wagon - my minivan (kept us grounded in the fact that we are all parents of some precious little bits) - not sure where we were headed. Apparently, the guys (Brian and his college roomies) have always been an indecisive bunch. We spent the next 45 minutes driving back and forth on Peachtree looking for a good spot to enjoy coffee and dessert. We quickly discovered the busyness of Atlanta hasn't changed a bit... the waits for a table were 45 minutes at 10 0'clock at night... you've got to be kidding me! So we finally settled on Caribou Coffee where we continued to enjoy great conversation and had some good laughs. Though none of us had turned into pumpkins quite yet, we decided to call it a night around 12:30 pm when we headed to our hotels. It was a fun evening, indeed!

We awoke the next morning brimming with excitement about our plans for the rest of the day. Our entire trip was centered around going to Georgia Tech's homecoming game against Virginia Tech. The game wasn't until 6 o'clock in the evening so we had some leisure time before heading to the stadium. We enjoyed breakfast at the Flying Biscuit with Ben and Heather who we've remained in pretty close contact with since our college days. We squeezed in a quick little shopping trip into Marshall's to pick up some winter wear... turned out to be freezing cold on game day and someone had taken my coat out of our car when we dropped off the children. We got Brian a GT toboggan, me a GT scarf and big GT blanket at the bookstore prior to the game hoping we would keep some measure of warm. No trip to a game would be complete without a visit to the Varsity... "what do ya have?"... so we had lunch there where we were joined by the final room-mate, Eugene, whose wife wasn't able to come. So the group was finally complete - Brian, Ben, Jeff & Eugene. I enjoyed every second of listening to them laugh and joke with one another and hearing them reminisce about their years in college... it was great! And thankfully the wives, Heather, Jenny and myself, enjoyed talking with one another as well. We all had such a nice time together that we are aiming to make it a yearly tradition to meet in Atlanta and attend a GT football game.

The game was the perfect ending to our trip. Our Yellow Jackets, against the odds, showed up to play some good football. The defense was strong and quick and stopped Virginia Tech in their tracks. Though it took our offense a while to get in the swing of things and our passing game left a whole bunch to be desired... the Jackets got the job done and beat the Hokies 28 - 23. We had a blast cheering our team onto victory while bundled in our big blanket... completed by high fives, hot chocolate and roasted peanuts. Way to go GT!!!

Thankfully, while we were enjoying our time away, the children were having a great time playing with their cousins. We sure do appreciate Scott and Cathy and Mark and Heather being so gracious to love on 'em and care for them. It was a weekend our whole family enjoyed!

the roomies... Jeff, Ben, Brian & Eugene

Ben and Heather

Jeff & Jenny

A weekend visit from MeMe

We were all glad to see my mom a couple weekends ago... we were way passed due! It was a fun weekend full of activity - soccer game, afternoon outing, church Sunday, a birthday party, and a trip to get apples. We enjoyed having MeMe along for all the fun.

Catherine - still enjoying gymnastics

Catherine continues to go to gymnastics on Tuesdays and Thursdays... 2 hours each time. She really looks forward to it each week. I'm continually amazed at her flexibility and the way she so bravely tries new things... wish some of that would rub off on me!

Benjamin had a field trip

Yesterday was a perfectly beautiful day for Benjamin and all the other 4th graders from his school to attend the US Disc Golf Championship. And to top off an already fun field trip, Brian took off from work to go with Benjamin as a chaperon. I was so proud of Brian for going and so excited for Benjamin knowing how much it means to him for his daddy to be by his side. I joined them for a short while to get a few pictures.... they heard from a blind guy who plays disc golf, saw "Bear" - the disc golf dog, got instruction/training/practice in driving and putting with your disc and then got to enjoy watching some of the competitors play. It was an enjoyable experience for both Brian and Benjamin. And according to Brian, all the children behaved very well throughout the day. I enjoyed tagging along for a little bit, and we're hoping to attend the final championship round as a family on Saturday.... fun, fun, fun!

waiting to catch some discs

all the children listening so intently

go Benjamin

what a pair... these special fellows

Mrs. Bostic, Benjamin's teacher, aiming for the basket

me and my sweet boy

Ms. Bundy, Benjamin's PE teacher, organized a great field trip

"Bear" the disc golf dog

Benjamin retrieving two discs after seeing how far he could throw them

and Brian had to get his discs, too

SOCCER - fall 2009

Benjamin had his first soccer game for the fall '09 season this past Saturday morning. They won their game and played well as a team. Benjamin did a great job although he had some frustrating moments - he took 3 great shots that missed the goal each by just a bit. I'm certain in weeks to come, he'll get better with his accuracy. All in all, they played a good game.

after one of his missed shots (i wanted to go scoop him up) - he was so frustrated

Afternoon Glow

Late one afternoon last week, I was outside playing with the children and suddenly noticed there was such a pretty glow on their faces from the sun. So I ran and grabbed my camera to see what kind of pictures that type of light would create. I even captured a good ole' cry that Anna had at one point - real life, so worth capturing, right?