Camp Deer Run

Laiken left for sleep-away camp yesterday. This is the third summer that she has gone away to camp for a week and she was so excited! The last two summers, she went to Camp Huawni which is located down near Nacogdoches. This year, she was old enough to go to Camp Deer Run and her friend, Taylor, got to go with her. Carson was really bummed because you have to be 9 to go to this camp. We reminded him that next year he would be old enough to go, too. We go back to pick her up on Friday. I can't wait to hear about all of their adventures!

Ready to go:

In front of their cabin:




Checking out the horses:

Saturday with Kasey

Kasey was in town this week visiting her brothers and I was lucky enough to be able to have all day Saturday to spend with her. We did all the girly things that you should get to do with your best friend. We started with shopping--I'm not sure when the last time I walked a mall was, but it was really nice to get to go and not have to stop for a carousel ride! We had great salads for lunch and never even had to consider what might be on the kid's menu. Then, we went to see Sex and the City. I think we were some of the only people who had not yet seen it and we were so glad we went. It is the quintessential friend movie and some of the scenes are so real and so representative of periods of a life-long friendship that we found ourselves more emotional than we expected to be during the movie. There were, of course, a few gratuitous scenes that I could have done without, but really it had so much to say about all the little life events (and the big ones) that would never be the same if you didn't have your best girlfriends in your life.

Later that day, we came home for Kasey to visit with Farrel and the kids. They were all so happy to see her and it was then that I felt a pang of what we missed on a daily basis by living so far away from each other. It was a great day filled with so much laughing and talking that my throat was sore. If only we had made it to the airport on time, it would have been a perfect trip! Sorry again, Kasey--apparently, I didn't want you to leave...

Signing (and singing) at Church

For the last month, Laiken has been going to sign language classes on Wednesday nights as part of her youth activities at church. Most of her friends chose to do chorus, but she was more interested in learning to sign like the interpreters do for our hearing impaired members. One of the interpreters volunteered to work with the children and this Sunday, they got to sign the song, As the Deer, during worship. Laiken was excited and nervous but the strange look on her face during the song is the result of the mouthful of expanders that she just got put in last Wednesday! She was still having trouble talking, much less singing; but, really, what is so cute is her hands-- so just try to focus there.

Big Fun on the Weekend

Well, both Laiken and Carson had big events this past Friday night. My friend, Monica, said the other day that she was getting a little envious of her daughter's social calendar. I had to laugh because I've been feeling a little bit the same here lately.

For those of you who do not have to keep up with the new releases of Disney movies and all things preteen, let me catch you up. Friday night was the premier of Camp Rock starring THE JONAS BROTHERS!!!!! (The capitalization and exclamation points are intended to indicate the level of drama that is expressed when that phrase is uttered by 9 and 10 year old girls.)

When Laiken asked to have some girls over to watch the movie and spend the night, her list of girls to invite quickly grew to 11 friends. Apparently, none of her friends travel in the summer, so everyone was able to make it! :-) I was a little worried about space--for those of you who have seen my little house, you know why I was worried. Luckily, girls this age don't take up much space and no one seemed to notice that they were shoulder to shoulder during the movie.

We had pizza and ice cream sundaes. The girls talked and talked and talked, mostly about the movie, their favorite Jonas brother, their favorite Jonas Brother's song.... When I chimed in that my favorite was "What I Go To School For" my daughter looked at me with a face that indicated that she was wishing that a huge hole would open up in the floor and that I would just drop right through it. "MOM! STOP IT!!" Apparently, we have reached the point where I am supposed to pay for food and drinks, provide entertainment, and then scuttle into a corner so as not to embarrass her.

The movie started at 7:00 and the girls counted down (along with the help of the counter that Disney so conveniently provided.)

After the movie, we were lucky enough to be able to walk to Susan's pool and swim for an hour so that the girls could burn off all of their energy before we settled in for the night.

All ready for bed at 11:30 and the last few fell asleep at 1:15. Whew! It was a great night and Macey and I finally recovered by Monday afternoon sometime (look how she is cowering in the picture above).

While Camp Rock was going on at our house, Farrel and Carson were at Beaver's Bend for an overnight camp out with the other guys in Farrel's family. Carson was so excited to have this time with Dad to himself. They got to canoe, kayak, sleep in the tent, and enjoy the wildlife. Carson caught a turtle that he wanted to bring home. (Dad said "no" so it stayed put--thank you, Farrel!) Besides the COLD water, they had a great time and are ready to go back. I think Laiken, Nolan, and I are joining in next time!

Here's the turtle:

Farrel and Carson in the canoe:

Thinking that maybe he can touch that deer.... (also, feeling like he's about 1/2 grown because he's getting to drink a whole Dr. Pepper right out of the can--can you tell Dad was in charge???)

Manning the kayak all by himself:

Father's Day

We had a very nice, quiet Father's Day to celebrate two of the most important men in my life. What a lucky person I was to have such a great dad growing up so that I would know what kind of dad that I wanted my kiddos to have.

Here's Farrel relaxing with the kids (or trying to)...

And at my mom and dad's later that day...

And Joe and I with Papa...

Camps--Week 2 & VBS

The second week out of school didn't slow down any as we went to the next round of camps in the morning and to VBS in the evenings. This time, Carson was playing baseball at the Boyd Baseball Camp and Laiken was practicing soccer at Boyd's Soccer Camp. The perks of these camps were that the high school players helped out. Carson and Laiken loved spending that time with the older kids and with the Boyd coaches. Laiken got awarded Best Dribbler and, with her partner, won the 2 vs. 2 championship. Carson put so much into his 3 hours that we picked him up red and sweaty every day. I guess by all accounts it was a great week.

This year's VBS focused on the lessons from the story of prodigal son. Laiken, who apparently had never really paid attention to the story before, came home after the 2nd night of VBS and said, "That story is getting really good! The guy has run out of money and all of his friends have turned against him." I hope she paid attention to how it ended. :-)

Camps--Week 1

During the first week out of school, Laiken went to Girl Scout Twilight Camp. She had a great time doing all of the activities and meeting the other area Girl Scouts. We had to make "swaps" for the girls to trade to put on their hats. Well, you know how creative I am, so I really struggled with this. Laiken had lots of great ideas that required about 72 supplies each and a minimum of about an hour worth of production to make each tiny swap. Since we had to make about 200 of the swaps, I was all about simplicity. We finally agreed on the following ones--creative enough to meet Laiken's standard, easy enough for me to round up the supplies.

I did let Laiken take all of the creative license that she wanted while decorating the bucket that she had to carry around all week. This is what she designed:

Carson spent the evenings that week at the FC Dallas Soccer Camp. I really have never known any kid with more endurance than Carson. His energy level at the end of playing is the same as it is at the beginning. Every night, we had to wait for him to come off the field after taking just a few last shots or dribbling down the field one more time. Of course, he was star-struck, too, at getting to see some of the players. This is the second year for this camp and I think it was even better this year. Maybe that's because it didn't rain every night like it did when he was there last June!

Nolan spent a lot of time just hanging out and telling me that he "is old enough to do doz camps." I'm guessing that next year, I'll be booking camps for all three of them!

End of Year Parties

Well, I have been a little sad about writing this post because as much as I love summer and was ready to have the kids home with me, I was also sad about my kids having to move on from the teachers that they have both had this year.

Carson was fortunate enough to have had the same fabulous teacher since the last 9 weeks of his Kindergarten year. Mrs. R is all he has ever known. She was a long-term sub in Kinder, then hired by the school to teach first grade. Carson was in her first grade class and then lucky enough to move up with her when she was asked to teach second grade this year. It is rare that a teacher gets to know your child so intimately. Mrs. R knew all of Carson's strengths and weaknesses. She knew exactly what to do to get him to do his very best and she loved him. Our lives have been entwined with hers for the last 2 1/2 years and to say that we will all miss Carson being in her class is an understatement.

For Laiken, 4th grade was a year of tremendous growth. There were increased academic expectations and increased responsibilities. This year was also a much more social year than past ones have been. Close friendships were solidified and we were so lucky that Laiken surrounded herself with such an awesome, positive group of girls. Laiken was also blessed with one of the most dedicated, professional teachers that I have ever known. Mrs. B has been such an inspiration and friend to Laiken and I really can't imagine Laiken not having Mrs. B's influence on a daily basis. Mrs. B expanded Laiken's knowledge of and love for math and science. But more than that, she encouraged Laiken to think, to question, and to challenge herself. Mrs. B took the time to get to know the students and she appreciated all of them for their unique personalities and strengths. Mrs. B was open and honest with parents and students alike. She is one of those teachers that we will still remember years from now when we are revisiting memories of Laiken's elementary school years.

To close out the year, the kids had small parties in the classrooms and I held back just a few tears wondering how it is possible that next year I will have a 3rd and a 5th grader.

I'm back!

I didn't intend to take a hiatus from blogging, but these last few weeks have been crazy. Nolan finished preschool, my parents left on a cruise (which has left me without a babysitter!), Laiken and Carson have had all of their end of year stuff going on, and Laiken has been having tests run to see what might be wrong with her digestive system. Since school was over yesterday, I am now able to take a breath and get caught up on some things. Here are the highlights of the last few weeks. Tomorrow, I will do a recap of the end of year parties. Hope everyone is doing great. Let the summer fun begin!!

End of Year Musical

Fourth grade was the year of the recorder. Over the past several months, I have heard "Hot Cross Buns" played on said recorder more times than I care to count. To make matters worse, Nolan likes to pretend that he can play the songs that Laiken is playing, so very often, he will try to entertain me throughout the day as he "plays" music for us. Sam's does not sell a large enough bottle of Advil to counteract the headaches resulting from the tremendous amounts of noise that have been going on in my house and in the car. (Yes, the car, because I was an idiot once and told Laiken she could practice on the way to school. Notice I said 'once'.)

The culmination of all of this practicing was an end of year musical at the school. You have never heard Ode to Joy until you have heard it played on plastic faux instruments by a group of 4th graders! No, really, it was cute. The kids were all very excited about the event and the finale of This Little Light of Mine sung while the kids waved glow sticks was absolutely adorable. Here is a very short clip of it:

Here are Carson and Laiken showing off their art work that was on display for the event. Carson created a dog out of recycled materials and Laiken made a wall hanging using an antiquing method.

Nolan Turns 3!

On May 24, we celebrated Nolan's 3rd birthday in a very small get-together at the very commercialized Peter Piper Pizza. Nolan loves to play the games and he had a great time feeding tokens into the machines. I was pleasantly surprised that we had the place to ourselves for the first hour we were there. I'm not kidding! It was absolutely great (well, as great as a kids' pizza place can be!!)

Nolan's due date was June 1, 2005. When he was born, Laiken was finishing up her 1st grade year and Carson was in his final few days of preschool. Carson's preschool was scheduled to have field day on May 24 and I wanted to go up and help and take pictures, so I was determined not to go into labor until the 25th. Because Carson had weighed 9 pounds, 11 ounces at birth, my ob was not going to let me carry Nolan any longer than the 25th. I was scheduled for an induction that day and besides, how cool would 5-25-05 have been for a birth date!?

The night of May 23, I started having what I had hoped were just some pains. Farrel went to sleep and I remember lying in bed trying to convince myself that I was not going into labor. Remember I wanted to be at Carson's field day the next morning and this was messing up my whole plan!! You all know how much I need for everything to be scheduled and planned out! By 1:30 a.m. on the 24th, it was obvious that I was in full labor and I had to wake Farrel up so we could get to the hospital.

Nolan was born at 10:30 a.m. on the 24th and weighed 9 pounds, 6 ounces. Despite my best laid plans, Carson went to his field day with my parents while Nolan entered the world on his own terms at the time of his choosing.

Last Day of Preschool

Nolan finished up preschool on May 22. I'm not sure what kind of joke it is to end preschool a full two weeks before the older kids get out, but let me tell you, I was not quite ready to have my little sidekick with me all week long! I still had a huge laundry list of errands to run, gifts to buy, and housework to get done before Nolan got out for the summer. Next school year, I am going to be working on my time management skills!

NTCA finished the year with a field day and Nolan was so happy about that because he wanted to "pway dose games wike Waiken and Cawson did at deir school." We were assigned to fill water balloons and he could hardly wait to get to throw them at his friends.

So, his first year of preschool has come to a close and I can hardly believe it. The time has flown and he is such a different kid than he was just 9 months ago. I remember when Laiken and Carson were this age and how fast the time has passed. I will remind myself of that as I am answering his zillion questions a day!