Sunday, August 4, 2013

The Month that Doesn’t End—More of May 2013

Cute pictures of the kids on the slip n’ slide!

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I LOVE this picture!

The Cousins Come for a Visit and Reagan Takes the Stage—May 2013

Reagan’s ballet recital was at the end of May, so Bud and KK came for a visit and brought Kinley and Kallen with them!  The kids had SO MUCH FUN!!!

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We always wear helmets when we ride our bikes!  Too bad Reagan’s helmet was a little too small for Kinley!
 
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Exploring “the field”—the vacant lot beside our house
 
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Thomas, Kallen, Kinley, and Reagan
 
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Our beautiful ballerina!  Reagan in her munchkin outfit after the recital
 
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After the recital, we all went to Gondolier for a very late dinner.  By the end we had several sleepy children, especially Thomas, who managed to snag a spot in Dad’s lap, as well as Dad’s sunglasses!
 
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Thomas, Kinley, Kallen, Reagan, Zachary, Jonathan
 
Come again soon!

Scouts Closing Ceremony and School Field Trip—May 2013

In May, the boys had their final cub scout event of the year.  It was a special ceremony for the Tiger cubs (and all the other cub scout levels respectively) to cross over into the next level of scouting. 

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Crossing over the bridge to symbolize crossing over to the next level of scouting
 
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The boys with their leader Andrea
 
I was able to attend the kids’ final field trrip of the school year, a trip to Ijams Nature Center for Waterfest.  It was great to spend a day with my kids and meet some of their school friends.  Plus the kids had a lot of fun playing water games and learning about water.
 
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We love Ijams Nature Center!

Scouts Go Caving—April 2013

In April the boys’ cub scout troop took an outing to the Cherokee Caverns.  If you’ve never been, it was a great experience.  The caverns aren’t that far away, just on Oak Ridge Highway.  We were really too large a group for the tour.  It was hard to keep up with all the kids, and often you couldn’t get close enough to the tour guide to really hear what he was saying.  Still, it was a lot of fun, and the caverns were beautiful!

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Getting instructions before entering the caverns
 
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Can you see the face in the picture above?
 
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The pictures don’t do the beauty justice!
 
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Random moment—Thomas, Reagan, and Jonathan coloring with some friends in the neighborhood-Sloan, Helen, and Zoe

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Dominoes, Easter Eggs, Kite-flying, and the Bane of My Existence! March 2013

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This is my beautiful daughter Reagan.  Notice the missing teeth.  Soon she would lose another one, and things would get bad, VERY BAD.  Just wait.

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Bud and KK came for a visit over Spring Break, and Bud taught the kids to play dominoes.  They had a lot of fun!  Thanks Bud!

We also had an Easter egg hunt while Bud and KK were here. 

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After their visit, it was time to get ready for Easter, so we dyed our eggs.

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On Easter, we had a visit from the Easter Bunny, enjoyed a moving church service, and hunted more eggs in the afternoon.

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Don’t skim by those pictures too quickly!  Can you see it?  The bane of my existence during that time?  Look closer.

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DO YOU SEE IT?!?!? When Reagan lost one of her top front teeth, the other one held on for what seemed like eternity, CROOKED, right in the middle of her smile.  It was so gross to look at.  It makes me cringe just to look at it!

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A couple of the kids got kites at our church’s Spring Festival.  One afternoon, when the wind was blowing, Jim took the kids out and gave them their first flying lessons!