Our Basketball-Reader Star!

One of the reading incentives at our school is the student - faculty basketball game. This has been an annual event the last three years. Each teacher chooses one student to participate in the game. This would be a student who is a top reader, and who would enjoy playing. Two different games are scheduled, one for primary age students (K-2nd grade) and one for elementary students (3rd-5th grade). In each game, the students who have been chosen (5-8 at a time) play basketball against a group of 5 teachers/administrators. It is so much fun for all of the students, both those who get to play and those who get to watch. Those who are watching really get into cheering the students on!! This year the game was played last Wednesday, November 1st.

Drew was chosen to play this year for Mrs. Batson and Mrs. Christopher's class! He was super excited to find out, and this was the first thing he told me when I got him on Tuesday afternoon! Even during all of the Halloween festivities Tuesday night, he couldn't help but talk about this game! Drew had a wonderful time playing, and it was great for him to be rewarded for his reading! We are very proud of our TOP READER!!!

Drew waits in line to take his shot during "warm-ups"! He's in the blonde in the blue (almost directly in the middle of the photo).

Drew takes his warm-up shot, and comes really close to making it as our Assistant Principal Mrs. Garner looks on. Our principal, Dr. Menzer, and Assistant Principal Mrs. Pryor get ready to read the names of the players.

The students for the 2006 primary team are introduced! Go Drew!!!

Game on - Drew looks on as another team member gets ready to shoot!

Drew takes one of his shots during the game - you can't see him that well in this picture because he's behind the boy with the red shirt on. Everyone holds their breath! Drew was able to take 3 shots during his game! He scored one basket and came very close to making the other two. We don't keep score during these games, but if you were to ask any student at our school who won, they'd tell you the students!

Faculty and students cheer for the players after their game!

**On a side note, Drew has been asking to play basketball (in an organized league) since last year. Our church does not have an Upward program, but we are scheduled to sign him up to play with another area church this Thursday night. Look for updates about that soon!!

Darth Vadar and the Bride have a fun Halloween!

Halloween night we took the kids to the big church in our community where they have had Harvest Fest the past several years. They invite everyone in the community as part of their outreach effort. We attend another church in our community, but because our church does not have our fall festival on Halloween, we have attended this one since Drew was little. Craig's brother Chris also attends this church and has invited us every year! They have trunk - or - treat where members decorate the trunks of their cars and give out candy. Some of them even set up games for the children to play. They also have rides and local venders sell food. It is a wonderful activity for the whole family - and it makes for a safe Halloween. We also take Drew and Mikayla trick-or-treating at Mimi and Poppi's and Grandma's each year. Since they really like the rides and games, we don't come home with loads of candy (they don't really eat a lot of candy anyway).

Darth Vadar (aka Drew), and our Bride (aka Mikayla) as we were entering Harvest Fest 2006.

The first ride that Mikayla wanted to ride was these swings. Drew had already gone on an inflatable slide (hence the socks). Look how happy she looks to be on them (this was before they started). Craig kept saying "she won't ride that". Well, he was right! In this next picture you can clearly see that she is not happy. This was taken right before the ride operator stopped the ride so we could get her off.

I think Drew was just amazed! He enjoyed this ride, and stayed on even after Mikayla got off.

Drew loves to shoot basketballs. Wow - what a shot??

Mikayla putts with daddy's help - Hey it's hard to putt a golf ball in a wedding dress!

Mikayla decided she wanted to go through the "fun house" then once she was in the middle of it, she decided she wanted to come out! She decided this about the same time that I took this picture.

Drew didn't miss a beat. Here he is sliding down a huge inflatable fire truck slide!

This was the only ride that Mikayla "completed" all night. Here she rides with Aunt Julie, Drew, and cousin Haston! Craig was going to ride this with them, but Mikayla had other plans. She came out of the gate, grabbed Aunt Julie by the hand, then walked her back to the ride!

Poppi, Mikayla, Drew, and Mimi after we left Harvest Fest! By this point they were both pretty exhausted!

They were able to stay awake for one last stop - across the street to Grandma's house!

We had a busy, yet fun Halloween!!

Happy Birthday Tinsley!

After carving pumpkins on Sunday afternoon, we went to Tinsley's birthday party. We met Peyton and Tinsley and their mom and dad through baseball. Drew and Peyton played on the same baseball team their first year, and then this past year Peyton's dad was the head coach for Drew's team. Peyton is the same age as Drew and Tinsley is just 10 months older than Mikayla! Our families have become great friends, and it is fun watching our kids together. Tinsley was having a Dora party - and Dora even made a guest appearance. Drew loved this, but Mikayla was not too sure about it at first. While Dora had all of the children sitting in the circle, Mrs. Patti, Tinsley's mom, got Mikayla to sit in the circle with her!

Dora makes a special hat just for Tinsley as Drew and the other children look on.

Mikayla sits with Mrs. Patti as Dora make a balloon animal for one guest! By the time she was finished all of the children there had a balloon animal.

Drew and the other children scamper to pick up candy from the pinata. Mikayla is not in this picture because she was frightened when everyone yelled as the pinata burst. Drew was sweet and shared his candy with her!

Mikayla and Drew enjoy cupcakes and ice cream! YUM!!

Dora also provided face paintings for all of the children that wanted them. here Mikayla shows off her smiley face!

Drew shows off his snake! Isn't that cool?

Mikayla sits with Dora for a picture just before she was getting ready to leave!

This was such a great party and Drew and Mikayla really enjoyed spending time with Tinsley and Peyton and all of the other children that were there (there was even one child from my kindergarten class there and several others from our school). We are going to have to get Peyton, Tinsley, Drew, and Mikayla together again very soon!

Carving Pumpkins

We took our pumpkins over to Mimi and Poppi's house on Sunday for Drew and Mikayla to carve. These are the pumpkins that Drew and Mikayla picked out this year, and they had been at our house as part of our "fall decorations" the whole month of October. We had the scarecrow, yellow mums, pumpkins, etc. Mikayla also went to the pumpkin patch with her class from daycare this month and picked her "little"pumpkin. (I sure wish I had pictures from that trip to post on here!!) Since we live on a busy street, we don't give out candy at our house - we've always just gone to my mom and dad's house. That's where we have always put our jack-o-lanterns to invite the trick-or-treaters!

This year was really neat because it was the first year that Mikayla has paid a little attention to what was going on. You can see she was not too crazy about getting her hand messy here! Drew doesn't mind putting his hand in there at all! Poppi pretended he wasn't enjoying this, but you can tell by the look on his face that he was having a ball!

Mikayla decides to give it another try, this time she proceeds to put her sleeve and all in!

Drew pokes the hole in his pattern as daddy looks on. He was determined to have a spider carved into his pumpkin this year!

Mikayla didn't really pay much attention to her pumpkin after all the seeds were out! Here she practices writing her name with Poppi as Grandma (her great-grandma) looks on!

Once Drew finished poking holes for the pattern, I used the blade to carve it for him. Craig started poking holes for Mikayla's pattern (she wanted a kitty cat in her pumpkin), but it didn't take him long to tire. So, I finished poking holes in Mikayla's pumpkin before I started carving Drew's. Craig was to carve Mikayla's while I was carving Drew's. Again, it didn't take him long to tire and Poppi finished carving Mikayla's while we were at a birthday party! What would we do without Mimi and Poppi??

Finished Product!! Drew and Mikayla loved having these lit! They did turn out pretty great, huh?

**On a side note, we had to save ALL of the seeds from both of these pumpkins - per Drew's request. He wanted to plant the seeds to grow pumpkins in our yard next year. Again, Poppi came to the rescue and explained to Drew that if we planted ALL of those seeds the pumpkin vines would take us over. So we washed and dried all of the seeds, but I salted and roasted most of them for Drew and Mikayla to try! It was their first time trying pumpkin seeds (it was also Craig's first time eating them)! We couldn't talk Poppi into trying one, but Drew, Mikayla, and Craig all seemed to enjoy them! We will plant a few of the pumpkin seeds from this year and see what happens next year with our vine(s). Who knows - we just might get the biggest pumpkin!

Funny Mimi

We had Mimi, Poppi, Aunt Jennie, Beth, Samantha, Uncle Jonathan, and Jessica over this past Saturday night to eat dinner and watch the Carolina Tennessee game! This is how Mimi showed up at our house! They dressed up at her work for Halloween on Saturday since most of the stylist work that day! She rang the door bell and when Mikayla saw her she ran and hid her face in my lap. Drew also ran from the door at first, but he was quicker to realize that it was just Mimi. It took lots of encouraging for Mikayla to go near her, but finally she did! They sure love their Mimi!

Boo in the Zoo

There are many of these things throughout the zoo providing many photo opportunities. Don't Drew and Mikayla look thrilled about this?
Drew and Mikayla receive some goodies.
Drew and Mikayla get a close-up look at several rattle snakes!

Last Monday, October 23, we took Drew and Mikayla to Boo in the Zoo at the Greenville Zoo! This has become an annual trip for our family! Drew and Mikayla have so much fun! It's nice because not only do they get to dress in their costumes and get a little bit of candy (plenty more than they need), but they also get to see some of the animals. They have a lot of animals put up during this because it is at night and also it is usually colder, but you still get to see some of them!

Fall Festival at Church

Mikayla and Drew arrive at Fall Festival excited to get started! Drew's chose to dress up as Darth Vadar this year, and Mikayla chose to dress up as a bride. I'm not real sure that she knows what a bride is - I think she just liked the dress! It made her look like a princess for sure! Mikayla gets ready to bowl. Everybody look out!
Drew, Eli, and Danae enjoy one of the inflatables!

Our Fall Festival at church was held on Saturday, October 21st. The youth had worked to set up games for the children, there were inflatables, and we had pizza and other goodies. All of the children seemed to have a wonderful time, and I know that Drew and Mikayla did!

Fun at the Fair

Drew and Mikayla's favorite ride at the fair the past two years has been these ponies. This is the first year that Drew has ridden by himself without someone walking beside him! Isn't he quite the cowboy!
Look at our cute cowgirl! She loved this pony, and she wanted Poppi to walk beside her while she rode it!

I have always loved going to the fair! I don't like the rides so much as the atmosphere. I love the weather, the sounds, the smells, watching the people - everything about it! We take Drew and Mikayla every year, some years we have been known to go more than once. The one thing that is standard about our trip to the fair is the candy apple with nuts that we get as we leave!! Again this year Poppi, Mimi, and Jennie decided to join us at the fair. Jennie also brought along our friend Beth. Beth is so good with Drew and Mikayla - we were very glad to have her join us. Both Jennie and Beth were a big help with Drew and Mikayla as they were kind enough to ride some of the rides with them!

Updates coming fast!!

I just can't seem to get it together! We have been so busy since school started that I can't get everything in. Those of you who have been following this blog for awhile know that I like to update at least once a week if not several times a week. However, since school started there have been two weeks sometimes that go by between my posts. The problem is (as with everything else) once you get behind, it is so hard to get caught up. I have several pictures from the month of October that I will be posting soon (my goal is to have them all posted by this weekend - so check back often for updates)! Sorry for lack of updates lately - but they are coming!!!

Praying!

One of my favorite pictures that my Grandmother has is a picture of my dad and my uncle saying their prayers before bed. That picture spoke volumes to me - not to mention it is just too cute! Ever since I saw that photo, I knew that I wanted pictures of my children as they said their nightly prayers. This is my favorite one so far! Before we tuck them into bed each night, Mikayla always goes into Drew's room and kneeels beside his bed and says "we gotta say our prayers". After our prayers, she goes to her bed and waits patiently for her turn to be tucked in "snug as a bug in a rug". It's hard to tell because of the flash on my camera, but it was dark in Drew's room with the exception for light from his t.v.

Atlanta Braves!

We knew that the Atlanta Braves wouldn't be playing in the pennant race this year, but that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves at the game on Saturday, September 30! It was Fan Appreciation Weekend as they played the Houston Astros, and we had a ball! Drew and Mikayla as soon as we got to our seats! I think they were amazed with how big the stadium was! We had wonderful seats - we were in the lower section in the outfield 8 rows back from the field. We were almost directly behind center fielder, a little to the left of Braves Vision. Braves Center Fielder Andruw Jones was playing directly in front of us. Drew thought this was too cool - they have the same name you know! I apologize for the pictures being blurry - I was using my old digital cameras for these pictures. I had filled the card for my new camera at the aquarium - imagine that! Drew and Mikayla enjoy cotton candy at the game!MY Chipper Jones is playing third base! He did not start in this game, and when they announced the line-up I was a little bit bummed (to say the least)! When he came in at the beginning of the eighth inning, I couldn't stop snapping pictures! This is the best picture I could get from zooming in with old camera - no worries though, hopefully next year we will go back and our seats will be on the third base line directly behind him!! I wonder if you can check to see if he is playing before you book your tickets? HAHA

Drew and Mikayla in the van as we were getting ready to leave the stadium. You can tell by their faces that we had a wonderful time! They both got an Atlanta Braves shirt and a baseball with a picture of Chipper Jones along with his autograph (you know mommy had nothing to do with this)!!The Braves put up a huge fight to beat the Astros, even rallying in the ninth to come within a run. The game ended 5-4 in favor of the Astros. We still love the Braves, and plan on attending next season!!

Mikayla, Drew, and Mommy after loading up to head back to South Carolina on Sunday! We had a wonderful time in Atlanta visiting the Georgia Aquaruim and Turner Field for the first time! Hopefully Drew and Mikayla will never forget the time we spend as a family!

Georgia Aquarium

Our family took a mini vacation this past weekend to Atlanta! I had been wanting to take Drew to an Atlanta Braves game for awhile now. At first our plan was to take the kids to Stone Mountain Park and then to the Atlanta Braves. Then, another teacher at my school told us about the Aquarium back at the end of June when we were planning for this trip. She said that if we were going, we shouldn't miss the aquarium. I had planned to go the last weekend in July before school started back so that we could take a three-day weekend and we could go to Stone Mountain, the Aquarium, and an Atlanta Braves game. However, Craig did not want to sit out in the heat at the Atlanta Braves game in July so he talked me into putting it off until this past weekend! I still thought this would work out okay.

I had it all planned out - the most important part (to me) of Stone Mountain Park is the laser show/fireworks at the end so I planned for us to drive down Friday after we got home from work - arrive in time for the laser show/fireworks at Stone Mountain - from there go to the hotel - wake up Saturday morning to get to the aquarium when it opened - rest in the hotel before heading the the Braves game Saturday night - returning home Sunday. I ordered our tickets for the Aquarium and the Braves game at the end of June and our trip was set! Drew and Mikayla were so excited (not to mention how excited I was!) - it was so hard to wait the three months for the date to arrive!

Then last Thursday, I was checking the Stone Mountain website again (I checked before booking our other tickets to make sure that the park was opened Friday, September 29th and it was) to see what time the laser show would be that night to make sure we arrived on time. To my dismay, the laser show/fireworks only shows on Saturdays in September so we wouldn't be able to see that after all. Once I read that, we decided to stay here Friday night and take the kids to the high school football game! It ended up not being much of a game with our team not doing so well so we left during 3rd quarter to get home and get rest before our drive on Saturday.

As soon as we arrived in Atlanta on Saturday we headed straight to the Georgia Aquarium. For those who haven't been, it's a very nice aquarium. There are a lot of different animals there and lots for the whole family to do!

These are the fish (I forget their name) from the movie Finding Nemo that group together to form signs and such.

Drew and Mikayla have spotted something in one of the huge tropical tanks (Several of the tanks in the Aquarium were floor to ceiling tanks)!

Look at all those jellyfish! I sure am glad I'm on this side of the glass (right Jennie?)! This was another floor-to-ceiling tank full of jellyfish of all sizes.

One of the four HUGE whale sharks housed at the Georgia Aquarium! This one is swimming directly over our heads as we go through the tunnel.

This diver was cleaning out the bottom of this tank. We decided this would not be a job we would want (you can't tell in this picture but these fish have sharp teeth). But somebody's got to do it, right?

Our pretty girl rests in her stroller - but only for a moment! She stayed out of it more than she was in it. So much so that Craig kept questioning why we even brought the thing!

Drew watches an otter eat. He was laying on a pile of ice and Craig asked if the otters liked playing in ice. We were told that the workers at the Aquarium want the otters to work for their food so they put the food in different things. Today, their shrimp was put in ice pieces. We noticed a worker carrying two huge tubs of shrimp - these animals eat better than I do!

Mikayla and Drew pose with the Aquarium Mascot.

Drew and Mikayla (daddy too) climbed through a tunnel to be inside the penguin exhibit. Mommy had to get a picture of this - just look past the glare! If you look closely, you can see the penguin behind them on the rock (it almost looks like it's on top of Drew's head). This was one of their favorite parts of the Aquarium. You don't see penguins every day in South Carolina!

There were also two beautiful Beluga Whales at the Aquarium! I have a few good pictures of them, but for some reason Blogger won't let me upload them (maybe I've reached my max again). I'll try to upload a picture of them later - when I add pictures from the Braves game!!