Another Beautiful Day in Sunny Southwest Florida!

Most days are nice, but we did move down here right in the middle of "rainy season". Everyone is adjusting well to our new place, and Savannah is enjoying school at Rayma C. Page Elementary. It's a little further away than we had hoped, but it's only about 4 years old and she seems to be happy! At open house there was a Tae Kwon Do group there and she decided that she wanted to do that after school. So, since I dread the carpool line so much, I signed her up for their after school program. The van picks up at her school and takes them to the studio. She has martial arts classes each day and after the class is over she completes most of her homework. So far, she likes it a whole bunch and is looking forward to the classes where she learns how to break boards.

Vince will start school at Bright Beginnings the first week of September. I was fortunate to get a slot at the school, from what I understand, there is usually a two year waiting list for the younger aged kids. It's housed at the Methodist Church not far from here, and we have already visited the church. They have lots of children's programs that both kids are looking forward to being involved with.

Jeff has turned in his notice at Macon State and will be down here for good on Saturday. We have all missed him very much and are looking forward to all of us being together again. He will start work at Edison State College on August 31, so he'll have a few days to get settled in before starting work.

Vince and I are going house hunting with our Realtor on Thursday morning. There are many foreclosures and short sales in the area and it may take 5-6 months to get them closed....that's how long of a lease we have, so we have to get busy! We are thankful that our house in Macon closed last week, after just a few days on the market.

 The kids both slept some on the way down, just not at the same time...

 Vince showing off his new swim trunks while Savannah swims in her clothes

 Savannah and her new martial arts instructor

 Savannah with her 3rd grade teacher

 Savannah and Vincey playing in the "hot tub" portion of the pool

 We stopped at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium on the way down

Nothing Could Be Finer...

...than three weeks in North Carolina! The kids and I have recently returned from a great excursion to the great state of North Carolina. We spent a week in Charlotte with G-Mama and participated in Vacation Bible School at Sardis Presbyterian, then went to Atlantic Beach for five days, back to Charlotte for G-Mama's birthday party, and finished up our time in Boone. We all had a wonderful time, but it seemed like we missed seeing people that we usually catch up with. Here are some pictures that I wanted to share.

 Vince in vacation bible school

 Vince playing on the caboose in front of the Matthews library

 Vince and Savannah playing video games at Chuck E Cheese in Charlotte

 Savannah and her friends flying a kite at the beach

 Savannah, Vince, and Eli after a day at the splash park and dinner with Nana and Grandaddy!

 My new look (and the kids)

 One of the sunflowers in our garden

 A nice sized pumpkin in the garden

 Savannah and Vince with the Tweetsie Cloggers

 Savannah, Wilson, and Vince on the Mouse Train at Tweetsie

 Savannah and Vince waving to the train as it goes by

 Vince and Savannah with the Can-Can girls at Tweetsie

The kids with the Tweetsie cowboys and cowgirl!

The garden continues to grow, and the watermelon is very sweet and juicy! The pumpkins are growing, and the sunflowers are HUGE.

Gardening and Such

Jeff has really enjoyed having the property at the house. Several months ago we planted sunflower seeds, watermelons, and pumpkins. They have all taken off and we have been pleased with the results! We picked a watermelon for July 4th, but when I cut into it, it didn't have a hint of red to it. At least we were able to toss it into the composter!We'll wait a few more weeks until we try another one. The kids and I head to North Carolina tomorrow and we are looking forward to seeing our family and friends.

 This gives you an idea of how tall the sunflowers are...

 Zinnias and bees!

 Some of the flowers that we cut from the yard

 The first watermelon that we cut-too bad it was green all the way through!

 Sunflowers and you can see the watermelon plants running in front too

 A butterfly near the koi pond

 The kids out at the koi pond

A Trip to Texas!

The kids and I recently returned from a 17 day trip to Texas. We left on June 1 and flew to Austin, rented a car, and drove it to Bryan to visit Aunt Candace and Uncle Bobby. Neither of the kids had ever met them, so it was a great weekend. Cousin Mary Caroline was also in town visiting from Canada, so it was extra special for the kids to hang out with her too. We spent time at the museum, local splash pads, and at a community pool. The kids had a blast learning to play the bagpipes from Uncle Bobby! Here are some links with the pictures that we took!

Pictures from Bryan, TX
Snapfish Pictures

After Bryan, we headed west to New Braunfels to visit my friend from college, Sandy. She and her husband have a vacation home there, and New Braunfels is also home to Schliterbahn, one of the largest waterparks in the country! We purchased season passes and went every day while we were there. Vince loved to play in the water and especially liked the submarine. Savannah wanted to do the large tube rides, but logistics with little children didn't allow us to do that as often as we would have liked. The kids enjoyed the New Braunfels Children's Museum too! Sandy and I worked on a couple of Pinterest projects after the kids went to bed and those turned out really cute!

The next leg of our journey was to San Angelo to visit my friend from junior high, Kam. She and her husband (and their 3 kids) live there and we spent lots of time in the water there too. There were record highs the first few days we were there-it was about 108 degrees! We enjoyed our time there and Casner, the oldest child, spent the night with us at the hotel and loved the free breakfast.

Our last stop was in Murphy, Texas...a little town outside of Dallas and Plano. We visited my friend Rebecca there. She and I went to pre-school together, played softball and basketball together, went to church together, and had some classes as well. Needless to say, we go way back! She also has three kids and Savannah and Vince enjoyed playing in their pool. Both said that our next house needs to have a pool and a hot tub. As the trip went on, Vince was sleeping later and later. Sometimes he would still be sleeping at 8:45! The two boys, Grant and Hayes, were both active in sports that weekend, so we spent time at the ball fields and indoor soccer facililty.

The flight to and from Texas were both great. The kids had never flown, but they did really well in the airport and on the plane. The most difficult part of the trip was pulling the carry-on bags and having to navigate the escalators. Savannah is scared to board the down escalators, then mix in holding Vince's hand and hundreds of people around, and she was a bit nervous!

 Savannah, Vince, and Casner playing the Apple products in the hotel room

 Vince bowling in San Angelo

 Vince and Hallie playing in San Angelo

 Savannah waiting for the baseball game to start in Plano, TX

 Vince and Lacey hanging out during Grant's indoor soccer match

 Savannah and Vince at the indoor soccer match in Plano, TX

Savannah enjoying the pool at Rebecca's house!

Teacher Gifts

Savannah's last day of school is today, so I made a couple of gifts for her teachers. For her gifted teacher, I made a wine cork board. For her homeroom teacher, I made the frame/front door hanger.

Day Lillies

The flowers are finally in bloom! The beds were pretty overgrown so we have slowly but surely been trying to weed them out and take better care of the daylillies. Some friends have come over to dig some up to put in their own yards. We aren't sure what we will do with them all! Here are a couple of pictures that I took in the past few days.

A Fun-Filled Weekend

Vince finished up his swim lessons on Friday and his last day of 3K at Northminster was also on Friday. Savannah's softball team had a party on Saturday afternoon and she spent the night with several of the girls that evening. She loved the water slide and was worn out on Sunday! Some of her softball buddies came over on Sunday afternoon to get the goldfish out of our koi pond to go in their indoor tanks. The kids had a blast "fishing", especially after both nets broke and they opted to catch fish with their hands.

 Vince and Mrs. Julie at the end of his swim lessons

 Savannah and her teammate, Anna, on the water slide

 Savannah with some of her teammates

 The pond before our friends came over to get the goldfish

 Savannah caught one and was so excited!

Cool In The Furnace

Savannah has been going to the Wednesday afternoon program at Forsyth United Methodist Church for the past few months. They have been working on a production about Daniel, and the performance was last Wednesday night. Savannah had a narrator part and she did a great job!