First day of school--6th and 3rd grade

Well that summer flew by!  

It's the first day of school!  Sam is excited about transitioning to middle school even though the bus comes a lot earlier!  Along with his core subjects, he is taking band and digital technologies this semester.  Ready for 6th grade! 

 Lydia got up to say good bye, still in her pjs and mermaid blanket. 

 About an hour later, it was her turn!  She is excited for 3rd grade, has a friendly, young teacher and her best friend from last year is in her class. What could be better? 

Rosie is going to miss them during the day!  Oh, ok, I will miss them too!

Sam is 11!

Happy birthday Sam!  I decorated his door with streamers and balloons the night before his birthday.

 Lydia had elaborate surprise party plans but I just couldn't pull it off so I let her choose a few activities for us to do to celebrate during the day.  She wanted to try our local trampoline park for our first stop.  It is smaller than the others we have been to but the kids had a good time.  Before allowing the kids to jump, the trampoline park shows this terrifying "safety" video and Lydia got really upset (see below) and wasn't sure if she wanted to even jump.  I know that this company is trying to protect itself if an injury occurs, but the video was pretty severe...talking about "serious injury, broken bones, and even death".  Ok, kids...now go jump!  Lydia was like "no thank you!".

 After an hour at the trampoline park we went to Amelias for lunch.

At 11 years old, Sam is right around 5 feet tall and weighs 82 lbs!

 It was hard to wait for James to get home from work to open presents, so we took a lot of pictures :)  Sam had a lot of cards to open!

 Then..what he was waiting for...his phone!  I got a new phone a few weeks ago so we decided to let Sam have my old phone on a trial basis.  He is thrilled, we on the other hand are cautiously optimistic!

 Lydia had her "meet the teacher" night at school so right after presents we left for that.  James and Sam met us at Red Robin for dinner.  Zeke and Isaiah were able to join us too, then the boys came over for a sleepover.

Happy birthday, Sam!  Hope your 11th year is the best one yet!

Visit from the Inmans

The Inman family came and stayed with us for a weekend while the kids were in McLean with Robby.  I was glad that we had spent time with them recently in Charleston since Sam and Lydia missed their visit.  We hosted a get-together on Saturday night and about 20 friends came over!  

Hattie helped James get the sticks sharp for s'mores while David watched the fire pit.

 Me and Carley

 Fred and Ena Carol catching up with David.

 Isaiah, Harrison, Virginia, Carley, Eden, Elijah, Julia, Myra Grace, Zeke, Hattie.

 Sweet Hattie finally got her cupcake :)

Camp Greenway

Robby and Kristina gave the kids 2 weeks at Camp Greenway for Christmas this year!  Robby and I grew up going to Camp Greenway and just have the best memories from our years there.  It's a day camp on the campus of an all girls boarding school in McLean.  The campus is like a small college with sports fields, indoor pool, ropes course, and plenty of classrooms for activities like art, dance, music, etc.  Sam and Lydia both loved it.  Sam loved going canoeing at Black Pond and cliff diving.  Lydia loved music the most and now both kids know all the words to songs like American Pie and Leavin' On a Jet Plane.  My parenting job is obviously complete :)

Kristina set up a lot of her American Girl toys for Lydia to play with...she was in heaven!

 There were lots of snuggles with Cooper.

 Robby and Kristina got to be parents for 2 weeks.  Robby kept saying how easy it was to take care of kids...I told him I already did all the hard work!  Age 8 and 10 is easy peasy compared to the early years!

 On Wednesday July 25th the kids had a wacky dress up day and parade at camp.  They raided Kristina's closet and found these fun pieces to wear :)

 The loved going on rides in the Wrangler with Cooper in the back.  Even if those "rides" were just in the garage :)

 I went back to McLean on Wednesday August 1st to spend the last few days with them before camp was over.  They had the best time, thank you Robby and Kristina for this fun experience!

Hamilton!

We saw Hamilton!  It was amazing!  Thanks to my mom for tickets (our Christmas gift!).  The process of getting the tickets was pretty crazy.  Kristina and I both logged on the morning they went on sale and got "in line" virtually...I think I was 19,000 something in line.  Kristina was a few thousand ahead of me so we kept her place in line and waited "in line" all day until about 3 or 4 p.m. when Robby could finally pick our seats.  I couldn't believe we were able to get the show that we wanted to go to!  It was such a good show and I've been listening to the soundtrack on Spotify non-stop! 

"Take your kid to work" day

James's company had it's second annual "Take your kids to work" day!  Yay!  A free day for Mommy! :)

The kids had a good day and liked to meet James's work friends.  Lydia is wearing her wolf ears because one secretary called Sam her "little wolf cub" last year but James didn't let her wear them in because in some areas they have to wear gowns and cover their hair.  Sam dressed pretty much identically to James in his cowboy boots and pearl snap shirt.  No one was going to mistake who he belonged to!  I had a quiet day to myself of running errands and doing laundry :) 

Charleston!

We went to Charleston to visit the Inmans from July 15-18th.  It was a quick trip sandwiched between other trips, but we had a blast as usual and were so happy to spend time with them.  We arrived on Sunday afternoon and went to their neighborhood pool and stayed home for dinner.

Monday was beach day at Isle of Palms!  We packed lunches, filled Sara's van full of people and beach gear and had a really fun day.  Myra Grace played some tunes for us while we packed the car.

 Hattie, Sam, Carley in the middle.  Julia, Lydia, and Myra Grace in the back!

The water was warm and it wasn't too rough so the older kids were in the waves most of the day.

Lydia crashed after lunch and actually fell asleep!  I'm not sure she has done that on the beach since being a baby...and maybe not even then! It was just a short nap and then she was ready for some ice cream :)

 Sam was hilarious with his ice cream.  He got an Klondike bar which he took a few bites out of before dropping in the sand...I washed it off and he ate it but it was the biggest mess.  The girls kept laughing at the only boy in the group...they weren't sure what to make of this crazy guy :) 

 Love this group!

 The annual "after beach" shot while we wait for Sara to pull closer so we don't have to lug all this stuff through the parking lot!

Hattie really bonded with Sam, it was sweet to see their developing friendship.

 

 On Tuesday we went to the water park!  It was such a nice facility and the bigger kids could do all the rides while Sara and I hung out with Hattie at the kiddie pool.

 All the kids raced down this huge slide...I think Sam had some trouble getting going because he was way in the back.  From L-R...Myra Grace, Julia, Lydia, Carley, and Sam

 Our last day :(  So sad to leave but what fun memories we made!