Farm-o-ween

Scott and I volunteer every Monday night with a group called Young Life. It's an outreach group for high schoolers whose goal is to show them the characteristics of Christ and how much He loves us. We attend club every Monday night with all of our kids (who have become quite attached to a lot of the students there). We also try to involve ourselves in the lives of these high schoolers by going to their sporting events, hanging out with them, and just overall being concerned with their life.

Farm-o-ween is a annual event that is held the club before Halloween. It's a big party for the kids where they dress up and play games like Bobbing for Bass (yes, the fish), Pumpkin Bowling, Toss a Vacuum, and Whack and Appliance. It's mad chaos and involves Young Life groups from around the county.

Scott and I decided not to take the kids this year because Harbin was out of town, Catherine has been afraid of everything (thought the costumes would not be a good plan) and Lydia would have been trampled. We got the opportunity to dress up and as you can see from the pics, we were also pied in the face a few times.

I worked hard on our costumes and was pretty proud of how well they came out. The kids seemed to like them, and I am hoping to tweak them a bit so I can use them again in yars to come.

Enjoy the pics of the adults for once!
The mom.

Harbin's Singing Debut...

This year Harbin is singing in the Children's Choir at First Baptist Church of Snellville. He has always loved music and I just knew he would love to be able to sing with other kids.

Each week they practice for about 45 minutes. At his first practice he told me he didn't like it because they didn't get to sing on stage. I quickly explained to him that all choirs must practice and then they can PERFORM on stage.

Well, a few weeks ago, he got his chance to perform on stage. The children's choir sang in conjunction with the Pops Orchestra. They did a movie theme and the orchestra played songs from movies including Superman, Chronicles of Narnia, and Pirates of the Carribbean. The kids sang 3 songs, and Harbin did great.

Although he had praticed once before on stage, he had never practiced with the orchestra. He was a bit overwhelmed at first and moved his mouth, but did very few motions. He warmed up as the evening progressed and I captured a few shots of him doing the motions and singing along.

Thanks to Pop-Pop, Aunt Kristen, Cousin Wesley, and Great Grandma Skillin for coming out to hear him sing. His next concert is Novemeber 22nd and we hope to see all of you there!!!

The mom.

A visit to the Firestation

As some of you know, I have been homeschooling Harbin this year. Although he is only 4, we have started a semi-regular kindergarten curriculum and along with this we are incorporating some field trips.

A few weeks ago, we were able to go with some other homeschoolers to the firestation. Harbin, Catherine and Lydia all enjoyed getting to see the firemen and their trucks.

They showed us a video in one of their classrooms and then took us around the station. The kids were able to get inside the trucks, see where the firefighters ate and slept and we even got to see them get ready and leave for a real emergency.

Enjoy the pics (and I think I might actually be catching these blogs up with real time)!
The mom.

2 Flower Girls and a Ringbearer

Scott's cousin, Beth, got married on September 19th and all three of our kids were in the wedding. We were a little concerned with Lydia being so young and afraid to walk down the aisle, but boy were we wrong. She thought she owned the place and it was Catherine who got scared. Catherine walked down the aisle and turned around and saw me, burst into tears and fell asleep in my lap for the wedding. Lydia on the other hand is our busy child- she spent the enitre wedding dumping flowers out of her basket, then picking them back up, then climbing up the two stairs, then climbing down, then wandering around and finally just before the end of the ceremony she spotted me and came running. Harbin of course was excellent and stood rather patiently at the front of the church and escorted the girls nicely back down the aisle.

Sadly my camera battery was dead, but these are a few of the pics I got before the wedding.

The mom.

Frantic Frog Triathlon

August was a pretty uneventful month. Scott went back to work and the kids and I started to get back into the swing of things.

Mid-September, Scott had a triathlon in Scottsboro, Alabama. Scott, his sister, his three brothers, and his new sister-in-law all competed in the triathlon. It was a beautiful location and the weather was really nice. Scott competed well and came in 1st in his age division, in the top third overall.

The kids thought the plane that landed on the lake was really cool, so I thought I would include a pic of it too!

The mom.

Beach Finale

Well I guess the title should really say "Beach Finally" since I am just now posting in what...mid-October. Anyways, here's a bit about our final trip to the beach house this summer. It was special since it was the first TRUE vacation for all of us- even Scott- no training, no real estate, no grading papers, just pure FUN!

The pictures pretty much tell all... as you go through them, you can see that we had a great relaxing and educational time (yes, I am a homeschool mom!). Scott's parents joined us as well as his sister, youngest brother, and few of their friends. I got some shots of the kids playing at the beach, but didn't take my camera down a lot for fear of messing up my ony remaining lens.

Harbin really enjoyed boogie boarding. We were very impressed with his ability in the water. At the beginning of the summer, he would hardy get wet, but he seemed to enjoy the waves. They were huge this trip and the wind was incredible. In all my years at the beach house, I don't think I have ever seen such a windy week. He loved to catch waves and ride them in and he didn't seem to mind getting tossed around a bit.

Catherine liked to sit or lay in the waves and let them push her around. This usually lasted about 5 minutes or until a wave knocked her over- then it was tears and she would return to playing in the sand.

Lydia did ok in the water, but would often freak out because her feet were sinking. She definitely enjoyed the sand. I don't have a great picture of her, but she would get covered in sand- HEAD TO TOE. All of us commented on how much sand she would get in her face and it just never seemed to bother her. At one point, she was laying her face in the sand, but it never seemed to bother her!!

We were fortunate to have time to do a few "field trips" while we were there. History is not really my "cup of tea", but fortunately for the kiddos, it is Scott's. We went to Historic Beaufort to learn about Blackbeard (a pirate). We were a bit too late to get to go into any of the buildings, but we were able to see the outside of the jail. The kids enjoyed the Maritime museum where there were all kinds of cool exhibits and info on the Outerbanks area. As we were walking to dinner, we even ran into some "real pirates"- some were rather scary looking.

We went to Fort Macon, which I have done many times. But, we were also able to go on a guided nature walk to the Bogue Sound. This was offered by the Fort Macon State Park and was totally free. It was an incredible experience. After just a short walk, the kids were shown all kinds of ocean life by the park ranger. Harbin helped to pull the seine (a really big net) to catch the ocean life. While he was out there, the park ranger spotted a hammerhead shark. Although Harbin never saw it himself, he thought that was cool (I thought it was a bit frightening since it was my 4 year old out there with it!!!). Catherine was hesitant at first, but eventually warmed up to holding and touching the sea life. Lydia loved to touch the slimy toad fish and although he looks scared, I think Harbin thought it was neat to hold the sea urchin- he said it was wiggly.

I tried to get some great family pictures while we were at the beach, but I had very little success. Our photo shoot timing was not that great since it was the last day of the trip (and it was just us, so I had to prop the camera up), it was SUPER windy, and the kids were tired. I was able to capture a few shots where we are all IN the picture, so I guess I should count that as a win.

Enjoy all the pics. Now that I am caught up on our summer, I hope to be more regular in posting!!

Link to the pictures is on the right labeled BeachHouse2009
The mom.