End of School!!!

Colby's class had their end of the year program about a week before Dalton got out of school. The kids did such an awesome job quoting scripture, singing songs, and reciting passages they have learned during the year. The children recited Bible verses they had learned that corresponded to each letter of the alphabet. Each child had their own part in the program and Colby's part was reciting a Bible verse by himself. He kept this a secret from us because he had never mentioned to us that he was going to do this. I think it was a surprise for all the parents. What a great year Colby had this year at school!!!

Here's Colby with his teacher, Mrs. Bush. We just love her!

Colby with my parents after the program

Dalton had a great year this year as well. He is such a smart little guy and always does great academically. He received a few academic awards, as pictured here in a big assembly on the last day of school.

Dalton with his 2nd grade teacher. We just love her too!

Field Trips and Ancient Egypt

During the Spring you can be sure that someone class is going to have a field trip to the strawberry patch and this year Colby's class went to Elliott Farms to pick some beautiful strawberries, ride on a hayride around the farm, and have their own Easter egg hunt on the property. Such fun!!

Dalton's class has been studying Ancient Egypt all year long. Earlier in the year they had a project to make a salt dough map of Ancient Egypt. Dalton and his class have learned so much this year about Ancient Egypt so toward the end of the year his class had a big Eyptian feast and celebration. They had a big Egyptian lunch in which they enjoyed Egyptian type food and then they played Egyptian style games. Of couse, as pictured, they had to dress up as Ancient Egyptians. I forgot Dalton had to dress up for this until the afternoon before so I recycled the Joseph coat that my mom had sewn together for some sort of activity he had in Kindergarten and we bought the hat and sash to go around it. I told Dalton he looked like the sultan from Aladin. He looked like a cross between the sultan and Joseph. :)

Spring 2011

Once again I find myself playing catch up on my blog. Just thought I'd catch up with some things that have been happening with us over the past couple of months as well as in recent days. We've enjoyed family events, baseball, school activities, and trips that I wanted to catch up on in pictures.

Dalton, Colby, my mom, and I enjoyed going to downtown Macon in March to take part in the Cherry Blossom Festival. We had fun riding the carriage ride and getting cherry ice cream. Then, we headed down to Central City Park for the boys to ride a few rides since they were out this week for spring break. We also took part in watching the balloon glow as part of the Cherry Blossom Festival out at Macon State College. It was a perfect night for the balloon glow and the boys seriously enjoyed watching the hot air balloon being inflated and rising up. They were such a pretty sight to see all the balloons lit at the same time!

This year, as I have every year, I tried to go to every school event I could possibly go to because I was pretty sure this would be my last year before I would need to go back to work. I just wanted to soak in as much as possible that the boys had going on at school and be available for anything that was happening at school. I was a driver for most of Dalton and Colby's field trips and tried to come to all of their special days at school since I knew I wouldn't be able to as much in the future. Here are some pics of Dalton's field trip to the Rock Ranch. They learned about the life cycle of frogs and found some gigantic tadpoles in the pond and continued to play around at the Rock Ranch enjoying many of the activities there.

I just love Tiny Town at the Rock Ranch. It is just a kid-sized town that was built with kids in mind. There are dress-up clothes in buildings such as the theater and the fire house that the kids loved putting on and pretending.

Then, in April the boys enjoyed participating in Field Day. This was Colby's first time participating in Field Day and I think he didn't really know what it was all about. I think he thought he was going on a field trip or something. He had lots of fun when he realized he'd get to play lots of fun outdoor games. Field Day is always a highlight of the year and a fun time for everyone!

Camping Virgins

For President's Day we decided to take a little overnight camping trip. None of us had ever been camping before and figured we didn't know what we were doing anyway so we just decided to make it a quick overnight trip. We left Sunday of President's Day weekend and went to Callaway Gardens to look around and walk a few trails. We all enjoyed walking around the trails and also enjoyed going in the butterfly center, but due to a bird getting in and eating most of the butterflies, there weren't all that many butterflies left, although the ones that were there were very pretty. It was nice too that admission to Callaway Gardens was free for the months of January and February. After leaving Callaway Gardens we headed to our campsite at FDR State Park just a few miles away. We picked out a campsite and put up the tent, then the boys and I went to walk to the lake where the ducks and geese came up to us apparently wanting us to feed them. We forgot to bring any food to the lake with us so a lady with her kids gave the boys some of their bread to feed to the birds. Must've felt sorry for us that we didn't bring any bread down with us. Anyway, after feeding the ducks and geese, we headed back up to our campsite where Shane had a rousing fire going for us to grill hot dogs and to make some smores. Before going to bed we had an intense Uno tournament in which Colby dominated. We all had so much fun, family time! The boys are still talking about our little trip and wondering when we'll go again!

Skiing

At the beginning of February Shane and I went skiing at Breckenridge, Colorado. I just love skiing out West! The mountains are absolutely beautiful and huge! The conditions were so great this year...more snow than we've ever skied on. We rented a car and I think the driving was the most nerve-racking part of the trip. It was snowing and had snowed so much that I don't think we ever saw the black asphalt of the road the entire time because it was always snowing and had a pretty thick layer of snow covering it. Breckenridge was a fun resort though with a lot of runs that Shane and I could easily do and were challenged on other runs as well. I think this was the coldest ski trip we've ever been on though. I'm usually not cold while skiing because of all the layers I wear, but the last day of our skiing the wind chill was in the -20s and we were a little concerned about our noses getting frostbite since our noses was our only body part that was exposed. We had tons of fun and hope to one day go back.

Catching Up: Part II

Well, I'm on a roll now in updating my blog. Here's some Thanksgiving and Christmas pictures to finish up 2010. Colby's class had their Thanksgiving program that was just too cute. I loved seeing him dressed up like a little indian singing songs, reciting Bible verses, and poetry. He did an awesome job on everything doing all the motions and words so well. I was very proud of my little indian boy.

Later, in December, Colby's class took a field trip on a Journey to Jesus. We searched for Jesus at a hospital, at the inn, but finally found him here at the stable.

Colby's class sang Christmas songs at a retirement home

Dalton's class did too!

Colby and his class enjoyed their Christmas party

And Dalton's class did too!

After the Christmas parties we took the boys to the Bass Pro Shop to see Santa. They look pretty serious in telling Santa what they want.

After seeing Santa, they were engaged in a fierce game of Checkers.

This year instead of making our annual gingerbread house, we made a gingerbread train. It turned out ok. I think I liked the house better, but the train was fun for the boys.

Christmas at Grandmama and Granddaddy's house

Look what Santa brought!

Shane showing the boys how to use their new bb guns

Catching Up: Part I

Whew! It's been a long time since I've posted! We've been busy around here with so many fun things going on. Here's a little update in pictures of some of my favorite happenings of the past few months.

Back in October, we all had a blast at the Ga. National Fair here in Perry. The boys had a blast riding lots of rides and then capped off the night with caramel and candied apples.

Dalton played flag football again this year at school. He was much improved this year compared to last year. Covenant has tackle football for 3rd and 4th graders where they play other schools and Dalton says he wants to play next year, although I'm a little nervous about him playing. I don't think he has an aggressive bone in his sweet little body.

Still in October, we took a trip one Saturday to Truett Cathy's Rock Ranch. It was such a beautiful day that we chose to go and we all had so much fun. It seems like they open something new there every year and this year the Rock Ranch opened an area called Tiny Town, which is a little kid-sized town with a prison, church, school room, theater, etc. that kids can go in, explore, try on clothes, and just have fun in this town that is perfectly sized for kids. We also saw Truett Cathy himself while walking around in Tiny Town.

a Tiny Town courtroom

grinding corn

Dalton's class took a field trip to Dausett Trails where they learned about wildlife.

During the weekend of Halloween we got ourselves another puppy. Yep, we're trying again. We had a pretty bad experience with the last puppy we had so we were a little leery about getting another dog. This is Dixie, a sweet little Jack Russell Terrier. She's pretty smart and we all love her. The boys just love on her all the time, almost too much. I think she breathes a sigh of relief whenever Dalton and Colby go to bed because she knows she can just relax.

For Halloween this past year Dalton dressed up as Superman and Colby was Optimus Prime. They had fun dressing up for our church's Fall Festival and going around the nearby neighborhood trick or treating. (and Shane and I had fun sneaking some of their candy while they were sleeping)
Colby's class went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch. They were able to pick out a small pumpkin for themselves, hear a story, and play on the playground.

Finally, in early November we took the boys to a Georgia game. Go Dawgs!!!