Cool Things

This picture is of the boys-Ryan and Scott are on the far left side of the picture-at a club meeting after school called SPARKS-it stands for Spreading Acts of Random Kindness-I LOVE that Scott's 6th grade Science teacher started this and that the boys want to go and be part of this.  They write notes, stuff treats in lockers, share encouragement with teachers, etc.  If kindness is needed anywhere it is middle school-so glad this goes on at their school!

The above picture was on our amazing Christian radio station's facebook page-a great thing to remember!

Some cool books I have read lately-This one was about a man who found a charm bracelet that had belonged to his wife after she passed away, he learned things about her life before they married, but at the end he renewed closer relationships with his children and it ended happily-which is what I like in a book I am reading for fun!

I have read Laura Story's book When God Doesn't Fix it and we just finished the Bible Study that goes along with it and it is absolutely AMAZING!  I had read the first few chapters, then loaned it to a friend.  She gave it back promptly but I didn't pick it up again until the Sunday afternoon before the study was to begin.  I read and read and read frantically and was really unhappy that I had to leave for us to get to church on time before I finished reading the book.  I did read the rest as soon as I got home and it was just great! I think there is something in Laura's story that she shares in this book that will speak to almost everyone!

Ashley's Valentine Party

 We played a game where the kids had to match up things that go together-all the items were written on paper hearts-some were peanut butter and jelly, socks and shoes, dog and bone, Mickey and Minnie, etc

 Next they had to carry conversation heart candy with chopsticks to drop in another tub-this was harder than I thought it was going to be

 The boys won and they were very excited!

 Then they had to see how tall they could stack a tower of hearts before they fell over

 Then they ate, passed out valentines, and took silly photo booth prop pictures!

 Ashley chose props for me to pose with and then wanted to take a picture of me

Ashley with her awesome teacher Mrs. Wimmer!!!!!  We love her a ton!

Surprise for Ryan

 3rd new post of the day-Last year for Ashley's birthday we had a surprise party for her.  I asked the boys if they would enjoy surprise parties-Scott's answer was a resounding NO but Ryan surprised me by saying yes!  He is often the quiet homebody that doesn't like attention drawn to him (like Greg-I threw him a surprise party once and don't think I would live to tell about it if I ever did it again-I didn't know better then, he was turning 21 and had told me that he had not had a birthday party at McDonald's and I thought that needed to be changed!)

So I had been trying to figure out a way to get Ryan's closest in age cousin Ian to our house to celebrate with Ryan.  Sadly they live in Chattanooga and there is no quick way to get to our house from there.  I was bemoaning this fact with my sister in law on the phone recently.  Then she was telling me about their kids being out of school unexpectedly for two days because of the extreme amounts of sickness.  I seized the opportunity and picked up the kids last Friday in the middle of the morning-we drove to Atlanta to see the Lego Batman movie and have an ice cream treat with these cousins!!!

The cousins were out of school, it was exactly 1 month before Ryan's birthday, and it was the day the movie came out-too many good things all fell on the same day made it too fun to pass up.

Here Ryan is sad because I wouldn't tell exactly what the fun surprise was going to involve.  I had typed up clues for him to open and read along the way of our road trip to drag out the surprise!

 Here are our 3 waiting outside the theater!

 Here are the 6 kids playing with this fun thing where you could build your own lego mini figure in the movie theater!

 It took quite a while to get them all to stop playing and actually look!

 Then we went for ice cream!

 This is a SILLY CRAZY bunch!!!!!!  Hopefully Ryan had fun and felt celebrated-the only sadness was that Greg couldn't join us for our crazy road trip!

Silly Dog!

So we had a lot to laugh about with 3 kids now with a dog there is even more!  His dog food is delivered from Amazon and it comes in their box and then another one inside from the actual company

 which is just hilarious-Max was this excited about smelling the box even after I had taken the bag of do food out of the boxes! 

He has also run away from our yard twice recently and gone 4 lots down the street from us into construction sites near us.  I hate trying to get him back because he can run SO fast!  I have NO HOPE of catching him so I don't chase but call him in happy voice and try to lure him back.  One morning recently he ran away when Scott had taken him beside the garage to use the bathroom because it was raining and our backyard was really squishy.  Scott rang the doorbell to signal that he needed help so I grabbed the dog leash and went after them.  It was a huge comedy of errors because it was POURING rain and we were all muddy and wet when we came back-I have plans to talk to the dog trainers at the boarding place we use about teaching him boundaries of staying in our yard!

Fun things for Scott

 On the Saturday this picture was taken, Scott had been invited to audition from All-State Band!  It was a HUGE privilege as an 8th grader to be invited.  He told me right after his audition at a high school outside Columbia that he didn't think he made it because he didn't feel like things had gone well.  He was right-he didn't make it but in the email when his band director told him that, he had really kind things to say about Scott and the progress he has made playing his tuba! 

Ashley, Scott, and I had a lovely lunch at Burger King after the audition.  Ryan was at Roper Mountain Science Center taking a Robotics merit badge class.  I had to take this picture quickly before Scott completely polished off this TRIPLE burger and oreo milkshake!!!  Playing the tuba is hungry work apparently-as is everything a nearly 14 year old boy is!

 Scott did make the All County and Region Bands!  These are the first 2 levels.  This picture was from his school website and these students names were also on the school's digital sign out front.  He gets to practice music with these 2 bands and then perform-looking forward to tomorrow night's County concert-know it will be great!

Funny things we've seen recently

 Ryan's hair does this ALL BY ITSELF!!!  How does that happen?  What does he do at night to cause his hair to look like this in the morning-it really does look like he has stuck his finger in a socket!!!

 I promise that I am NOT encouraging this at our house but I had to laugh when I saw this shirt at Walmart!

 I sent this to Scott's English teacher because it was so funny-she said it made her laugh too-it says:

 "For the love of all that is good, bring your BOOK to class.  Yes you, yes, today!  People, this is Language Arts.  We read stuff in here.  It's our thing, you know?  I mean if I asked you to bring a beaker, that would be weird.  But a book come on?????  You simply cannot go to high school without knowing that you need to bring books to class.  It's just one of those survival skills.



This reminded me of old trains leaving 2 cities at 2 different times and when would they meet math problems-I always hated those and felt like they made as much sense as this problem! 

 This is a great reference to a favorite cartoon!

The last Circus of Ringling Bros.

Ashley, Ryan, and I had a great evening at the circus!

 They had camels instead of elephants-I thought they were cool-Ashley was not impressed.

 She LOVED all the acrobatic tricks!

 This was the cannon a lady was shot from

 Happy and enjoying themselves!!!

 Ashley said her favorites were-1.  acrobats in glow in the dark outfits-I couldn't get a picture of them because it was so dark 2.  lady shot our of the cannon  3.  Acrobats in the globe  4. the guy running on the silver thing that spun around 5.  dog tricks and bicycle ramp tricks

Ryan said his favorites were 1.  tigers  2.  poddles-they were so fast that I couldn't get good pictures with my phone but they were SO cute, especially the little teeny ones!  3.  everything else-he has a hard time making a decision

 The globe of spinning acrobats

 The amazing tigers

 Cool bicycle tricks on ramps

 At the end-the trampoline guys and one last look at all the performers