Christmas Concerts

 

The CHS Christmas Band concert and Shout! Choir musical both fell on the same day this year. Fortunately the timing worked out and we had a great Sunday of Christmas music AND a Happy Birthday Jesus party! I love living in a small town where the high school is right across the street from the church and families can follow all their kids and celebrate the season together.

 

 

Terrapin Derby 2012

Every summer our church hosts the Terrapin Derby at our local Peach Festival. I was pretty excited when I arrived this year and we had a fancy sign provided by a sign company in town. Unfortunately they called us : First Baptist First. Hmmm.

Our whole family rolls out for this Johnson County who's who. I'm not sure what the difference is between a turtle and a terrapin, but there are people who are pretty serious about it. All for a blue ribbon and a little fun. And if you're lucky, you can get a blue snowcone that will turn your mouth blue for a couple hours. Small town living at it's best.

Last weeks of school

Erin and Sydney at the LAST band concert for Erin. She has decided not to be in band anymore. We have talked about it at length and the truth is, she doesn't enjoy it at all. She has so many other things that she likes ("LOOOVVEEESS") and so it's a wise choice for her to pursue the things she excels and enjoys. We have no doubt music will be a huge part of her life, so we're not worried about her giving that up!

Junior High Talent Show: She sang Francesca Battistelli's "This is the Stuff" and did an excellent job! Ryan and Lauren were both able to come over to the fine arts center and I checked Sheridan out of school to watch. (Small town living at it's best) WOW! we were all highly impressed and proud.

LOVE these two college girls, Melody on the ukulele and Naima on the acoustic guitar. These girls accompanied her and it was really good! She didn't "win" but she was great!

Last year we were in Hawaii when Erin was in her first CJH talent show. Our teacher friend kept us up to date. It was a good memory, and yet I was so glad to be there in person to clap this year!

I was the class leader during Sheridan's WATER DAY! It's a really fun day where the kids are encouraged to wear clothes to get wet in, and there are lots of parent volunteers to oversee the 11 stations of games. What makes water day so fun is that it is typically SO HOT during the last days of May. Unfortunately, it was about 48 on our water day and chilly! The kids shivered their way through the games and it was still fun!


Other events the last two weeks of school:
High School Choir Concert - Ryan
Junior High Choir Concert - Erin
State Soccer Tournament - Lauren
Try Outs for American Legion Baseball - Ryan
Softball games - Sheridan
CHS graduation - Ryan & Lauren
Band trip to Magic Springs - Erin
Choir trip to Branson - Ryan
Boy's State - Ryan
AND...a tornado came through our town.

The neighbor girls

Love these sweet friends. All playing soccer this year, in the same grade as Lauren, live within walking distance and are fun to have around. Arie, Lexi and Lauren...counting our blessings.

BIG weekend

Thursday Ryan and Lauren both played ball. Friday, Lauren played soccer again, in Berryville. When I got home from the game I went to the AWANA girls sleepover and hosted for about an hour during the missions portion of the night. Saturday morning the family got up, dressed in black, and headed to Hot Springs to watch our High School, and our buddy Trey, play for a state championship in Basketball. WHAT A DAY! The pictures say it all:

Baseball/Soccer/Track = Thursday

Rich and I went to Tulsa/BA for a quick trip on Thursday. He had a meeting and I was handing out marketing materials to moms who want to know more about my event. We were on a bit of a tight schedule as we were both headed opposite directions to watch our kids play ball. Erin was out of town at a track meet, she has injured her knee, so was not running, just cheering.

I had soccer duty in Clarksville, and I needed to pick Sheridan up from a friend before the game. Game time was 5:00. Richard was on baseball duty and they were scheduled to play in Subiaco (30 min away), and the game was to start at 4:30. Unfortunately, or fortunately for us, Subi's baseball field was under water so we got to watch both games...from the visitor's stands at our football field! This only happened once last season.

We can sit on the top row and see both the baseball field and the football/soccer field. Woo hoo! Small town living at it's best!

Both teams won! Lauren scored 2 goals and assisted with another! Final was 5-0. Ryan pitched the last three innings and got us a win in a tight game, 9-8.

Holiday Kick Off Weekend

It's been a bit of a crazy weekend. It began on Thursday night, which was the only night we were all home. We set aside exactly 30 minutes to decorate the Christmas tree together. Serious memory making, I tell you. From there everyone scattered to study for tests, take care of babies, choir rehearsal, etc.

Friday I taught school and Richard ran errands in and out of town all day. Friday night Erin went to a bonfire birthday party and Richard and Ryan went to a football game in Little Rock. Sheridan and I watched Ramona and Beezus (so cute). Lauren and Lexi hung out at home and ate pretzels.

Saturday began with Erin heading to Ft Smith for an all day Quiz Bowl Meet. At 10, everyone else (plus Lexi) put up the Christmas lights on the house and Richard made a trip to WM to replace the strands that refused to light this year.

I fixed a late lunch for us and while we were eating my sweet neighbor brought over a beautiful pie. She knows Richard and I are watching our calories and made us a sugar free pudding pie...with meringue! Soooo blessed we are. TOO nice to not take a picture.

Lexi and Lauren took the day easy, except for their continual practice of their Christmas music. French Horn and Trumpet...sounded pretty good...and loud. I had to step in the room one time as something just wasn't right and they were butchering one of my favorite carols...they had switched horns. Uggg.

RANDOM SIDE NOTE: (Over lunch (while I was taking a picture of the pie) Lexi told me she read my blog and I thanked her. Then she admitted she probably hadn't looked at it in a year. I committed to using her name as many times as I could in a post to see if she read it any time soon. Ha!)

The main event of the day: The Christmas Parade.



Other small town blessings:

1) Crossing the road (through the band, during the parade) without anyone arresting us or even yelling at us. (While taking a picture of the girls we got on the opposite side of the road as our car, and we didn't want to get stuck there)

2) My children's choir singing at the lighting of the town Christmas tree (more on this next post)

3) Watching my husband and my son take candy gathering to a competitive level. They put Sheridan out in front as "candy bait" and as she waved and smiled, they gathered the loot. It was HILARIOUS. Seriously, ALWAYS watch a local parade from the beginning, where all the floats have LOTS of candy and WANT TO THROW it.

I'll quote Ryan, "This is the best night of my life." Not by a long shot, but maybe the best hour of the weekend, and that's even having to miss the middle of the Auburn game. Next year he's planning on bringing a bag like the other children.

It doesn't take much to entertain us (and make us belly laugh), and that's a blessing.

Family Fourth

This is one of the many hugs our kids received as they arrived home from a great week at camp. I was so glad to be the receipient of such hugs too. It's good to have all of us under one roof again.

We've been to two swim team practices, one baseball practice, had a friend over for 24 hours, and Sheridan went to family swim night at the city pool. Richard has been catching up on a week's worth of mail and preparing to teach this weekend, we had the Bible Study group over on Tuesday, and I announced my fall sale dates yesterday which has brought in about 40 emails today that needed to be answered. Tonight we have a ball game and another swim practice. Tomorrow, swim meet in the evening out of town. I love this family, and I promised to be thankful.


Highlight of the week:
Sunday we celebrated the 4th by hosting a community-wide fireworks presentation right by our church. Our city hasn't had one in many years so people really rolled out for the festivities. We gave away sno cones, bottled water and popcorn. Our family worked the ever-popular sno cone booth. We made right around 675! That's a lot of ice and syrup! The line was long but happy, and so were we.




I love this about our town: Lawn chairs, fireworks, and friendly faces.

Sheridan turns 7

Actually, Sheridan's birthday was last month. And the girl showed great maturity in waiting to have a party when I could be here. On her actual BIRTHday Richard took she and a friend to a fun play place in Rsvl for the day. It filled in the gaps until Friday when we celebrated with a big BUTTERFLY PARTY!


First, we started on the ping pong table stamping t-shirts with butterfly sponges! These girls are so creative!

Next, we played a little butterfly matching game...


Next we played this little game of unwrapping "cocoons" to find what was inside.
FUN DIP!

We decorated butterfly cookies next. You'd think finding a cookie cutter for this would've been easy but I waited until the last minute and finally had to put out a request on Facebook for some help. No kidding, one of my friend's husbands picked one up for me at Hobby Lobby in Rsvl. I love this very thing about living in a small town. The cookies were a hit!






On to some of the easiest and CUTEST cupcakes I have ever made. Seriously, I copied the idea and the instructions from the internet and it was so easy!

What's a 7-year old party without some cartwheels before the gifts?

Sheridan needed a new Panther shirt with her brother's number on it! She's ready for football season!

All in all, it was a success!
Jadyn, Parker, Rylie, Anna Grace, Madison & Sheridan! Two of Sheridan's sweet friends couldn't come but we agreed to have them over during the summer!

This is the best part!: Our family all together celebrating the gift of another sister!!