Fall Activities

It's been awhile since I updated...so I'm just lumping a bunch of activities into one post. When I'm taking the photo I'm thinking...this will make great blog material...but then it sits on my camera...and then it sits on my computer...and then I never get it loaded here!

Football has been a major family activity this fall - Jace is playing on the 5th grade Tiger team and Phil is the head Coach. Jalyn also enjoys going to the practices and has Cheered with The Dance Company at a few games! The picture above is their 'breakdown' at the end of the game. It's so cute!

My sister took some awesome pictures of the kids at the last home game. Here is Jace catching a pass in the endzone for the extra 2 points! Isn't he awesome!

I have lots more football pics that I'll post soon...

Here's Jalyn at our Browndale Farms trip - we're hoping to make it out for Flashlight Night at the Corn maze!!

For some reason this picture didn't rotate like it was supposed to...but you get the idea - Jalyn played soccer this fall, which was fun for her! This is when she was the goalie - but when the ball would come her way she would put her hands over her face and shout NOOOO! The rest of the time she was dancing and doing cartwheels.....

Sammi Jo, my third child, likes to take her 'babies' to bed with her! She sleeps on Jalyn's bed, actually under Jalyn's covers, but she gets up over..and over..and over to bring more stuffed animals onto the bed with her. And she seems to like the expensive ones best???

Wow - Jalyn LOVES 2nd Grade!!! She is GIDDY about 2nd grade! Give that girl some homework!!!

Why don't you just relax?

My dog is such a dork...here she is, after a long morning of begging breakfast, chasing the cat, chewing on Webkin Babies, and pooping on the floor. It's a rough life, but somebody's gotta do it! This is what we should all be doing right now...kickin' back on the couch with not one but two pillows...yep - just talked myself into it! night night!

Havin' FUN at Worlds of Fun!

At the Concordia Spring Recital, our family was given an awesome gift - a Family Pass to Worlds of Fun! It was great for us because we love to go to Kansas City right before school starts, as a final celebration of summer. We usually hit the Great Wolf Lodge and back to school shopping at Legends or anywhere for that matter! I have successfully raised 2 kids who love to shop! So this year, we hit Worlds of Fun, then stayed at a little cottage on the grounds and hit Oceans of Fun the next day! It was a great time, and may be our new family summer tradition!

We met Snoopy...

We went with the John, Darci and their 2 kids - which was great for our kids, they loved it! Phil and John did the bungee-rip cord thing which was totally crazy if you ask me. None of my pictures really did the height justice, it was so high! This photo is them whizzing by us!

Jace and Jalyn climbed the rock wall...

Tori even made it to the top and almost hit the button but lost her grip! It was a 'gripping' moment....

Here's Phil and Jace riding the go-karts. Jalyn and I raced too!

And the kids drove their own buggy - it was really a fun day! So, Thank you to those who contributed to the gift, we had a great time and it was a terrific way to end the summer! Dance Classes start next week and we'll all get busy again - yeah!

Proud of my Kiddos!

July was a very busy month for us...by the way, when is it that summer slows down???? Anyway, we played baseball, softball, football and participated in the Clay County Fair. Here's some highlights...

Jace decided to enter some legos in the Open Class section of the fair. We have never done 4-H, but he always admires the exhibits and says 'maybe next year I can enter something!' So this year we stuck to it and he prepared a lego display. The cool thing about it was he built a World War II scene with little men sitting in bunkers with guns, and other little men coming off boats and tanks and moving forward - and he wrote an essay about the War...it was really cool! He also built some Star Wars ships and wrote an essay about how he built them, and how Star Wars and legos were 2 of his favorite things. We were so proud of him when we found out he won the Grand Champion, purple ribbon! He says he's never won anything before in his life...which made it even sweeter.

Then football started the last part of July, they had practice when it was over 100 degrees! Here he is in his football get-up, cooling off after practice.

Jalyn played on the traveling softball team this summer, and they went to the State Tournament in Wichita in July also! It was a really fun weekend, despite the rainy weather that delayed our games several times. They ended up losing 2 and winning 1, but having a good time in between! The rain delays were several hours each, but the girls had a good time hanging out and making friends.

And of course I'm always up for eating out! We went to Applebees with my good friend, Michelle, and her 2 girls Bey Lee and Lauren. Here's Lauren, she's only 2 but had to have the black stuff for her eyes too - and can you see those bright blue 'icee' lips??? Wait a minute, I just noticed the big girls don't have black stuff on their eyes....so that must have only been necessary for spectators.

Jalyn and Bey Lee became good friends this summer, which is great because she lives in Miltonvale and we don't get to see Bey Lee very often. The girls were in daycare together when they were younger so it was fun to get reaquainted.

So there's an overview of our busy summer, and just a little bragging about our awesome, sometimes goofy, kids...we're pretty proud of them!!

The Haircut

It's done. The hair is gone. I'm sure no one is in mourning, with the exception of Phil. In case you didn't already know, Phil put his hair up for auction to raise money for the Chapman Relief Fund. OK, the hair wasn't actually up for auction because who would really want that...the haircut was up for auction...people who wanted to see Phil cut his hair bid as much as $220 to make that happen. And it could have gone a lot higher but at the 5 minute cut off, the 5th Grade Football Moms had the bid at $220. (Phil coaches the 5th graders and apparently the Moms ganged up to make sure he couldn't get out of this one!)

So here we are, at Mane Effect where Susan has donated her time to cut the mop, I mean Phil's hair.

Look how long it was! She actually cut 7 inches!

Here's the audience...

Don't you like Phil's clippy?

And then Jace had to get a matching cut - his had been getting pretty long too! So here they are, my two favorite guys with their new do's. Aren't they striking????

Thanks, Susan, for donating your time, and for those who participated in the bidding. It was all in fun, and for a great cause!

Gearing up for Open House!

We finally concluded our Summer Camp Schedule last Saturday with our Saturday Day Camp in Concordia. All in all, we had almost 100 kids participate in Summer Classes at the studio! That is more than ever before! Thanks for your participation!

We had a great time, we decorated hats and shoe bags...
and the Roller Skating is always my favorite. Tori was showing off her tricks...but most of us were mainly just falling down! But it was still lots of fun!

Ceanna and Erin were great sports, being the oldest at camp the little ones really took to them! Liah rarely left her side!

Genna and Alex got the Spirit Award for their skating skills...or lack thereof...they never stopped smiling and laughing - and never complained when I know some of those falls must have hurt!


We also did tumbling, jazz, ballet, tap, hip hop, kick and some games. I wish I had more pictures of the dancing - I'm terrible about remembering to snap pictures! I only brought the camera one day and Janelle took most of these!

Open House is coming up in Clay Center on August 7th and in Concordia on August 8th. I can't believe summer is almost over! It always goes so fast. The Enrollment Newsletters are going out this week - so watch your mail! If you want to be added to the mailing list, just e-mail me with your address!

Happy 4th!

Hope you all had a Happy 4th of July!

My Mom always buys the grandkids a 4th of July t-shirt, so we tried to get a decent picture of the 5 of them. It's always comical but frustrating at the same time...there's the goofy faces from the boys....

The dog trying to jump in the picture...

Alyxis getting splinters from our unfinished porch project... which finally makes everyone smile.

And we have a keeper!

Sammi was a little out of sorts...she lays back her ears when she gets disturbed.

My Mom is looking and feeling great! She has had 4 of 6 treatments, and is ready to have her energy back, but overall doing really, really well!

Jalyn was kinda jumpy, she'll stick to the poppers that you throw on the ground...in fact, when the boys were just getting started she was ready for bed. Went inside and put on her pjs!

Zeb and Jace were throwing firecrackers...which was driving me crazy! Every year the Moms sit on the porch and yell at the kids all night, and the Dads egg them on more and more. It was cracking me up how Zeb was throwing his leg out everytime he 'wound up' to throw a firecracker! Hope you had a safe and FUN Day!!