I'm Bragging I know...

We got a letter from the Orange County school district in Virginia saying that Makenzie achieved a PERFECT SCORE on her 3rd grade SOL test last year in MATH and HISTORY. She achieved a 600 in both subjects. Woohoo! We always knew she was smart but didn't realize how smart! We are so proud of her.

My Birthday

Josh is working near Winslow, Arizona (about 3 1/2 hrs from here.) He stays there 4 days a week and is home for 3. He's building a school on a Navajo reservation. Its extremely interesting. Anyway, my birthday was on Wednesday and I spent all day with the "poor me's" because Josh wasn't home for my birthday. (Even though I got so many calls, emails and cards from my wonderful friends and family.) What's worse is that he acted like, "sorry, there's nothing I can do about it." But around 4:00 he surprises me at the door with a balloon bouquet and a beautiful rose bouquet. Awe!! He also had a babysitter lined up to take me out for a nice birthday dinner. Love you Josh!..... . .I told him next time, don't do that.





Let them eat cake! Next time I'll remember the spoon.

Visit to the Chidester Gang

Another visit to The Chidester Gang. These kids have so much fun together. They get along so well. Except for in the incident where Parker punched Jesse in the face because Jesse wanted to watch a movie intead of play with him. But he's sorry! It's so nice to have family close by.

Parker and Jesse got their own wheels. Parker needs some bigger ones.

Makenzie and Elizabeth the tree huggers

Mason and cousin William jumping. Check out that blue sky!


With all these kids in the same room, there wasn't much sleep going on. I had some pretty grouchy kids the next day.

Parker's a Pre Schooler!

Parker finally started school! We've been talking about preschool for probably about a year and he's finally made it. Fyoo! I enrolled him in the Jungle Explorers preschool. It's held in the teacher's home where she has transformed part of her house into the classroom. He goes M-W-F and so far he loves it. On his first day I snuck in a little early and watched him interact with the others and I was so proud of him. He was laughing and having fun. Im so glad he's comfortable there.



Parker is ready...he has been for months! Right down to his old hand me down Bob The Builder backpack. (Which I wanted to replace with a new one but he put his foot down.) Whatever makes him happy.

For the first 15 minutes, the kids play in the backyard and unwind. Parker ran towards the toys as soon as we got there. He's not shy!

Reminiscing Summer at the Beach

Well, Labor Day is around the corner which means to me that summer is over. I wouldn't mind getting some cooler weather here soon. Here are a few scrapbook LOs of our trip to the beach (Nags Head, NC)

Sidney...posing


This is my friend, Sasha's little boy, Josh. I LOVE this picture of him.


My 4 beach bummies

Kite flying on the beach...what could be better?

First Day of School

Parker's big day is next week. Today he was happy to say "see ya" to the girls.

Lining up

Sidney waiting....and waiting....

The girls have to wear red, white or navy polo shirts. Talk about easy school shopping. (But not as much fun)

It's the first day of school...the day the girls have been looking forward to for so long. I enrolled them in a public charter school called Legacy Traditional. They have to wear "uniforms" and its a bit of a different carriculum than public school. It'll be a little challenging but I think they'll do just fine. Problem is there was some construction delay in the new campus (this is only their second year running) so until all the buildings are complete the school was forced to split the school into 2 half day sessions for a few weeks. The girls are in the PM session which is from 11:40 - 2:40. Since the kids all get up around 6:30 there was a lot of anxious waiting around all morning. Sidney wore her backpack at 9 and wouldn't take it off. Their first day went really well. They were both happy and talkative on the way home from school. I was so releived!!

Losing it

The girls lost the exact same tooth only two days apart from each other. Crazy,hugh considering they're 19 months apart. It's a busy week for the tooth fairy!