Tony Hawk Boom Boom Huck Jam!

Tonight we went over to Nana and Poppy's house for an early birthday surprise for Ryan. Two months ago, unbeknown to any of us, Nana and Poppy bought two tickets for this huge event -- one for Ryan and one for Rob. It's for tomorrow night. Emily and I met Rob and Ryan over at their house, once Ryan finished skating. We sat around for a little bit and Nana asked Ryan to go and sit with Poppy. Ryan was a little unsure about it, but went anyway. haha! Poppy gave him the envelope and when Ryan saw what it was -- he was so excited!! He has been wanting to go so badly and every time he asks Rob, he would say, "we'll see!" So, this will be so much fun for them. Kelli and Hunter are going to ride along with them. I'm looking forward to seeing all the pictures. Emily and I will do something special -- just the two of us, while they are at their Tony Hawk Boom Boom Huck Jam!!!

Poppy and Ryan ~~~

Poppy reading to Ryan about all the things that are allowed and not allowed in the arena. Ryan just got back from skating, that's why his hair is a mess! hehehehe!

Poppy and Ryan ~~

Bowling!!

Today, we went bowling with Nana! She treated us to lunch, at the bowling alley, some video games, and three games of bowling! The children had a blast! This was the first time that we had been bowling in a LONG time. Before we left her house, she added some pink hair pieces to Emily and Sarah's hair. They looked so cute and the girls loved them. Caitlynn was spending the night with her friends, in Virginia Beach, so that's why she is not in any pictures. Luckily, Poppy dropped by, after work and went home to get his camera. I didn't know where mine was, because Rob had used it last night. He had actually put it in Emily's skate bag, but I thought he had left it in his car. So, I didn't have any pictures. Poppy drove all the way home and got his camera for us -- he's so sweet! The first two games, were played with the bumpers. The third game, was played without them. They did wonderfully without the bumpers! Enjoy the pictures!

I'm not sure about Emily's "pouting" in this picture. I think she may have just gotten a "gutter" ball and Sarah was comforting her! LOL!!

Emily and Sarah ~ such sweet cousins! You can really see their hair pieces in this pictures!

Hunter did a great job. As you can see in this picture, he knocked down all but one pin, on his first ball!

This was Sarah's second ball and she only left one pin!! Great job!

Ryan's turn!!

He's getting there!!

Emily setting her ball up!

Umm, I'm not sure what went wrong with her technique! LOL! It's right in the gutter. At least she's smiling!! he/he/he!!

Kit Kittredge Movie and Ice Skating!

Sunday, July 6, 2008:

Today, my Mom treated Emily, Caitlynn, and I to the movies!! We saw, "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery." Emily got this doll for Christmas, from Santa. Emily brought Kit to the movies; and, Caitlynn brought Nicki! It was such a good movie and it was great to spend some time with Nana/my Mom! After the movie, she treated us to Sam and Steve's. This is one of Emily's favorite places to eat! Here are some pictures, before the movie!

The girls, and their dolls, outside of the movie theater!

Emily and Kit, waiting for the first movie to end, so that we can go in.

Nana and the girls, heading up to our seats!

Caitlynn, the American Girls, and Emily. They are all waiting patiently for the movie to begin!


After our late lunch, Rob took Emily, Sarah, Jamie, and Alban to the IcePlex to skate! They all seemed to have fun. Alban didn't skate at all and Jamie didn't skate for long. But, Emily and Sarah were real troopers! Here are the pictures of the evening!

Emily!

Sarah!

Emily, Sarah, and Jamie!

Emily, taking a break with an ice cold icee! Brrr!!!

Sarah, taking a break with some hot chocolate!

Emily's Cute Hair Cut

Here it is ~ the new look!! Emily wanted something drastic and I think she got it!! We love it and so does she. Rob's mom cut it last night and we all think it's so cute. She hasn't had her hair this short since 1st grade. Luckily, Rob posted this picture for me, at work, so that you all could see the "new" Emily. Oh, and she now has shorter hair than her brother!!



I'm doing a little editing here, because I just clicked on the picture, to make it larger and noticed how blood-shot her eyes are. Poor thing, she has a sty on each eyelid and we swam all day yesterday (before the hair cut). So, her eyes aren't as bright as they normally are. Okay, I just wanted to clarify!! Bye!!!

Bible School and Skate Camp!

Today was the start of "Outrigger Island: Living God's Unshakable Truth" Vacation Bible School, for Emily, her two friends (Maddy and Morgan), Brandon, and Joshy. The three girls were in the same class. Brandon was in his own class and so was Joshy. They go by "age" for the children, who haven't started elementary school. For the older children, they go by the grade that they just completed. Everyone had so much fun. I loved seeing how excited Brandon and Joshy were when they came out of their classes, because this was their first year at Bible School. They go from 8:45am - 12:30pm, so it's a nice break for me and a fun time for the children! Scott met me up there to pick Brandon and Joshy up, because he was off work today. I will have them for the remainder of the week, though. I dropped Emily off with Nana and she took the girls to see "Kung-Fu Panda." Emily and Sarah both really enjoyed it.

So, as you can imagine by my title, Ryan started skate camp today. This was the first session of the summer and we will probably sign him up for one more, maybe two. The camp is from 10:00am - 2:00pm. He had a great time and is working on some new tricks. He loves to skateboard. He's looking forward to tomorrow so that he can continue to perfect his new tricks. Rob picked him up and then he went over to his friend's house. Ryan didn't want to go to the movie, so that's why Nana and the girls went to an earlier movie, instead of waiting for him to get out of his camp. For some reason, he is really nervous about going to movies. He gets really panicked and doesn't like it. I have never heard of a child being afraid of the movie theaters, but he is. I guess this is just another phase that he's going through. With movies being so expensive now anyway, I guess it's better, on the budget, to only take one child. LOL! So, my sweet boy waits for them to come out on video to watch the movies.

Before I end, I should mention that my baby girl has a sty on her upper eye-lid and it's pretty painful. Luckily, Rob's Mom had just bought some over-the-counter medicine for them (she gets about 5 a year, she says). Before they went to the movie, Nana put some in her eye and made it feel much better. She sent her home with the medicine and we put some on her sty before she went to bed. I hope that it feels better tomorrow morning.

I still have tons of pictures on my camera, that I can't download, yet. We still haven't done anything about our low memory problem, on our computer. When we do fix the problem, I will update with tons of pictures.

Time for bed, for me!!

First Day of Summer!

Happy First Day of Summer! First, I will just say that I really miss being able to post pictures to my blog. We still haven't fixed our memory problem on our computer. So, I haven't been able to download any pictures from my camera. I have over 300 pictures and about 6 videos just waiting to be set free!!! LOL! I have so many picture folders on my hard drive and that is what is taking up so much room. Rob thinks that we need to add an external hard drive and send all the pictures there, as we download. It's so frustrating!

I really thought that I was going to be able to blog last night, since both children had friends spend the night. However, they were a little wild and I didn't have the free time that I thought I would. LOL! But, it was fun and they were all really good, so I am not complaining. They didn't fall asleep until way after midnight and were up by 7-ish today. My sweet husband took them all swimming from 10:00 - 12:00, so I was able to have a couple of hours to myself. He had to go to work after he got home. He is always so sweet to spend every second of free time with our family. He won't get off work until midnight tonight.

So, what else did we do for the first day of summer??? Well, I got "blonded-up" again. That was something that Emily made up and it's key for: my roots are really bad!! LOL! A few years ago she would say, "Mommy, it's time to get blonded-up again!" So, that is the term I use when I am getting ready to go to Nana's shop. I so fortunate to have a mother-in-law, who does hair. She owns a shop and does all of our hair, free-of-charge! With the cost of hair foiling, I can guarantee that I would be my natural, dark brunette, if I would have to pay for my cut and color. While I was getting my hair done, Poppy watched Emily and Ryan. Sarah was also there, because Vickie was getting blonded up, too! LOL! So, they all played together, swam, and had fun.

Well, that was pretty much our day. Too bad that I'm not able to share any pictures with you. This is where I would be posting them. :-( That is definitely a "sad" face because I really don't like the way my blog looks without any pictures. Hopefully, we will get our little problem fixed very soon.

Oh, and one more thing: The skate park yesterday was so much fun! The boys (Ryan and his friend, Nick) had so much fun on the ramps. It was clean, safe, and taken care of. The City of Chesapeake did a great job with this park, that's for sure. It also had "Fun Forest," a huge playground with tons of areas for the children to play. It had a fence around the entire play area. What was also very impressive was the fact that there was only one way in and one way out! So, Brandon and Joshy couldn't escape, or any child, for that matter! The skate park was right beside the playground and it was fenced, as well! Ryan can't wait to take Hunter with him, when he is home from Tennessee. Emily feels the same way and can't wait to play on the playground with Caitlynn. We sure do miss them!! At least we are talking to them everyday, though. In fact, Emily is talking to Caitlynn right now. They are talking, during the commercials, while watching Camp Rock (a Disney movie). Well, that's it for now. I really am signing off now! Good night!

Last Day of School!

Well, today marked the last day of school. The last day of Fourth Grade, for Emily. The last day of Second Grade, for Ryan. My goodness, how time flies. They both had a really great year and did so well. Their report cards are actually being mailed out this year, so I'm not sure of their exact grades; however, I do know that they both made honor roll again. We are so proud of them both for how hard they worked. They got out at 12:35 today and here are the pictures of them, as they walked up to the van.

Ryan

Emily

Hunter and Adam


After we picked Caitlynn up, we went over to Nana and Poppy's to swim. It was such a beautiful day. The weather was in the 80's, which was such a welcome relief from the scorching heat that we've been having. We all had so much fun. We played Shark, Marco/Polo, Crab, the color game, diving/jumping contests, had snacks and drinks, the kids played hide and seek (while I was watching from a noodle, in the pool - LOL), and just had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of our pool time ~~

The kids before we got in the pool.

The boys enjoying their snack break. In fact, in the close up pictures, of the kids below, you will notice Doritos on their faces - LOL (I didn't realize this until I uploaded the pictures! Oh, and I usually do not offer any chips as a snack option; however, since today was the last day of school, we "junked" it up a bit!).

The girls enjoying their snack break.

Caitlynn

Emily

Hunter

Ryan


After Kelli picked up Caitlynn and Hunter, Nana and Poppy gave Emily and Ryan a wonderful gift. Poppy had taken pictures of both of them (Emily is ice skating and Ryan is skateboarding) and enlarged them, printed them out on his photography equipment, framed and matted them. They picked fun colors for the frames. They picked "purple" for Emily and "blue" for Ryan. Here they are, holding their beautiful pictures, with Nana and Poppy. We will be hanging them in their bedrooms, as soon as we paint the walls. Oh, and Ryan is making a funny face in the picture, but this one is better than the first because his eyes were closed!! He says that I take too many pictures and my flash blinds him. He is too funny!


Nothing ends a GREAT day like catching lightning bugs!!! And, even though they didn't catch many of them, it was so much fun watching their tired eyes sparkle, when they were running after the tiny specks of light they would see! We are looking so forward to our care-free summer days -- filled with lots of fun, times with family and friends, and lots of memories to be made!!

Lance, Ryan, and Emily

Emily, with her lightning bugs!

Ryan, with his lightning bugs!

My precious babies! I love them so much!

The Weekend!

We had such a nice weekend; although, we didn't get to see Rob that much at all. In fact, as I write this, he's still playing in a golf tournament. We miss him so much when he's not around and he's been working a lot lately. Sunday is usually reserved for "family day." He doesn't work on Sundays and we usually do something fun with all of us. His friend asked him to be in a golf tournament that is being held in memory of his father and brother, who both have passed away. Rob accepted the invitation and we definitely understand him being away from us today. But, we still miss him!

So, let me back up to Friday ~~~

My brother went out of town this weekend and asked me if I would keep his children (Brandon and Joshy) overnight, until their Mom could pick them up on Saturday. I gladly accepted and we had a fun night with them. Emily especially loves for them to come over and acts like a little "mommy" to them. She is so loving and nurturing. She definitely reminds me of myself at that age -- always flocking towards the youngest at any gathering. She is just so sweet to them. Ryan is tolerant and tries to be patient, but is not as much, when it comes to the little boys getting into his room, his things, and his personal space!! LOL!! We played games with them, watched "The Wild Thornberry" movie, and ate popcorn. Then, they all bunked-out in Ryan's room. He has the bunk bed and futon, so there is definitely more "sleeping" space in his room. They ended up in bed around 8-ish, and fell asleep pretty quickly.

Rob had to work very early on Saturday morning and said that they were actually all awake around 6:30am. Emily fixed their breakfast for them and I stayed in bed until 7:30. After playing outside and going for a walk, their Mom picked Brandon and Joshy up and we went to Nana and Poppy's (Rob's parents) pool. The water temperature is still a little too cold for me, but Emily and Ryan had a blast.

When Nana came home from work she told us to quickly get in my van and drive to a yard sale around the corner from her house. They had two bikes that she wanted us to look at for Ryan. He has a very small bike that we bought him for his fourth birthday and he has long since outgrown it. He has actually been riding Emily's bike, which is pink and white. So, she thought that she would buy them for him so that we wouldn't have to go out right away and get a brand new bike. With the exception of a little bit of rust, the bikes were in great condition. She bought both of them just in case we needed to use one for parts. The one that he's riding is a red and black Mongoose. He loves it. Then, they gave Emily the bike that has been in their garage for about 4-years, that they had bought at another yard sale, in hopes that their oldest granddaughter (Rob's sister's daughter), would learn to ride. She hasn't learned how to ride a bike and is not interested in learning (she will actually be 13-years old in September), so they let us take that home with us. Emily's pink and white bike is actually a Barbie one and she has definitely outgrown it. This one won't last much longer for her, either, but it was nice to have something for her, too. They were both so excited and I've included pictures of them riding their "new, for them" bikes. Nana and Poppy also got their bikes out and joined in on the fun. Rob came over, after he got off work, and rode his Dad's bike. He even popped some wheelies, but I didn't get a picture of it in time.

Today, after church, we came home and got the bikes out. Emily and Ryan want to ride their bikes to school from now on. So, I got in the van and we did a "trial" run to school. I had to follow in the van, because I don't have a bike, yet. And, I knew that I would have to run to keep up with them -- something that I am not going to do!! LOL!! We live quite a ways from school, so it's not like it's just around the corner. I wanted to make sure that they left in plenty of time to get to school, stopped at every stop sign, knew the rules of the road and crossing guard, and that they were able to get the bikes in the bike rack to lock them up. I will actually be following them to school every morning, because I drive a friend's children to school every day. So, I will be in my van anyway. Also, I pick Hunter up from school, so I will be following them home, too. LOL! They did such a great job and it only took us 4-minutes to get there, which really surprised me! They have been wanting to do this for a long time now, but we knew that Ryan couldn't ride his tiny bike up there and keep up with Emily. After we did that, we played on the playground for a little bit. Then, we rode back home and went to Target. They have both been saving their money and Emily bought a couple of things, in the dollar section. She also bought a "Pucci Purse," that has a stuffed puppy. Ryan bought a Tony Hawk skate park and another package of tech decks (finger skateboards). Now, we are just relaxing at home. Emily is about to go to the pool again, with Sarah. She called and invited her to go to Nana and Poppy's to swim. Ryan didn't want to go, so he is playing with his tech decks. They have been on about six bike rides today!! I really have to get a bike ~~ imagine the weight that I could lose if I went on a bike ride each time that my precious children did! I've been catching up on laundry, though.

Well, that's about it for today. Rob actually just called and told me that the tournament is over. So, he should be home within the hour. We are cooking out for dinner and will enjoy spending the remainder of the day together ~~~ I can't wait!!!

Here are some pictures from the weekend!



Here's Joshy ~

Here's Brandon ~

Here's Emily ~

Here's Ryan ~

Emily taking her 1st plunge-of-the-day ~

Ryan taking his 1st plunge-of-the-day ~

My sweet babies ~

Ryan on his "new, for him" bike ~

Ryan, Poppy, Emily, and Nana ~

Emily, Ryan, and Daddy (Rob had to join in on the fun.) ~