Update Time!

It's time for an update, since I have been rather slacking in the blogging department lately. This week, Emily and Caitlynn had "Worship Arts Camp" at the church they attended for Bible School. They had so much fun and got to pick three types of art classes to take. Their schedule was: Photography, Sign Language, and STOMP! They really enjoyed their week. Emily's favorite classes were photography and STOMP! I'll have to check with Caitlynn on her favorite classes, but I'd be willing to guess that they were the same as Emily's. I would drop them off every day at 8:30 and pick them up at 2:30. They really enjoyed themselves. While the girls were at their camp, Ryan and Hunter were at skateboarding camp again. They learned a lot of new tricks, which made us feel better since their camp is a bit on the "pricey" side. It was nice to have all four of them at camp, at the same time. While they were at camp, I enjoyed some free time on Monday and Tuesday, which is a coveted luxury, during the summer months! hahaha! I watched Brandon and Joshy the remainder of the week, so they kept me very busy. Yesterday, we had a great day at the pool. It was so hot and we definitely enjoyed the water. Joshy has become very brave. Emily and Caitlynn were taking turns throwing him and he just loved it. He even let them put him under the water and took his water wings off. Brandon is still a bit nervous, but is very slowly coming around. Here are a couple of pictures and a video at the end, of the girls throwing Joshy. To 'hear' it, you will need to scroll down to the bottom and put my playlist on 'pause.'

Em and Joshy ~
Emily and Caitlynn, throwing Joshy ~

Friday, July 18, 2008

Early this morning, Caitlynn got picked up to go camping, with South and his family. So, after I got her off for her trip, Emily woke up with her ear still hurting! Poor Emily, her ear had been hurting for the past few days and I didn't really think that it was anything to be concerned about. Well, I was wrong. When she woke up, she told me that she was up a lot throughout the night. I called the doctor and they told us to come in at 9:40am -- yikes -- we had to rush, but made it! Luckily, Rob went into work a little bit later, so he dropped Ryan and Hunter off, at skate camp (their last day). I took Brandon and Joshy with us. Well, after waiting for an hour and a half, we were finally seen! Dr. Holman told us that Emily had swimmers ear. We were sent home with a prescription and instructions on Emily NOT going underwater for SEVEN days!! He told her that the length of her hair was perfect for "cutting a little deal." He said that she could still get in the pool, as long as her hair didn't get wet! So, at least she is still able to get in the pool and "cool" off. Nana and Poppy have tons of floats that she can enjoy. So, we plan on going tomorrow (Saturday).

After we picked the boys up from camp, we took Hunter to a friend's house to spend the night. Then, we went to IcePlex for Emily's private lesson! She did such a great job and passed to the next level -- Freestyle 2. So, this means, that she can practice on the ice, during Freestyle sessions, without her coach present. What a huge accomplishment. She has only been taking lessons for 10-months and has just soared through the levels. She is quite the natural and I just love watching her.

Nana and Poppy came over tonight, to visit. They are heading out of town and wanted to say "goodbye," before they left. It was nice seeing them.

Skateboarding Camp!

Before Camp ~~~



After Camp ~~~


I took the above pictures yesterday! I just love the difference in BEFORE camp, versus AFTER camp!! Look at those dirty faces (especially on Ryan) and disheveled hair. LOL!! They skate hard for the four hours they are at camp, and are so ready
to jump in Nana and Poppy's pool afterwards!

Party at Nana's and Skateboard Camp!

Today, Ryan and Hunter started a week's worth of skateboarding camp! This is Ryan's second time this summer and Hunter's first time. While the boys were at camp, Emily, Caitlynn, and I went to Nana and Poppy's house, for a pool party. Nana invited all the ladies from her shop, and their children and/or grandchildren. It ended up raining quite a bit, but we still had a lot of fun. We let the children continue swimming, until we heard thunder. Poppy came home and cooked hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill. While it was thundering, all the kids went into the den to eat and watch a movie. Luckily, the rain and thunder stopped and after I picked Ryan and Hunter up from skate camp, they were able to swim again. It was such a fun day. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Look at all those children!!!

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!!

Ryan's Day with Daddy~

Yesterday, we actually let Ryan stay home and have a day off from school, to have a special day with Daddy. We did this with Emily about a month ago, but have no pictures of it, because she went to lunch and out shopping. Emily's day off started as a "sick" day, when she was supposedly feeling awful and couldn't make it to school. About an hour into our morning, she had a miraculous recovery and ended up spending time with Daddy. I had Brandon and Joshy, so I stayed home with them. Anyway, we let Ryan have his day yesterday. We were running out of time because they start their benchmark testing next week, and then the end of the year will be here before we know it! Here are where their travels took them yesterday: They went to the skate park, at Mount Trashmore, in Virginia Beach. I have taken the children there several times and Rob has always been working, so it was nice for him to actually see this HUGE park, as opposed to just seeing pictures. Since everyone is still in school, Ryan had the park, basically, to himself. Then, they went to Mike's, the indoor skate park, in our city. After lunch, at Red Robin, they went to play Putt-Putt. They were home shortly after I got home with the children from school. Here are the pictures from both of the skate parks. Enjoy!!! I'm also going to try to post a video of him skating at Mount Trashmore.

Pictures from Skate Park at Mount Trashmore ~~


Video of Ryan at Mount Trashmore ~~


Pictures, from Mike's Skate Shop (he was the only one there) ~~