New PR

 Alyssa has been thoroughly enjoying cross country this year.

Last Saturday was the UGA Invitational - a huge meet with university and high school teams.

This picture of the starting line for Alyssa's 5k race shows only just over 1/2 the whole line.

You can actually see her in the group of blue runners (her team).
I marked her with the arrow.

 She ran strong the whole race . . .

. . . and kicked it in at the end for a new person record of 21:55!

Rain, clippings, and second plantings

We've been having a lot of regular rain. We even had a wonderful slow rain for a whole day - my yard has loved it and has greened up again after the hot days of summer.

Unfortunately, the rain has been such that I haven't gotten to cut the grass very often.

After mowing the lawn, the last time, I was amazed at how many clippings there were.

 The rain has also been great for the garden.

I had to pull a lot the garden out after the very hot weeks we had and then pouring rain.

Some of the tomatoes were bursting on the vine because of the sudden rain in July and I could only scoop up tomatoes off the dirt and toss that vines. There were obviously many seeds that were missed as you can tell by the new forest of tomato plants I have growing in the garden!

Even in the rocks of the terracing.

 I did plant some tomatoes on purpose and those are starting to produce my second harvest - I'm so excited! I got the first ripe tomato off the vine yesterday!

Lone Star

Once again a favorite time of year, for me, has come.

Thanks to the Georgia Poultry Federation's Night of Knights, Robert gets to take me to dinner and a concert - for free!

Well, we had to help usher people as they came in, but were free after the evening started.

This year Lone Star was playing!

They were SO much fun!! The best concert so far!

The rotating stage and close proximity make these concerts great.

The members of the band would get down by the edge of the stage to take pictures with people, grab cell phones to video around the band as they were playing, even brought people up on stage with them.

They were a lot of fun!

 I told Robert that if I didn't like it so much I'd have him take Alyssa since it would be a fun experience for her . . . but no - I always look forward to this night and this time did not disappoint!

The Birthday Month Continues!

 Having a birthday right after school starts is hard. New friends, more demands on our schedule. We finally did a quick squeeze of a friend party for Logan a week or so ago - before it was no longer his birthday month!

We try and keep the number of kids at the party to the age the child is turning - so for Logan it was 6.

After listing off four of his good friends he was done! 

One couldn't make it and we missed having him, but we had a fun evening of pizza, games, cake and presents.

We had had a whole water party planned out, but lost our Saturdays once school started. So, we moved indoors. 

My burst of creativity came with our Lego mini figure game.

I pulled the mini figures into 5 pieces and put each piece into a water balloon and a number on each balloon - five 1's, five 2's, etc. (this was initially going to be done with them filled with water).

After they all picked a number we began. They had to find all the balloons with their number on them . . .

 . . . then pop the balloons 

to get the pieces out . . .

 . . . then they had to assemble all the pieces.

 Once they finished they got a trophy for completing their mini figure!

Natalie finished first - way to go 12 year old!

We did a pinata in the basement which actually broke faster than I expected - way to go 12 year old, again!

And then we went up for cake. I got a bunch of mini pound cake loaves, a bunch of different toppings, made six different colors of frosting, and let them have at it!

 They had a blast piling things on their cakes.

 

 When everyone was finished we put a candle on Logan's cake and sang Happy Birthday!

 And they dug in!

 Opening gifts is always exciting and Logan couldn't wait to put some new Lego sets together and plan what he was going to get with some new birthday money!

 But that could wait a bit, there was still time to play some soccer with his friends before the party was over.

Logan's birthday month is finally over and he loved every minute of it!

Quick Trip

 Last weekend Natalie, Logan, and I went made a quick trip to Florida for my cousin's wedding.

They got married in the LDS Orlando Florida temple.

We had never been there before. Like all temples, it is beautiful.

 After they got married, we waited for them to come out.

 Introducing Kent and Angie Hatch!

 It was great to be with them for their wedding.

Like I said, it was a quick trip. The kids were excited to stay at a hotel and go swimming - until there were two HUGE beetles swimming in (as in under the surface) the pool with them!

My parents thought we would be in the same hotel, but we weren't. So, I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I wanted.

But, it was a wonderful day and worth the trip.

Always My Baby

  A few years ago, Logan made us stop calling him baby. But he's always been and will always be my baby. It's harder for me to see that now that he's in 1st grade and officially 6! He's growing up.

Logan had been waiting since the first day of August for his birthday day to come.

He requested crepes for his breakfast,

and mac and cheese and root beer for dinner. I added chicken to round out that request a bit.

He had seen a cookies and cream ice cream cake at Baskin Robbins and wanted that for his cake.

He went for one candle for an easier birthday wish come true.

I made the ice cream cake with a brownie crust. It turned out really yummy.

He wanted to open presents when he got up in the morning. 

He wanted to open presents as soon as he got home from school.

He finally got to open presents after dinner and cake!

A few Legos, of course. When he got birthday money from his grandparents he knew exactly what he wanted and we ordered the Lego City Police game on Amazon right away.

 It arrived on his birthday.

There was a big box that didn't shake like Legos . . . We got him a gold panning set.

Robert has had a couple of buckets dirt, with potential, sitting in our driveway for months. 

Natalie went to try it out, finding a flake and some black dust that shines. 

The others soon joined her, after the Legos were built.

We'll have fun panning for more.

A very big Happy Birthday to my boy who couldn't wait to be 6 and finally is!

Another Year Has Begun!

 School started last week!

The day before school started we got to meet everyone's teacher(s). They were all, well Jake and Logan, to "old" for pictures with their teachers (Natalie and Alyssa have moved beyond that).

Logan's 1st grade teacher is the same one that Jake had, we're so excited and Jake will have science and math with the teacher he had in kindergarten (who moved to teaching 4th grade after he had her for kindergarten). He really likes his homeroom teacher who he will have the rest of his day and subjects with.

Here are the boys loaded down with all their school and classroom supplies for the first day.

 When they came home I asked how their first day of school was, they both loved it! The next day, when I asked how school was they said even better than the first day.

Friday after school Logan came home and set out his clothes for Monday!

The girls' bus comes almost an hour after the boys left, so they had some time to get ready - and for the sun to come up!

Everything is old hat this year, no new schools or new kindergartners so there was very little anxiety - mostly just excitement for a new year!