art, bats, and spaceships

I've been rather sporadic about posting lately. I'm doing more and more weekly updates instead of daily updates. There has been so much going on in our family. Big news - Jordan got glasses last Thursday and seems happy to wear them. We've really enjoyed having Dave's father with us during his recovery, too. Honestly I think Fall is one of the busiest seasons of the year and we are in the midst of all that.

Last week we got a call that Jordan had placed in the PTA's art contest. The theme was "my favorite place" She did a piece about the Girl Scout Camp she attended last summer. It was her first sleep away camp (a week) and she really enjoyed it. In addition to all the basic camping things she learned horseback riding and kayaking. She won third place in the contest and was awarded a $10 gift card from Target. We attended the ceremony last Wednesday. All the winners were surprised by the ceremony and they were hilarious. They had a hard time getting the kids out of the classroom to come to the ceremony because they were all so intent on not missing anything in class. Can you imagine? I remember looking for any excuse to be out of class.


William had his Halloween party at school last week. The teacher was very innovative. Instead of having the kids wear their own Halloween costumes she incorporated the creation of costumes into the classroom activities. It was hilarious because they voted on the boy costumes and girl costumes and did lots of learning activities related to their creation. All the boys were Batman and the Girls were a Fairy Princess. When they sat down for storytime it was like a sea of pink on one side and black on the other. Here are some photos:



And while in the classroom I got a huge kick out of this poster on the wall documenting the kid's answers to a question about the things they do with friends. Apparently my son goes to the moon with his friends.


Grace cuddled up to Pop-Pop last week. He's doing better each day and is very anxious to get his surgery staples out. We've had lots of sweet moments with him here.


Next week I'll try to post something other than kid photos. I have some things rumbling around in my head and I need some time to compose my thoughts. Thanks for indulging me. Oh yes, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Big things happening in our neighborhood tonight.

friday night was busy

First Will managed to play a good t-ball game and acquired the "Game Ball" for his hard work.



Then we raced over to our church to attend the tail end of a "TrunkNTreat" celebration. We were in such a hurry that I just put Grace's costume over her ballgame outfit -- jeans and a turtleneck. Looks like the princess managed just fine. Will wore his pirate costume and Jordan was an ipod player. It was a fun preview to Halloween.


Grace kissing Dave in her Snow White outfit.


Jordan's ipod costume...this one is going to be hard to take a photo of for my usual group shot on the steps!

This week has been a little hectic. We survived the wedding last weekend and then on Monday morning Dave's Dad had back surgery. He's beginning to recover, but is still in the hospital. We had expected him to come to our house on Friday, but it looks like he will be here on Sunday.

michael and amanda's big day

I'll post more words tomorrow. Here are some snapshots from today's wedding:

the wedding rehersal

Michael (our nephew) and Amanda are getting married on Saturday. Tonight we attended the rehersal activities. It is being held at a beautiful old Methodist Church about 45 minutes from our home. Here are some snapshots from tonight:

The church with late afternoon sun streaming through the stained glass windows. It's a morning wedding, but the light should be beautiful.


The wedding party practicing their placement. William and Jordan did great tonight. William was so dead serious that he made people chuckle as he went past. He was determined to get it right.


Amanda with Will and Jordan.

We went to a fishing lodge type place for the rehersal dinner and enjoyed some really great food and company. Alice had done some neat table decorations with mason jars, roses, votive candles, and dishes of Georgia Tech colored m&ms. They decided to have only the bride's cake for the wedding tomorrow so tonight's dessert was the groom's choice - white cake with raspberry filling and Georgia Tech decorations. God bless her - she had treats waiting for our kids at the dinner location. She had gotten each of them a special cup for tonight, had packets of crayola model magic, containers of crayons and pencils and specially cut circle placemats for them to color. Aunts are nice to have!





I'll post more tomorrow after the wedding. It's going to be a busy October morning in Georgia.

two happy things to enjoy

My friend Beth submitted her story to the Auburn Alumni Group about an experience she had at Yellowstone National Park. They decided to make a big commercial out of it to play during the game broadcast each week. Here's the link:

War Eagle Moment

Dave's cousin, David (I know, confusing huh?), in Utah has lived with an intense genetic illness for all of his life. Amazingly he and his wife raised eight wonderful children despite this. The family wrote to a group called Utah Home Makeover for help in building a bedroom for their daughter since hers was infested with mold. Brianne suffers from the condition also and the mold was accellerating her illness. When the Home Makeover group arrived at the home they saw a greater need since David cannot access much of the house in his wheelchair...so they decided to tear down the old house and completely rebuild a new house for the family. The family left the house last weekend and the two week event began on Monday. You can read more about the story and then click on the live webcam to see the exciting progress. Here's the link:

Smeltzer Family Makeover / Utah Home Makeover