Horsing Around

The kids have been wanting to ride horses for a while and between the H-O-T weather and busy school days/nights we have been having, our days have been slim pickings. Thurdsday, we finally had a night with nothing scheduled so we headed down to Mimi's to ride!! It was such a nice night, temperature was cooler which made it even more enjoyable. Both kids did very well, Hayley was a little hesitant at first so she rode with Sammi and had Kelly lead, that only lasted 5 laps or so, and then she was ready to ride by herself!! Hunter is a natural born cowboy!!  We are looking forward to this long weekend coming up so we can ride again!! Thanks Mimi for letting us ride your horses...we love you!

Hayley on Max with Kelly leading

Hayley and  Sammi

Hunter on Max

Sammi on Toby and Hayley on Max

Hayley, Sammi, Hunter

Monkey see, monkey do!!

Crazy, busy week

This week was crazy, busy but that is what you get when school starts. Kids are still doing AWESOME, thank you Jesus!! Hayley had taken her first AR test this week and got 10/10, and is now on a green level dot (growing up way too fast!) Hunter is a freaking sponge...absorbs every. little. piece. of. information  and is constantly sharing with us!
 
Vision Therapy was on Tuesday and we got results from our 6 week evaluation: lots of improvement and growth this far!! WE ARE TICKLED PINK!!!!  Dr. Bowersox is will meet with us next week and we will rework our goals (we have surpassed our first set of goals), its looking that if improvement is still being made we will "graduate" in 8 weeks!!!  Hunter is enjoying going and working very hard to meet his goal!!

Both kids had spelling test today and got 100% (this was Hunter's first test of the year).  Hunter missed his passing his fun fact test by 1 question (He is the only student in his class to be on test 2!!!).

We are ready to rest up this weekend and enjoy this beautiful fallish weather we have been having!!

All About Kids

Today Clayton and I met the Lana, Nathan and Ms. Diana at All About Kids for a play date. Yes, I know that my kids are in school but that doesn't mean that play dates have to stop for us!! It was a special treat and fun to do something with just Clayton and I, baby Leah will be coming with him in 3 more weeks.

Lana and Clayton have been buddy buddy since I started taking him to Team Kids on Wednesday nights with us. All morning long Clayton kept saying "Is it Lana time yet? I so scited (excited), Jessie"  It melted my heart--when he saw Lana he ran up to her and gave her a big ole hug!!  They crack me up--one minute they are loving each other and the next minute they fight like brother and sister...guess the fact that they are both 3 doesn't help any!!

We spent lots of time in the toddler area and it was SO much fun. Slides, bouncies, ball pit, toy houses and  cars, ALL IN A CONFINED AREA--it was perfect.

From 12-1 they opened the big gym for toddler time and it was so much fun. I was upset that we "big kids" couldn't play, I really wanted to! (Shh,don't tell I did jump on the trampoline with the kids) Ball pits, trapeze, trampolines, gymnastic stations, slides and much more. I was too busy trying to keep up with the kids that I didn't take a lot of pictures.

this is what Nathan did most of the time...

too busy to stop for pictures

finally at the end we had a happy baby!

We had lunch and ice cream and then went back to the toddler area until a little after 2. The kids played so nice together, and it was nice to be able to catch up with Diana as well. I will have to remember this so that we can come when the weather gets nasty outside!! Thanks for another fun day, can't wait until next time!! We are truly blessed with such awesome friends!

Around the corner

Since deer season is just around the corner, Brian and Hunter worked this weekend on getting his feeder and tree stand put together and in the field.  I don't know who is more excited, Brian or Hunter. I love the fact that this is something that they both love to do and care share this special time and memories together.

Estate Sell

We headed out early this morn to the country for Maw Maw's estate sell. It was long day filled with lots of emotions, but I think I can speak for everyone, glad its over.

It was weird seeing all the signs up with the auction information on them. I had to laugh, the kids thought that Maw Maw was famous because her name was all over the place.

There were so  many cool things there and the stories that went with them are even cooler. I could have sat for days listening to people talk about when Maw Maw and Paw Paw Woody lived there and had the farm, when Ma, Gen and Gerald were little, and all the countless other stories that went along with them.  It was a blessing and comfort to hear these and I know it made the day a little easier for Ma and Gen.

Hayley was checking out the records and 8 tracks that Maw Maw had--she couldn't believe there was such a thing.

This bed was made by Gerald (Ma's deaf brother) when he was in school--it was beautiful!

The kids always can find some way of entertaining themselves and today it was the clothes line

I loved taking pictures of all the old barns on the property, the more run down they were the better!! I took lots of pictures but these are my favorites (I like them better in black/white then color), I am going to have them blown up and hang then in the house.

We came home with a few goodies: tobacco sticks (can never have too many of these!), some treated wood, concrete  mixer

and my favorite.....

  Paw Paw Woody's tomahawk from his tobacco days--its over 50 years old!!

How cool is that??  Brian wants to hang it in the barn, and I think it's shadowbox worthy. After all, this is his Great Grandpa's (the kids GREAT GREAT grandpa's) that he used when he worked the fields for way back when. Hunter wants to use it when he is big enough to work tobacco. Don't know about all that.