May Day through Memorial Day (A Pictorial Guide)

Although it is no excuse, our laptop battery went dead two weeks ago and we just got the replacement this week. Sadly, that is the main reason I haven't blogged, no wireless access! If I wanted to get a post out, I would have had to sit at a desk and type without the ability to move around, gasp! It is like when your cordless phone goes out and you have to use a corded phone...it is just primitive.

With so much ground to cover, I am going to go with the old adage "a picture is worth a 1000 words". So here goes a lot of pictures with few words, probably in random order.

Each year my parents compete in the Uwharrie Senior Games (aka the Senior Olympics) and this year was no exception. After a week of events ranging from Bocce Ball to Shot Put, the final medal count was, Grandma - 17 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze (in 19 events) and Grandpa - 3 gold and 2 silver (in 5 events).

One of our favorite things to do in the summer is strawberry picking. There is something about picking the fruit yourself that makes it just a little more special. In Micah's case, eating them right off the vine was what made it special to him:)

Our big project this year...swingset addition. The race for who can get their shoes on the fastest and therefore get a swing first is over! Jeff and Steve added two swings and a trapeze bar to our existing swingset giving everyone, even Nehemiah, a place to play.

Every few months, Harris Teeter (the local grocery store) runs a really good coupon special. This particular week it was Super Doubles (where they double all coupons up to $2.00) Total cost for all above items = $9.46. Now that is a deal!

Ahh, the end of another AWANA year. Calla completed all three Sparks books and received her Sparkie plaque. Noah finished his first book and got a green ribbon. A friend of ours had a Fireman themed birthday party with real firemen. The local fire department came with the firetruck and let the kids climb through it, spray water from a tank and just be little firefighters. They even gave a little fire safety speech. As a bonus, our hostess Nikki baked brownies for the firemen before they left. I think everyone really enjoyed the day.If you look closely you can see the fireman in the middle holding Nehemiah and in front of him is Nathan the birthday boy. Here are a few random shots from the Waxhaw SpringFest, Calla with her balloon parrot (which by the way, really stuck to Calla's shirt) and Noah with his sword. In the other hand, they are holding a sheet with their names written in hieroglyphics from the JAARS organization (a ministry that translates bibles into other languages).

Princess Bella

Goofy Micah enjoying the sunshine.

Sweet little Nehemiah showing off his two new teeth. At 8 months he is army crawling (no knees) and babbling and eating lots and lots of different foods. He laughs at his silly brothers and loves listening to his sisters read to him. He is our cute, chubby little baby "Baldy".

Me, holding our friends newest little one, sweet baby Ava. At 2 months old, she already has twice as much hair as Nemi.In an effort to give our children every great childhood experience possible, we decided it was time for a campout. While the big kids have camped in a tent in the back yard, none of the kids have been to a campsite with a bonfire and an outhouse. Now with five children, I know my limitations and camping with no children under perfect conditions is pushing it. I love cooking over an open flame and communing with nature as much as the next city girl, but I draw the line at using leaves as toilet paper and sharing my sleeping bag with mosquitoes. But when some friends invited us to campout without the actual "camping out" I was in.

Basically, we went to the state park around dinner time and let the kids play at the lake, have a water gun fight, swing in hammocks, cook hot dogs and smores over the bonfire and sing corny songs all before it got really late. Then we packed up our sleepy children and headed home, where I bathed them in a warm tub and tucked them into their soft beds in their air conditioned rooms...they will thank me when they're older!

The boys had fun playing in the hammocks while the girls giggled while they "slept".SMORES - the best part of camping out. Daddy helping Micah roast his marshmallows.Hmmm, hope you wanted those well done!

Finally, Memorial Day, wow something current. The kids have been looking forward to a holiday picnic with another family from church, the Walfords. We spent most of the weekend manicuring the backyard and finishing small projects so that we could fully enjoy it on Monday. With lots of kid friendly yard games and hot dogs to grill, it was shaping up to be a great picnic. Then the rain came...and came...and came. Our hope for an outdoor party was completely and utterly gone. So what do you do inside with 4 adults and 11 children (did I forget to mention that the Walfords have 6 children)? You improvise!We played lots of Wii. The boys really got into it, and I mean all the boys! Ginger Walford, mother extraordinaire, had the brilliant idea to stop and get a few packs of Silly Bandz for the kids to trade while we waited out the rain. That kept even the littlest ones busy for quite some time.

Finally after lunch, dessert and snacks we all settled down for a quick picture. From oldest to youngest, and left to right, William, Elizabeth, Calla, Andrew, Noah, Christopher, Bella (hiding), Carolina, Micah, Peter and Nehemiah.

I think this month we hit all the major summer events, campout, picnic, strawberry picking, beach trip (previous post), street fair.... Hmmm it seems like I am missing something, oh yeah, school is out next week and then the fun will really begin. Let's hope I can get the pictures up before July. Fingers crossed!!