Potty Time

Trent thinks Brad's business is stinky!

Trent really likes to copy Bradley all the time. This has been helpful in his interest with the potty since he wants to go when Bradley does. I loved capturing them on the potty together, with their books, doing their business. I'm sure they won't always want to share their potty time, but for now, it's pretty cute!

Gwinnett Braves vs. Buffalo Bisons

Chopper- (or Chomper as my kids call him) the mascot

A few weeks ago, Papa gave us tickets to the Gwinnett Braves game. Nick and I took Rachel and Bradley and had a blast! Our seats were directly behind the Braves dugout. I thought the game was exciting, the players were really good and it was more fun than an MLB game. Rachel was very content to sit there and watch the game, enjoying her ballpark nachos. Bradley was not as interested and could only think about going to get a souvenir from the gift shop. We stayed about 6 innings and then went on home. It was lots of fun and I can't wait to go again!

Georgia Park Adventures 1 & 2

the kids on a hike at Watson Mill Bridge State Park

We have started a new family activity: to visit and explore as many Georgia parks as we can. We started (accidentally) on Memorial Day. Our first adventure led us to Hard Labor Creek Park just to do something different (so did everyone else in Ga). (This park is only about 30 minutes from our house.) So, after skipping the beach due to excessive people, we had a picnic, went on a really fun hike and played on the playground. This hike was so much fun because they had trail maps at the head of the trail with markers and explanations for what each marker was designated for. Rachel had a blast leading us on the trail and also reading what each marker was. There were 20 markers along the 1 mile hike and they ranged from a specific type of tree to a special rock. We all hung in there for the hike and Trent only had to be held a couple of times. Bradley loved the hike too and enjoyed looking for markers along the way. (I forgot my camera, so no pictures from this excursion.)
**Kid's favorite part: the hike
* Parent's favorite part: the hike






On Sunday, June 12th, after a loooooooooooong week of VBS, we decided to have a family day and explore our second park. This time, we went to Watson Mill Bridge Park. (This park is only about 1 hour from our house.) This park has the longest covered bridge in the state of Georgia (229 feet across the South Fork River) and has shoals that lots of people get in to cool off from the heat. So, this time we played on the playground, had a picnic, went on a short hike (where we saw an old water mill/reservoir system) and then really enjoyed cooling off in the shoals! There was a short waterfall that ran the length of the bridge and then lots of wading pools, sliding rocks and shallow areas to explore. The water felt so good and we all enjoyed cooling off in it. There were quite a few people there but not so many that we couldn't enjoy ourselves. We had a blast at this park and the kids expecially enjoyed getting wet! Again, I didn't bring my camera, but Nick did take one picture of the kids on our hike.
**Kid's favorite part: playing in the shoals
*Parent's favorite part: the family time




We are now planning our 3rd park adventure...date and destination TBA!

VBS 2011

This year we went to the Big Apple for our VBS adventure. It was so much fun! I taught 3rd grade, which is easier than pre-k, so I enjoyed it much more. I had 12 very sweet kids and only one of them borderlined on extremely annoying. I had 2 teenage boy helpers who were very nice and tried very hard to be helpful. They were both Boy Scouts who were working on various stages of their Life and Eagle (or something like that). So, I enjoyed talking to them about all the adventures I remembered dad and Tommy taking for all those scouting years. This was Rachel's favorite year of VBS because her best friend/cousin JuJu came this year. The girls were absolutely precious doing all their stuff together. I saw them quite often in the halls holding hands or playing together in Rec or sitting next to each other in snack. They sang their hearts out during Worship Rally each morning and really loved learning all the sweet songs. Their favorite was: "Hey yeah yeah, hey yeah yeah, hey yeah yeah, Love you Jesus" which is really fast and peppy and continues on a long line of examples that they love, but not as much as Jesus. Ex: I love you more than my soccer team, I love you more than ice cream; I love you more than a baseball bat, I love you more than my dog or cat, I love you more than a really fast car, I love you more than any rock star; but that's not enough. I wanna love you more. It goes on like that for several verses and the girls loved it. The precious part was watching their enthusiasm as they really got into the hand motions and movements to the songs. Bradley also had a great time this week. He really enjoyed the first 3 1/2 days and then had had enough. He was sad on Thursday and by Friday didn't want to join his class. He ended up spending the last day in the nursery helping Gege with Trent and the other toddlers and babies. I am so thankful that Gege worked the nursery, because I don't think Trenty would have stayed without her. He had a fun week too and Deborah said he got more comfortable each day but never enjoyed going to the craft room each day. She said he really enjoyed music class, though. We all had a great, fun-filled week but I am glad it's over. I will NOT miss getting up at 6:30 every day. This week is a relaxed, unscheduled, leisurely week, and we're going to enjoy every minute.