Aging Rockers - Tim Hawkins

From time to time, I like to post something from our family's favorite comedian, Tim Hawkins, just to make you laugh...

-Kara

Day One of School

 Today was our first day of school and things went great!

 John, our 6th grader:

 Anna Jean, our 3rd grader:

 Christopher, our 8th grader:

We have so many subjects to learn this year: math, English, science, history, Bible, Greek, spelling, piano, and reading.  And ontop of all that, we have a homeschool Phys. Ed class at the YMCA and a Science Club filled with labs that the Discovery Place in Charlotte is doing for Rowan County homeschoolers at the Salisbury library.  Christopher will have art and guitar lessons, Anna will be in a dance group and be taking violin lessons, and John will be playing basketball.  Whew! So we're gonna need to get to bed tonight and get rested-up, because Day Two is coming bright-and-early in the morning!

And here's a little study music for our first day of school.
This is going to be our BEST YEAR EVER!

A Big Day for A Little Girl

Anna Jean had a BIG day turning 8 this week!

Mommy and Daddy gave her a few gifts, including a new carousel charm for her charm bracelet.  The little horses actually spin around.  (Anyone who knows Anna knows how she LOVES carousels.)

And Anna was very happy to take her spending money from Nana and Papa to Concord Mills, the biggest mall around.  It is one mile to walk all the way around Concord Mills: in two hours, we only made it through about half the mall. She sure had fun on her birthday evening shopping!

Anna used her birthday money to buy a pink unicorn at Build-A-Bear which she named "Polly," then renamed "Nichole," then renamed "Samantha."  The poor unicorn is so confused it doesn't know what its name is.  

Anna also bought high-heeled shoes for Polly/Nichole/Samantha, along with a hairdryer to dry its hair and a phone to call it on.  

And on the way to and from the mall, Anna got to ride in a car without a carseat in the front seat.  She was sooooo excited!  North Carolina law lets kids out of booster seats and allows them to ride in the front at age 8.  For the first time in 13 years, Tim and I do not have a child in a carseat!

Anna was also SUPER stoked to receive three new Thea Stilton books - her very favorite book series in the whole world - from Mike and Kathy Geers.  Thank you Mike and Kathy for remembering and celebrating Anna's birthday with her!

And thanks also to everyone for the cards and Facebook wishes that were sent to Anna.  She read them all on her "big" day.  She had a GREAT 8th birthday!

p.s. - And thank you to Mamaw and Papaw for sending Anna's card.  She had a great time at Walmart!

 

Tim and the kids and I had such a nice visit to West Virginia the last few days.  It's amazing to me how much love can be packed into 48 hours! 

On Friday morning we drove to Jackson, Ohio - which is exactly halfway between Cincinnati and Charleston, WV - so we could have breakfast with our very good friends Mike and Kathy Geers.  We hadn't seen't the Geers since we left their church over 2 years ago... and their hugs sure felt sweet!

 At Mom and Dad's house, John and Anna got an extra birthday celebration!  Our trip fell in the two weeks between John's 11th birthday and Anna's 8th brthday.

And of course, a trip to WV wouldn't be the same without the kids being able to hang-out with always-cool Cousin Megan.  This time the quartet engaged in an intense game of cornhole, complements of Nana.  Fun times.

-Kara

Happy 11th Birthday John!

 John turned "the big one-one" this week, and we had a wonderful time celebrating!  Tim took a day off and we had a John-a-thon from morning until night...

John had been begging for a pellet (bb) gun for months.  He wanted to shoot targets and cans and such.  We kept alluding John, telling him that we weren't sure he was responsible enough for that kind of thing.  And then on the morning of his birthday, instead of finding a pellet gun, John found the first clue to a scavanger hunt which led him all around the house until he finally found the gift on our back deck...

 And there it was!  John's very first firearm...ish.  :)

John also received a super-cool walking stick and some spending $ from his awesome grandparent-types.  Thank you!!!

We spent the day at the Kannapolis pool.  The weather forecasters had been predicting storms, but it was sunny and not a drop of rain fell.  God must have wanted John to celebrate his birthday.  Praise the Lord!

And then we finished the day with a seafood feast at Captain D's.  You can probably tell that John was pretty wiped from all the sun and excitement by that time.  The perfect end to the perfect 11th birthday.

Happy Birthday Baby John!

Praising God

Today our family celebrates our two-month anniversary at Faith Baptist Church.  What an amazing 8 weeks it has been!  To all of you out there who prayed us to our wonderful new church, this smile on our daughter's face is our THANK YOU!!!

Morrow Mountain State Park

 Our family had our first "journey off the map" since we moved... We visited nearby Morrow Mountain State Park to do some hiking and enjoy some fresh air.  What a beautiful place!   

 Of course, John was interested in finding "critters," and he had his pick at Morrow Mountain.  There were countless tiny frogs, blue-tailed skinks, and below Anna is holding a huge snail that she found on a log.

 We will certainly be visiting Morrow Mountain again in the fall, so that I can get my autumn-leaf fix, and we can explore its many types of rocks when our homeschool does a geology unit.