I Found Them!

 The missing pictures from Great Wolf Lodge, Concord, NC have been found!  Jenna was all into the Magiquest game this time.  It kept her busy for hours and she didn't even finish ALL the quests!  We had to MAKE her leave after defeating the dragon.

 Slaying the dragon, with a little help from Dad!

 The dragon, just before he died!

Great pic of TWO of the kids!  Here, Jenna is mad because we are leaving and her quests are not completed!

NO pictures from inside the water park since they are all way to dark. You'd think I could figure this out as often as we have  been to the GWL!

Great Wolf Lodge and a Quick Trip to DC area!

Hmm.  Cant find any pics from Great Wolf.  We did go there for 2 nights for vacation this year.  Shawn had 2 weeks off, but didnt really want to go anywhere else.  So my friend Julie, from San Antonio who now lives in Kansas, was passing through the DC area the following weekend.   I decided us girls would go see her and hit the American Girl store in VA also.

                                           Jenna and McKenna, this year's Girl of the Year

                                    Is that a shopping bag or Santa's sack on Jenna's shoulder?

 The Virginia branch of the Air and Space Museum

The girls have no idea how impressed they should be!  Actually seeing a space shuttle!

Some weird statue thing in the parking lot of the Air and Space Museum.  Guess its suppossed to make the $15 parking fee worth the price?

Anna, Megan holding Emily, Jenna, Alyssa and our awesome power ranger Patrick!

Weird July Fourth

July 4th was weird this year.  I say that mainly because it fell on a Wednesday and no one seemed to know how to handle it.  Make it a FIVE day weekend?  Take off just Wednesday?  Take off the entire week?  And as a result, all the festivities were smaller than usual.  The pic above is from the Whispering Pines Fourth of July parade.  It was HORRIBLY hot.  Shawn and I did take the girls and drove them in the parade. All 12 cars.  And of course there was lots of candy to throw.  Gabby Wood, Beth Bazinet and Jenna.

After the parade, we had ice cream in the park, with most of the rest of the Whispering Pines residents that were in town.

Later that evening we went to the Harness Track over in Pinehurst and watched the fireworks.  No rain this year, so that was a good thing.  But the bad thing was everyone had to work the next day, so no one was celebrating too much or staying out too late....

Shawn's gone...Lets get a new pet!

We seem to have this habit of getting new pets when Shawn is gone.  I promise, only 1 was done on purpose...the dog.  Yes, I got Alec a best friend when he was missing his Dad so badly.  Yes, I put the dog in a crate in the laundry room while we went to soccer.  Yes, Shawn came home, changed clothes in the laundry room, missed seeing the dog, and joined us at the soccer game, where another Mom asked him what he thought about the new dog.  OOPS!

And then came Patch and Snowy.  The sister calico cats.  We had told the kids we would get them kittens for an "around Christmas" gift. Shawn happened to be gone when we found them in November.

Now on to Lucky's story.  Ironically,  I had decided we needed a third litter box for Patch and Snowy.  So, I ordered it from Amazon about midnight one Wednesday night in September.  I kid you not, the NEXT morning at 615am, Alec sits down at the breakfast table and says, "Mom, there is a white cat at our back door!"  I said, " Are you sure?" as I walked over to the door.  Thinking surely Alec was imagining things this early in the morning.  But no, sure enough there was a teeny, mostly white kitten on the deck.

Now, you have to understand, our deck is a second story deck and the set of steps that lead to it from the ground are steep and have quite a number of steps.  Not sure how this 1.75lb 6 weekish old kitten got up them. I am sure it tool her most of the night.  I walked toward the kitten and she came up to me.  So, of course, I picked her up and brought her inside.  She wasn't terribly dirty and she had NO fear of TJ.  I felt surely she belonged to someone and must have escaped.  The big kids got ready for school quickly and as soon as it was daylight enough, I sent them outside to find the owner, who surely must be looking for their kitten now that it was light outside.  HUH.  Joke is on me.  There is no one out looking for a lost kitten.

By this time, Patch and Snowy had discovered the kitten, too.  They were NONE too pleased that she was in the house.  As a matter of fact, they went out on the deck and sat on the rail and the grill and refused to come back inside for 2 days.  Jenna and I had to leave for school, so I put the kitten in a crate and fed and watered her.  And off we went about our morning.

Long story short, Jenna claimed the kitten as hers.  Jenna needed a best friend, so the kitten got to stay. Jenna would sit on the sofa and hold the kitten for hours at a time.  I am talking we went to a soccer game for almost 2 hours and came back and she was in the same place, holding the sleeping kitten.

We named her Lucky, cause she was lucky she found us and lucky I let her stay!  She is a sweet kitty and loves attention.  She also loves to bite my feet to wake me up in the morning.  For quite awhile, I would not leave Lucky with the other cats alone in the house.  They were THAT nasty to her.  It has taken about 9 months, but the other cats seem to have accepted that she is staying and that they have to be nice to her. Patch will actually play with her for a few minutes.  Snowy still just tolerates her, which is funny, because of those 2 cats, Snowy is the nicest one....to humans!!  Tj on the other hand adores Lucky.  They play and wrestle together.  Lucky will groom him and then bite him hard! He yips and runs away and they comes back for more.

Lucky does have one bad habit....She goes outside and runs away for days at a time.  We joke that she has gone back to the place she came from or that she has another family.  The first time she did the disappearing act, she was about 4 months old.  She got out between my feet as I let the dog in.  We made posters, knocked on doors, Jenna stayed home from school and cried her eyes out.  Of course this was January and we had 2 really cold nights, like 25 degrees each night.  Yep, she was out for both nights.  Finally we put out some very stinky tuna on plates around the yard.  Something made me get up and look for her (once again) out the back door and sure enough, there she was!  It was 530am, but I still went and put Lucky in bed with Jenna and woke her up, though she does not remember this.  And when Jenna really woke up at 7a her first questions was "Did Lucky come home yet?"!!  Too funny.  These days when Lucky gets out, she still is gone for 36-48 hours.  But she comes home around 10pm each time, clean and hungry.  Still not sure where she goes.  As long as she comes back, I guess its okay.

First day with Lucky

First day with Lucky

  

Lucky says maybe she made a mistake coming to live here.

Jenna tells Gigi and Deaux about Lucky

A new toy?

Can you see the HATE in Patch's eyes?

Think she is really enjoying this?

Yes, she really sleeps with Jenna

Holidays with a "toddler" again......

You did buy this tree toy for me, right?

Snowy has NO clue Lucky is below her.  When she figured it out, we had a major cat fight on our hands!

Lucky attacks TJ

This was when Lucky came home from her first run away!

Lucky endures being put into crazy costumes, being shoved in stuffed animal house and countless other forms of almost abuse....but she still loves us!  We never did figure out where she came from.

Pantene

Jenna's hair has gotten ridiculously long.   Maybe if she were older, I would not call it ridiculous.  But, she can barely wash, brush or put it up alone.  After a recent 2 day sleep over with a friend, it took me over an hour to brush out all the rats nests!  

We had talked to Lauren, our hairdresser, a few months ago about cutting Jenna's hair for donation to the Pantene version of Locks for Love.  But Jenna chickened out at the last appointment.  So,  this hair cut appointment, Jenna was still unsure, but thought she wanted to do it.  I told her to go back with Lauren and surprise me!  Lauren called me back just before she "trimmed" it!  Jenna does not look too happy in this photo.

 

 But after it was done, she was all smiles!

 And here she is after, with freshly dried hair.  As I thought, she has really enjoyed the attention from everyone noticing her hair cut and complementing her on doing such a nice thing with her hair! Now she says she is growing it again for donation.  I really love it the length it is now, since she can take care of it all by herself!

 

Excuses

Below are all of my excuse for not keeping the blog up to date in the month of May....

Jojo, Ella and Joey came to visit for a long weekend.  Alyssa and Jenna happened to be having sleep overs that weekend.  It was Alyssa's birthday sleep over.  Yes, we took 10 people to Di'lishi, the new fro yo place in town.

Ella and Jenna took a long kayak ride, with TJ, to check out the Candian Geese on the island.

Snowy, feeling pretty relaxed on the deck.

A rainbow at the intersection of Niagra-Carthage Rd and Camp Easter Rd after soccer practice.

A bunny munches on Shawn's newly planted grass.  All you can eat salad bar, I guess!

Watching Carolina Polocrosse Club championship tournament at the Harness Track in Pinehurst.

Longleaf Academy Awards Ceremony

   Right after Alec's graduation ceremony, we left for Jenna's award ceremony at Longleaf Academy.  This was a new school this year for Jenna.  It took until Christmas for her to really stop complaining and protesting about the new school.  She really had a great year academically and has made several new friends from school.  

     Jenna received an award for the most activity hours earned outside of school.  We (and of course I mean Lisa) kept a journal for 15 weeks of any activity she did outside of school.  I really think 5 hours a week of horseback riding gave her a huge advantage, but i double checked with the PE teacher on how to record her time (ie include brushing, tacking etc time or not).  She won the trophy for best sportsmanship and the envelope is $25 for the activity award.

Eighth Grade Graduation

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     May 8th  Alec graduated from eighth grade. Gigi and Deaux made the trip up the day before, so they could be here bright and early for the 830am ceremony.

    Alec appears to be patiently waiting.  He said the practice for this ceremony took all day on Thursday and that it was extremely boring.  Sure he felt the same way about the actual ceremony, too!

    Alec, along with 20 other kids, received the Presidential Award for Academics.  A nice certificate and a lapel or tie pin.

     By 10am, Alec was done with middle school!  We took him home, dropped him in the driveway and the rest of us were off to Jenna's award ceremony!  Never a dull moment here!

One of the Few Things I Have Been Forbidden To Buy

       The things daughters can talk their Dads into buying....There are very few things Shawn has ever asked me not to buy.  A trampoline was at the very top of that very short list.  Jenna has been asking for about 3 years now.  She asks and asks.  Then goes on to something else.  But the question always comes back.  This year it was "buy a trampoline for the lake.  That will be more safe Dad"!  So i researched that and after seeing the price ($800 range), I knew we were getting a land trampoline.  Jenna finally wore post deployment Daddy down and he agreed to a round, smaller one, with a safety net.  And thanks to Walmart and $9.95, UPS delivered it right to the front door in 2 days!

   I didn't dare start trying to put the thing together without Shawn.  The first night we did get it put up, without the safety net, before it started to rain.  Hence no pictures of jumping the first time!  Jenna patiently handed Shawn springs and screws for about 2 hours.  The second evening the safety net was put up.

    And you can see what the other kids did....

 

  or didn't do........

A Late Easter Post

    These pics got mixed in with some others, so I missed posting about spring break/Easter.  Since Jenna was traveling with my friend Amy to Savannah, we had her Easter basket delivered early.  Thanks Easter bunny!  She is the last of the kids that is interested in the surprise goodies in the Easter basket.  Alec and Alyssa just want the chocolate and money.

    Jenna's basket had a new movie to watch on the trip to Savannah, along with a notebook and pens and pencils.

   Now, a little about the trip to Savannah.  Shawn was deployed over spring break and I really didn't know what I was going to do to entertain the kids.  Alec and Alyssa want to stay home and veg, Jenna wants to go places and have play dates.  But my wonderful friend Amy was driving to see her family in Jacksonville and offered to meet Gigi just off I95 and give her Jenna and pick her up a week later! So, Jenna got to go off on her own adventure and see Ella and Joey.

 And now a few pictures of the torture these pets endure.  This is Lucky.  She showed up on the deck one morning in September.  She was less than 2 pounds and guessed to be about 6 weeks old.  I will do a post about us finding her soon, but just wanted to show everyone what our pets put up with!

Eighth Grade Dance

Yes, its been 3 weeks since I have posted.  The month of May is always busy and this year is no exception! Alec and Alyssa have had end of grade tests for a week.  Jenna's school spent 2 weeks getting everyone done.  We attended the informational football meeting at the high school and Alec signed up to play.  While I was hoping for some sort of try out and that he would get cut, that is not how it is.  Just show up, practice and you can play.  No, I am not looking forward to seeing him get all beat up out there on the football field.....

And WOW! One week from today I will have a high school student!  Scary!  But first lets finish this week!  Friday night the eighth graders had their very own dance.  This was different from the other dances since sixth and seventh had their own dance from 3p-5p.  The eighth graders went back to the school from 7p-9p.  And let me define the word dance as it is used here.  Dance means stay after school, in your normal clothes, and play various games in the gym and hang out with your friends.  There is a very small dance area and music.  But I am told no one dances. Really you just eat and play games and listen to music. So anyway, Alec did get "dressed" up in a button down shirt and nice loafers instead of tennis shoes with holes.  I wish I had someone stand next to him, as you really cant tell he is just shy of 6 feet tall....yep, taller than Shawn now!

Alyssa Turns 12!

For Alyssa's 12th birthday, all she wanted was a cheese cake from the Cheesecake Factory.  A plain one.  So I drove to Raliegh and got her one!  Of course, I ate some too, and it was worth the drive!

Her gifts from Mom and Dad included the fox shirt she is wearing, some other clothes she needed and  a new Pokemon game for her DSi.  Why no picture of the game?  Its not released til June 18th. Will update then!

 

Because ONE Soccer Team Wasn't Enough.....

So, in seventh grade, kids are eligible to try out for school sports.  Alyssa has had her sights set on playing for school since sixth grade.  Girl's school soccer is played in the spring and it has been a LLLONNG wait for the season to arrive!  Twenty one girls tried out, eighteen made the team.  Alyssa was lucky enough to be selected!  But then the reality set in.

School games are played Tuesday and Thursdays until 530.  Meaning she missed most of the rest of her recreation league practices. Coach Brittany was totally fine with this thankfully!  But Alyssa realized she really missed the girls she played with on that team!  Practice everyday after school means packing an extra bag of soccer gear, along with the large back pack full of school books.  Far away games mean getting home at 7pm to start homework.

School soccer is different than rec league soccer in many ways.  Let's start with field size.  School team plays on the football field and rec league plays on a field about 2/3 that size.  About half the school team plays travel ball.  Talk about aggressive....and they use EVERY legal part of their bodies to make contact with that ball!  We even saw one girl on another team get knocked out by heading a kicked ball.  It was kicked from the goalie box to about the 50 yard line.  These girls are FAST too.  Kaylee, who used to play rec league with us and everyone thought she looked like a road runner when she ran.  Well, she looks like she is standing still sometimes in these games, yet she is running full speed.  Amazing.  Don't get me wrong.  Kaylee runs at lightning speed.  School soccer girls are NOT afraid of the ball, at all.  Sometimes they head the ball back and forth so many times that I think we are at a volleyball game.  They do these ballet looking kicks, think split in mid air, and they actually make contact with the ball AND make it go where they want it!  One girl on our team can do a corner kick and make that ball curve in at the last moment and go into the goal!

Though the school team is not filled with her friends or even people that Alyssa really likes, she has learned a lot of skills and needless to say her endurance has improved drastically.  She has played well and hopes to play next year, when her friends from the rec league will also be on her school team (they are all in 6th grade since rec league is divided by age, not grade).

It's also very hard to get pictures at school games.  The first hinderance is the size of the field.  Then factor in the speed at which these girls run and the fact that the bleachers are level with the playing field.  We did get to play one game at the high school, so I had real bleachers to sit in and take pictures from!  So, all these games are from the New Century vs Crane's Creek Middle School game.  New Century won 8-0.

If you are having a problem spotting Alyssa, look for the black cleats with yellowish green stripes and blue laces or number 21 in purple.

 Alyssa, Kia McKibben and Kaylee Herman warming up.