September 2012

September bought some playing, some soccer, some dance classes, and some beach time...

Gracie started her 4 year old pre-k class.  Her teacher is Ms. Bullard.  She attends 5 days  a week this year!

Gracies decided that playing soccer wasn't just for her big brother this year as well.  And I decided to give coaching a try.  Luckily, while I coached Elijah's team, a friend of ours coached Grace's team at the same time.  It worked out well.  We had the big kids, and the little siblings were on the other team.

Both teams played well.  I think our team scored a whooping 4 goals (the whole season) but they improved so much over the season!   Grace's team did well too.  They all had fun, and that's the most important thing!

And Grace went on her first field trip of the year to the farm!

And while it was insanely busy... I apparently didn't take any more pics.  heh.

The Christmas Story.... as told by Gracie

(a side note:  yes I know, I haven't blogged since August and even then I was behind... one day I will catch up... hopefully!  until then...)

I must preface this with a story from last year:
We went to a Christmas Eve service last year in which the kids were participants in the telling of the Christmas Story.  Grace was an angel and Elijah was a shepherd.  In the story all the children were allowed to come up and see baby Jesus.  About half way through the kids seeing baby Jesus, said baby decided that the child playing Mary, was not actually the mama and began to cry.  Real mom swooped in and everyone went back their seats.  Grace was BESIDE herself.  She had not gotten to see Baby Jesus and her life was of course, over.  After the service I tracked down the actor portraying the Baby Jesus who was now not swaddled but dressed in an adorable Christmas outfit complete with hair bow.  Grace was totally satisfied seeing the baby and life was once again okay.
Fast forward to this year...
Gracie goes to a Christian based school.  So they are, of course, talking about the birth of Jesus and Christmas and whatnot.  Grace's view on things are a little non-traditional... and frankly, I think I may like her version better.
"Mary and Joseph needed a place to stay.  Mary rode a donkey.  They found a barn to sleep in.  Mary had baby Jesus in a manger.  She was a good baby.  She never cried even when she was awake.  Mary and Joseph really liked her and named her Jesus.  [oh, it gets better...]  There were some twins walking around with some gifts.  They saw some fairies and the fairies told them to follow a bright star to find Jesus.  The twins followed a bright star...we can follow that star too mommy and find Baby Jesus.  That would be aMAZing!... They found baby Jesus and gave her some presents.  I don't know what they were, maybe some necklaces and a pony.  And everyone was happy."

I mean really... the Christmas story is a beautiful story, but this one has spunk!
Merry Christmas!!

August 2012

Just because we were back on the coast doesn't mean that life slowed down at all.  The kiddos went to gymnastics camp... and Grace came down with Strep....again.  sigh.  poor thing cannot catch a break.

Once the little felt better, we broke out the slip and slide.

and had some science fun when it got too hot.

and as always, dressing up.

AND hair cuts!

We went to the aquairum with some friends and took the ferry over.

 at the end of the trip, I thought Elijah looked tired... gave him a hug and he was burning up.  his turn with the strep.  sigh.

We took a weekend trip to the zoo and to Raleigh. 

the zoo had a pretty cool dinosaur exhibit.

We went to the Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh.

the majority of the rest of August was spent with playdates and friends

And then the day comes... the boy enters 1st grade!!

HELLO 1ST GRADE!!

Elijah's school loops, which means he has the same teacher and classmates for K-1.  So he was excited to go back and see his friends as well as his teachers!

As a special end-of-summer-back-to-school treat we went on a weekend trip to Myrtle Beach.  

the obligatory erin and jerry self portrait

the waves were insanely large while we were down there.  grace was a little intimidated by them,

Elijah loved the water slide.  He wasn't quite ready to go down by himself... so I went too.  It was pretty fun...