Camping at SF Park

State Farm Park hosts an annual camping event and Grayson brought two of his friends this year (Ty and Collin).  This was the 1st year that we had a Camper as well.  We usually put up a tent but Jeff borrowed his brother's Camper for the weekend.  The boys had a BLAST!  I, of course, left at 9:30pm and went home to sleep in my own bed.  Aleigha was brave enough to stick it out all night as well for the 1st time.  She thought she was big stuff.

breakfast

  They love to play games outside - they make up games called MineCraft and Hunger Games!

Aleigha feeding the ducks

at the trailer....

they did not want to leave!!

State Farm Kid's Triathlon

Grayson and his friend, Ben, completed their 1st Kid's Triathlon in August!  They both did a great job and we're so proud of them.

SWIMMING first...

then BIKING...

Finally, RUNNING

after the race.....

this picture says it all.....  :)

YAY!  a trophy, water bottle and t-shirt to take home!

1st day of the 2012-2013 school year

 
Grayson is in 5th grade - the last year of elementary school... His teacher is Mrs. Kalina and we love her.  They have a pet gerbil, named Kesha, the he adores.  Mrs. Kalina doesn't believe in homework so we have lucked out this year.  She is very much into technology and communicating with other kids all over the world.  This is the first year that we've allowed Grayson to walk to school.  It is exactly one mile and he always walks to and from school with his friend, Collin.

Aleigha is in her last year of pre-school at Montessori and she still loves it!  She loves school and making stuff to bring home and pretending to do homework at night.  She tells me she has two boyfriends this year. (Last year she only had one boyfriend.)  These boys do not know of this situation but Aleigha loves to talk about them!

blogging... oops... (Indiana Dunes)

It is so easy to post updates on Facebook so I've neglected this blog!  :(  So here are some updates...
We went to Indiana Dunes in August.  It was such a nice beach and great trails and dunes... but very sandy as you can tell from my shoe after a hike...

at a restaurant   == of course, they had a balloon lady while we waited!

at the top of one of the biggest dunes

at an Ourdoor World store.. it was HUGE!

Grayson's 1st Communion

Grayson had a reading during the church service of his 1st communion so I recorded it. He did an excellent job. He is such a smart, handsome little man now!!  They actually drank real wine and they all thought it was gross.  (GOOD!)  :)

Jeff and I were small group leaders and we had a great group of kids.  It was a fun week.  The kids made their own chalices to take their 1st communion in. 

Orlando, FL Vacation!!

We left our house at 1am on Friday night/Sat morning and drove for 16 hrs to Perry, FL.  We drove to the beach the next morning (Sunday) so the kids could see the sand and Gulf.  It was a very tiny beach but the kids loved it and we saw a huge horseshoe crab which Grayson is still talking about!
Then we drove to Orlando and checked in to our 3 bedroom timeshare.  It is great!  Soooo nice to have this extra room.  We went to the Magic Kingdom last night at 7pm (we had to swim first) and we stayed for fireworks and the Electric Light Parade.  We were there until 11:30pm!  Aleigha was so tired but after a 10 min nap in the car she was ready to stay up so we finally got to bed at 1 am.

Today we went to Disney Studios - got there at 10 am and left at 4pm.  It was a good park and we saw a lot of shows and characters.  We saw the Disney Jr show, Ariel show, Beauty & the Beast, Indiana Jones and Disney Rocks!  We went swimming after we got back to the condo and then ordered pizza for dinner. Tomorrow Jeff and Grayson will go to Epcot while Aleigha and I stay at the condo and swim, walk around and just have a lazy day.  I'm looking forward to that!!

The weather has been perfect while we've been here.  Sunny, 80 degrees and a light breeze.
Tomorrow night, Sherry and Lily will be joining us from New York! We can't wait to see them. :)
(I will add pics to this post after we get home.)

2012 fun...

I haven't posted in a long time... just haven't made the time.  Here are some pics from our events this year...
Here is Grayson's 4th grade music program.  This was the only time we could see him.  We picked the wrong side of the stage to sit at!

 Here is Aleigha's Cherub Choir for 3-5 yr olds.  She loves her teacher - Mrs. Weeds.

Here's Grayson's 4th and 5th grade Upwards Basketball game.  They won their last 3 games!

 Grayson and one of his best buddies, Ben...

 Here are the kids' Valentines that they handed out to their class rooms....

 Here is Aleigha in her most striking model pose!!

 This is a normal site to see - Johnny and Grayson playing with the I-touch.

 Aleigha's bday party... Strawberry Shortcake cake by Jeff!

That's all for now!  :)

Aleigha turns 4 tomorrow and wanted to sing a song....