Jaquelyn's First Day of School

So today was Jaquelyn's first day of school. I still can't believe she's in sixth grade! It's scary how quickly they grow up.

She was very excited and couldn't wait to see her friends. I'm sure there was some love of learning in there too but friends topped the like list today for sure.

It's Official!!

Okay everybody who lives in Maryland...WATCH OUT!!! There is a new driver on the sidewalks streets of town. Our sweet angel Taylor is now among the licensed drivers. She made it through today after not passing on Tuesday. (Who speeds on their drivers test, huh? Especially TWICE!!) She is very excited and it's just in time to head off to college soon(Sept 7). Woo Hoo!!!

Teresa's First Day of School

Well my children and the school systems are cooperating nicely this year. Each child starts on a different day. This way, I can devote the whole blog post to that child (and get more material spread over more days).
Tuesday was Teresa's turn. I'm sure she was so glad and excited to be the first of the kids to head back to school. She actually starts a whole week before the next one. The public schools start very early in these here parts.
She is going into the 11th grade and I just can't believe she is already a junior. Time sure flies! She returned home in a fairly good mood and talked all about her new classes...in teenager speak this means she said which of her friends were in which classes and who she had lunch with. All in all I think it went pretty smoothly...lets just hope it stays that way!

Time Is Fleeting

You just never know when everything will change and come to an end.

Please keep a special family in your prayers this week. A friend of ours from our military days is going through an awful time. Her husband, and our friend, Tod Wilson was in a fatal car accident yesterday morning. He leaves his wife and 5 children behind, all of whom are autistic. I don't know how she will cope but with the Lord's help and guidance, I'm sure she'll make it through this.

Happy Birthday Angel!

Today is a very special day. On this amazing day, my first born, my sweet angel turns 18. Hardly seems like that much time could have possibly passed since she was just a cute little baby. She heads off to college very soon and I'm sure things will be very different without her around. We're going to miss her so much! It's a good thing she's staying close to home so we can still see her often.




























Her first day of kindergarten













Our little "Angelica"






















Her first communion


















































When she dyed her hair and came out looking like Ariel

Nothing To Blog About!!

Well there is not too much going on in our neck of the woods. I can't wait until school starts so that I have some blogging material! Each of the kids starts school on a different day so I can spread it out nicely! So nice of the schools to make it so convenient for me. :-)
School starts next week for Teresa and we are pretty much just hanging out and taking it easy until things start to get busy. We went to the pool yesterday in St. Michael's. It's not too far of a drive and the kids enjoy a change of scenery every now and then. Luckily our pool passes are good at both pools or there would be no shot.
Jaquelyn went there first with our neighbors and spent about 3 hours there. Then we got there, some of our neighbors left but their two girls stayed and played with Jaquelyn. So they were at the pool for over 5 hours yesterday!! Talk about getting your day's worth of pool time. Since we don't have anything else interesting going on, I figured some pool pics would have to suffice. I don't know what Rebecca's problem was yesterday but she would not look at the camera while I was taking the picture...very frustrating. I did manage to get one or two though. Enjoy!!

Wordless Wednesday - Aunt Joan & The Kids

Our Countdown To....

I saw this idea on another blog to help kids understand how long it will be until a baby will be born. I decided to steal it to help Rebecca understand how long until Daddy will be home. She was very excited to help me make our paper chain. She and Jaquelyn take turns taking off a loop each day.
And just a quick throw out to Not Me! Monday...I did not have to take down my Christmas Cards that were all around this doorway to put this paper chain up. I certainly did not still have my Christmas Cards up in August. Not me!! (I like to look at the pictures so I figure why take them down so they can sit in a drawer when I can keep them up and actually look at them!)

Swim Lesson For Rebecca

Even though this child has had swim lessons galore, I try to keep her in them every so often to try to improve her strokes. She can pass the deep end test at our pool but she still does not quite have the breathing routine down for freestyle. She just can't seem to get the part where her head goes to the side instead of coming straight up. Maybe she'll get it someday. In the summertime, our local community pool offers lessons by the week. As usual, I kept forgetting to sign her up by the Thursday before hand so she kept missing them. Luckily, I managed to squeeze in for the last week of the summer. She was soooo excited!
There is something extra special about lessons at this pool. The kids who are able to swim well enough, are allowed to jump off the lifeguard tower at the end of the lesson during free swim (last 5 minutes). This is absolutely the best part of these lessons and the only reason my kids like them better than the Y. In fact Jaquelyn was jealous of Rebecca and wanted to know why she didn't get lessons too. Who cares that she can swim perfectly fine and would have been completely bored through the whole lesson...she would have gotten to jump off the guard tower!! Maybe when she's older she can become a life guard and then get to jump off again. Otherwise, I'm not paying for unnecessary lessons.

Boston Duck Boat Tours

On Thursday (July 29th) we went on a duck boat tour. The kids all had a blast and the grownups enjoyed it quite a bit too (ahem...Linda). It took us all through Boston and we saw all kinds of neat sites. Our tour guide was very funny and knowledgeable. I, of course, do not remember the name of every single building or place that I took a picture of but I don't want to bore any of you with the details so I will only share the ones that I remember are really interesting.


Here we all are loaded up and waiting to head out for our trip.









Here is an attempt at a good picture of the Boston Common. There are lots of trees and every single shot was a mass of green leaves so this is as good as it gets.










Faneuil Hall



















Bobbie Orr's winning goal shot (I took this one for you Dan...enjoy!)





























When we were out on the water, the guide let the kids come up one at a time and drive the boat! They loved that part!!