Labor Day 2010

Abbey Fishing

Abbey

Abbey

Kent and Lily fishing!

First Day of School

Gracie and Mrs. Gillespie.

Lily on her first day of Kindergarten

Abbey and Mrs. Watson

The girls started their first day of school in August. Abbey is in 4th grade, Gracie is in 2nd grade and Lily started Kindergarten this year. Here's to a great year!

American Girl Doll Store GA

Lily with her new American Girl Doll -- Rebecca

Abbey with her new American Girl Doll -- Kaya

Gracie with her new American Girl Doll - Julie

We went to GA to visit Kent's twin brother and his family. The girls were especially excited to make the trip because there is an American Girl Doll Store there. They saved their Summer School Money and had enough to buy a doll each. We had a fun trip visiting family and Aunt Lori, Colby, Jake and Kayla were nice enough to take us to the store and out for dinner. We all had a great trip!

Beau, Gracie, Lucy, Abbey and Lily

Lily brushing the cow

Abbey brushing the cow

Gracie milking the cow

We went to the Shatto Dairy with Nicole and her kids. We went on the tour and watched the cows being milked and learned how they make all the different flavors of milk. We even got to sample some of the different flavors. We all had a fun day!

Annual Trip to the River

Gracie and Lily getting ready to head to the river.

Lily turns 5

Lily wanted a bike for her birthday that wasn't a hand me down from her sisters!

Abbey, Lily and Gracie sitting in front of the 3 different colored flowers we have in front of our house. We try to get their pictures here every year to see how much they grow every year.

We weren't very good but we had fun!

Logrolling 2010

Gracie

Lily

Abbey

Dave got the girls interested in "logrolling" while we were camping. Abbey and Gracie did a great job. ( I couldn't get the video of Abbey to load but got some great footage of Gracie and Kent) Kent was the best at it, however. Lily was able to"logroll" with a little help from her dad. Mom and I tried but weren't very good!

Gracie Logrolling

Cleaning the fish

Lily, Gracie and Dave cleaning the fish

Lily, Gracie and Dave

Abbey caught the fish, however, she wanted NO part in cleaning them. It didn't seem to bother Gracie and Lily, though!

Abbey Caught 4 Fish!

Lily, Abbey, the fish, and Gracie

Abbey went with Dave and Kent to catch fish this evening. She tried to fish earlier in the day but didn't catch anything because Oreo was swimming around and barking and Gracie was swimming and splashing around and everyone was being loud. We also had the paddle boat out in the water to add to the chaos. So, Mom and I took Gracie, Lily and Oreo for a walk so they could catch some fish. And did they ever... Abbey caught 4 and Kent and Dave caught 3 each!

Campfire Stew

Lily, Dave, Abbey and Gracie

Another tradition that we have developed is eating campfire stew on our camp outs. The girls LOVE Nana's campfire stew! It was delicious!

Cute Flower pics

Lily

Abbey

Gracie

Picking Wildflowers for Nana

Lily and Dave

Dave, Gracie and Abbey

Gracie

Dave and Gracie

We stopped on the way back to camp to pick wildflowers for Nana. The girls had a great time picking them and Dave made a really pretty bouquet when we got back.

The Ride Home

Abbey and Gracie getting in the truck for our ride home from our rock hunt

Little Prairie Dogs

Dave showing the girls that the hole was actually safe!

Dave came and picked us up on our way home from the rock hunt. He wanted to show us up further where a part of the road had been washed out from all the rain we have been getting. It looked really unsafe for cars but proved to be a pretty funny picture of the girls. They needed some convincing but we talked them into posing as prairie dogs in the holes. It was pretty funny!

Annual Rock Hunt 2010

Throwing rocks off the bridge

Abbey, Gracie and Oreo

Lily, Gracie, Abbey and Kent waiting for the tractor to cross the bridge so we could continue on our walk.

Lily and Gracie showing me their pretty flowers. The only vacation where you can wear your PJs the entire time.

We woke up early Saturday morning and went on a rock hunt down an old road. The girls found lots of rocks, flowers and animal tracks. We even found a bridge that was perfect for throwing rocks off of. We had a great time rock hunting this year.

Abbey's new pocket knife

Nana gave Abbey a pocket knife she found with some old keys. Abbey had a lot of fun widdling on a stick most of the weekend. She has gotten pretty good at it. We just had to keep telling her to point away from herself and not towards herself.

Memorial Weekend Camping 2010

Kent pulling the Argosy in for a weekend of fun!

Gracie doing Abbey's hair! They do get along once in awhile!

The first day of camping began on Friday afternoon. The girls and mom and I went to the farm to get the camp ready. We just rested for most of the afternoon(which the girls desperately needed) and set up camp. Then, Kent brought the camper and the girls helped Nana clean it up. We made hamburgers and fried potatoes over the campfire and roasted s'mores after dinner. Marlene came out to join us for dinner. It was a nice evening with the Gracie, Lily and I turning in early while Kent, Abbey, Dave and Nana stayed up around the campfire.

Blind-folded makeovers

Abbey and Gracie

Lily after the girls got her with my old lipstick.

We brought a box in from the garage tonight with some of our stuff in it from the move (almost 3 years ago) and found some of my old make-up. The girls talked me into letting them perform blind-folded make-overs on each other. Here are some of the "after" pictures. They had a lot of fun! I think they ruined a few of my towels in the clean-up process, though!

Tri-LEARN-athon

Stretching out

Jumping Jacks??

More stretching

The girls have signed up to participate in a Tri-LEARN-athon that our local hospital is sponsoring. They have to read 26 books, walk 26 miles and do 26 good deeds before the year is over. They are kicking the event off after the local hospital's run at the beginning of next month. So, here are the girls getting ready to walk their first mile. Should be interesting!

Last day of school celebration

Gracie eating her corn on the cob.

Lily eating her corn on the cob.

I promised the girls a picnic for the last day of school. We tried to get away to have it at the park or somewhere else that wasn't at our house but Abbey had been to a sleepover the night before and needed SLEEP, so we celebrated with a deck picnic. Gracie is having to eat her corn on the side of her mouth due to her front tooth about ready to come out! It was fun and the girls always enjoy corn on the cob.

Green Shirt day at School/Awards Assembly

Lily had me take a picture of her in her green shirt for green shirt day at school.

Abbey getting all of her awards during the awards assembly

Abbey getting her project fit award.

Gracie getting all of her awards.

The last day of school was green shirt day and the awards assembly. Mr. McConkey, Abbey's PE teacher called me the day before the awards assembly and told me that Abbey had been selected to receive the "Project Fit" award. It is an after school program to promote fitness at her school. She received the award out of all the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade girls who participated. Mr. McConkey gave her a fishing pole and a tackle box for her accomplishments/award in the program. We are so proud of her. She got this award on top of the math and reading awards she received for her hard work and good grades throughout the year. Gracie also received awards in math and reading. She also received the "Good Character" award out of all the girls in her class. We are so proud of her. We are so proud of Lily as well. They don't include Preschool in the awards assembly but she received a certificate for moving on to Kindergarten. She was pretty excited!