New School Year

All the kids are back in school now!

On August 9, Keelan started his senior year at Gateway High School.  He is also taking classes in Automotive Technology at Pickens Technical College. 

On August 11, Samuel and Caylie returned for another year at Global Village Academy.  Samuel is in 6th grade, and Caylie in 1st.  They both are in Chinese immersion classes half the day, and English the other half.

On August 24, Justin started 8th grade at Vanguard Classical School.  This is a new school for him, and we think it will be a great fit.

Meadowood Church Block Party

Every year our little church (meadowood.org) puts on a block party for the neighborhood.  It's always very hot and always lots of fun!  There is free food, fun stuff to do, music, and giveaways.  

The food tent is a favorite place.  

Justin is good at making the lemonade.

The guy on the left is our pastor, Michael Spottsville.  Years ago, he and Jim worked at Promise Keepers together.

Sam's giving bunny ears to face-painter extraordinaire and youth leader, Andrea.

Samuel helping some younger kids fish.

Keelan and his girlfriend Destiny racing Samuel on the big trikes.  Well, I think it was more like Sam racing Destiny, while Keelan looked on in amusement, ha.

Brice and Jermaine grilling, while Jim supervises.

Justin enjoying some popcorn.

And Caylie enjoying a snowcone.

Taylor was there, too!
(Please pray for Taylor.  He needs a new job.)

Of course there was face painting.

Sam loved dunking the kids in the dunk tank.  I'm pretty sure he didn't obey all of the "rules" of the game, though!

 Keelan making cotton candy.

Samuel shimmying to the top of the rock wall.

More grilling while Jim supervises.

Destiny and Keelan in the snack booth.  Keelan's gotten good at all kinds of snack making over the years.

Brad and Tessa.

And Tessa and Brittany.

Caylie fishing with a friend.

Tessa deciding about some popcorn.

Me with our friend Jeff, also our worship leader.

And Tessa decided on the popcorn.  :)

Caylie going down the big water slide.  She used to be terrified of this, but yesterday she did it over and over.  Samuel, however, is still afraid, which is amusing, because he is absolutely fearless about anything else!

Destiny's turn.

 Sam (in face paint, of course) helping to make popcorn.  

Our awesome chiropractor, Dr. Patti with her sweet Emilia, Caylie, and Tessa.

The Meadowood Church youth group, Crossfire, with leaders Jermaine and Andrea.

Justin at the end of the event.  Not looking quite so chipper, haha.

It was a great day!

More Summer Fun and Some Other Stuff, Too.

We've been busy doing going to a lot of dentist and eye doctor appointments lately.  I didn't take any pictures, but Justin took this one of Caylie.  It took three trips to get all of us (well, me and the kids) to the eye doctor.  It turned out that Keelan and I both needed new glasses.  But the dentist was much worse.  I had a cavity and need work on an existing root canal (sigh), Taylor needed a root canal, Keelan had two cavities, and Samuel had one.  Also, I need to find an orthodontist to look at Caylie's mouth full of crowded teeth.  That's a lot of appointments - and cash.  Ugh!

And then Caylie lost another tooth.  I think this was number 5.  I was hoping that she'd have both front ones out at the same time, cause it's so cute, but I don't think she will.  The other is loose, but not THAT loose, and the new one is growing in already.

Tessa is almost two!  My cute face girl.  :)

Justin has been doing a lot of this lately.  But his lazy computer days are numbered . . . 

Keelan got into an accident.  He was OK, thankfully, but the poor car had to have major surgery. 

We spent a day at Belleview Park with our friends, the Petersons.  Caylie loved playing in the creek.

And everybody loved the train.

Megan, Emma, Sarah, and Caylie.  

Samuel and me.

 The creek view from the train ride.

Keelan and Destiny at church.

A Sunday afternoon dance session with the PS3 . . . 

 . . . which is always Caylie's favorite.  :)

Playing at the park by the apartment.

Caylie makes a friend wherever she goes.  It's so cute.

 When her new friend (name unknown, of course) saw that I was taking their picture, she wanted me to take this one, too. 

Keelan attended his second Aurora Youth 4 Success automotive program during July.  This is his class presenting their video of what they'd done.

Justin's been doing a lot of fun youth group activities.

Samuel and Caylie are in their second session of swimming lessons.  This climber is in the park outside the pool.  Of course Sam climbs it in flip flops.

Utah Pool, where the kids have their lessons.  

And we still go to the apartment complex pool, as well.  

Poor Keelan had his wisdom teeth extracted at the oral surgeon today.  He seems to be doing OK so far, but looked rather pitiful right after we got home.

Yesterday Jim and I had a three-hour walk-through at the new house, being shown how every single thing works, and looking for any imperfection that needed to be corrected.  Next Tuesday we'll walk through it again, making sure everything is finished, and then we'll have our closing.  We'll move in on Wednesday!  (This among three different First-Days-of-School!)  Stay tuned!