Quiet Mornings. Funky Hats.

Ahhh, I'm sitting here now and don't really have to do anything in a nice quiet (and pretty clean) house. Elizabeth and Andrew have summer camp this week at Ashley Academy. It's only from 9 to 12. Yesterday, I was out the entire time doing things - go by the court house to get the sticker for our license plate, drop off overdue book at the library, allergy injection, take back shirt to Kohl's, work out at the fitness center and get groceries. I have a long list of other things to do this week but today I decided to stay home the entire time. I'm washing clothes and will clean up around the house.

Fabulous news! The NBT awards program was Sunday morning. We thought Elizabeth and Andrew would place because they give out awards for first through fourth. What we didn't realize was how high they would place. Andrew got FIRST place for the preschool (around 40 kids) and Elizabeth got SECOND place for second grade (probably around 50 kids enrolled). Woohoo! They had a proud Daddy and Mommy (and Papaw, Nana, Uncle and Aunt) there that morning. Wade and I are competitive and it makes us even happier to see our children succeed when it comes to church activities. Those are the most important afterall. :)

Mr. Glenn came back to our house on Saturday night after spending time with his family. He had told Andrew that he would make him and Elizabeth a balloon hat before he left. Come Thursday he was was reminding Mr. Glenn daily. When he got there on Saturday, he got out his balloons and the kids (and adults) had a ball. Elizabeth designed hers and Mr. Glenn was nice enough to try to build it to her specifications. Andrew let him have free reign on his and it was HUGE! Andrew calls them "funky hats."

It was so worth having Mr. Glenn and Mr. Justin stay with us last week. I think it just made NBT more exciting for Elizabeth and Andrew. Of course the "Bible boys" as the kids called them were perfect guests. We took them out to eat on Friday night to Cootie Brown's. We wanted to take them somewhere different. Unfortunately, Johnson City doesn't have many independently owned restaurants (as compared to other big cities - thinking of Asheville, NC here!). They really liked it. We ate hard too. It was good food and good fellowship. We got a photo of the kids and Bible boys together when we got home.

Hallmark has their Christmas ornaments out now. Our family is some of the weird ones who get excited about that. It started when I wanted a Hallmark ornament that I fell in love with the Christmas after we got married. I HAD to have her. It was a flower angel ornament. No stores in our area had it. After calling probably 20 stores in TN, I finally found one somewhere and they shipped it to me. It was the start of a series so for the next few years I got the accompanying flower angels that went with the first. In July they have their ornament premiere at midnight. We have gone to it ever since Elizabeth was born (I think we missed one year). We didn't go this year though. It was last Friday night and with NBT we were just too exhausted. I plan to go this week to get the ones I want put in layaway. Elizabeth and Andrew get to pick one out and I get usually two or three. They are "collectibles" so they are somewhat expensive. I plan to share them with the kids when they get married one day.

On Saturday the kids rode their bicycles around the neighborhood so they could practice without training wheels. Well, Andrew practice with none and Elizabeth practice with one. He's doing great. I think we'll take their bikes with us when we go to the beach next month. After they rode a bit, we then walked around the neighborhood. Here's some photos I took along the way.

My crazy husband riding a bicyle entirely too small for him. I warned him he would break it but he assured me he was being careful. Right! *eye-roll*

My circus tight-rope walkers. That's what they said they were doing. ;)

Some neighbors' pretty flowers: