We ran away yesterday after Sam's game. We got a cabin on the lake. It was so nice to get away for a day. We swam, fished, played games, and enjoyed a few laps around in the paddle boat.

Up and ready to start our summer vacation. Sam & I are up now to get the twins up.

Breath in Breath out Move on !

Ok this past month has been crazy. With school, games, work, & the farm. But as summer starts tomorrow I will try better. All 3 girls are starting to blog their summer also. Sam graduated grade school and the twins middle school today. We did 1 relay and have 1 more to do. The animals & garden are growing. Jenna played co ed soccer. Sam caught again this year at fast pitch ball. Just a few of things we have done. Hope you can keep with all of us! Let the summer began!

Testing to see if I can do this from my phone.

2 week growth

Yes, we are still growing. This past week we added 6 more chicks and 3 ducks to the flock. The seedlings are growing so much. We can't wait to put them in the ground. We did have a first this week. Jenna has wanted to learn to mow forever but she never weight enough. Well this week she got to drive the mower. She had the biggest grin on her face. I hope that wasn't the highlight of her spring break. The girls spent their week off with Granny Bear and Ho. They messed around and went to Tennessee and South Carolina. I am so blessed to have my girls grow up around their grandparents like I did. I sure miss them days sitting in the pool swimming for Popsicles. I guess you can say you grow and grow but only if your foundation (your family) is rich, in love!

Muddy Day

What do you do after it rains for a few day a few inches? Well what else go play in the mud. We jumped in to the jeep and headed to Brown Mountain. We knew it was going to be fun after the seeing the bridge to get in was over flowing with water. We did the mud hole a few times for the girls and went up the trail. Stopped at the top to have a picnic lunch and then went back down. Afterwards we went over to the Wise Men trail to see Table Rock and then ended at Lineville Falls. We walked to see the falls. It is amazing to see the amount of water flowing after all the rain. It was great to just get away for a little up in the woods. To have the chance to spent some needed time with the family and see God's work in the beautiful blue sky. We crossed the river, went thru the woods, and climbed some rocks to fave this day of fun!

growing

the farm has been growing this week

the seedlings are sprouting and so are the babies

the chicks gained 1/4 oz of weight in 2 days

Cadbury is our official weight measure !

we got a few baby chicks for the girls....they each got 2 so now we have 6 little fuzzy chicks

the seedling are sporting

Jenna has corn growing

Sam has a pumpkin

so check back to see what we got growing next week

spring

ok after 2 trips to get seeds and 18 packets later we are ready for spring I might have gone a little over board 6 different pumpkins, a hand full of gourds, and some corn. The girls will not let me near another feed store! Want you to meet our newest addition..his name is Steve Cadbury Joe, or the Bear calls him Barry, and Jonathan and Sam call him Bunny. Check back to see how the garden is going and our own little Peter Rabbit.

Jenna goes for the gold

I will be the first to admit it I don't know a lot about science Olympiad. I done know that Jenna has been working before, after, during school, and ever evening on building, planning, and making items for 4 different competitions at district science Olympiad. She and her partner worked all day and did their best and they came home with the gold medal for junk yard challenge. This is where they have a list of items they put in a box and bring to the completion. Once they get there they have 20 minutes to build whatever the judge tells them, then they have 2 minutes to test the object they built and then they get judge. It was so cool to see them start to finish and then walk to the stage and get the award. They will be going to Raleigh next month for state now. Check back to see how they do.

graduation

Jonathan and I went down to Raleigh to see his best friend graduate for highway patrol school. Michael would go down on Sunday evening and not come home until Friday night for 30 long weeks. But I feel safer that he is out there protecting us nerves yes but very proud. The ceremony was unbelievable...it started out with a bag pipe playing as they marched in, we heard speeches my favorite was the way they cook a special cake, they took the oath, and walked across the stage. Very emotional. 900 people applied, 60 made the class, and 38 graduated. To protect and serve!

In the circle

Jonathan and I were trying to come up with something to do on his weekend off that we have never done. So, after some research and thinking we came up with the idea to go to Nashville. I was told I had been but I was little and I don't remember it. So we booked a hotel suite for downtown and planned the weekend. What could we stuff in only a weekend? Now I picked the weekend that the NCAA basketball play offs and it was raining so it was a little busy, rainy, and a sea of orange was everywhere. We started our Saturday off with the the redneck bus tour. It was a great tour, learned about the city, answered all the trivia questions right, and stopped and had a drink at the Whiskey Bond Bar. After that we went to tour backstage of the Grand Ol Opray. That was a once in a lifetime opportunity. We got to come in the back door like the stars, see all the dressing rooms, and then walk on stage. As I stood in the circle in the middle I got cold chills. The circle of wood is from the original Ryman. To stand where Hank Sr, Elvis, Johnny Cash, and countless others was amazing. Sam didn't want to leave the circle. We can now say we have sang on the stage of the Grand Ol Opray, it was happy birthday with a group but we did it. After the tour we walked over to hang out and eat dinner in the Operyland Hotel. The plants, waterfalls, the dancing fountain, and the little shops were neat. It is so hard to believe that they rebuilt it and Grand Ol Opray after the flood ruined it. You would never know it now. Then it was back to the Grand Ol Opry to see the show. We saw Blake Shelton, Band Perry, Brad Paisley, but what made the night was Little Jimmy Dickson. To be part of the longest running radio show that was way to cool. After our long day we went back to relax and plan our last day. Sunday we started out at the Country Music Hall of fame. Rows and rows of golden records on the wall, to see clothes the most famous people have worn, and see how music has changed thru the years. Then it was down stairs to see the faces of the hall of fame. In the middle of the circle room you can stand and be surrounded by the best of best. " when the circle be unbroken by and by Lord by and by" Then we headed to the science museum to play. There was 3 floors of fun. We flew rocket bottles, climbed the tree house to see the city, did a computer image to see what Jonathan will look like when he is 70, saw how much we weighted on Mars, and flew weight less like the astronauts. Then we had to head home. We will be back to country city there is so much more we want to do.

just an usually Saturday

I don't think sleeping in is in our vocabulary. Last weekend we got up running. We had to be at the nature center to drop off the girl's festival of knowledge projects by 9am. Then we ran over to the big mall to drop off our donation for the Mission kids program. Got to see a few people we knew and grab breakfast @ Chick Fila. Then it was off to choose a VBS for this summer. After a little looking around and the girls wanting the panda one we choose the Pandamonia. I get to dress Tori up as a panda bear so it's got to be fun. Then we dropped Sam off at a friends house so they could go skating. The twins and I hit LuLu's and Wee Trade. Then headed back to the nature center to see how the girls did. They all won ribbons for their projects on the black bear, rainbow trout, and the porcupine. As the day was coming to an end...ok it was only 5 we meet Jonathan for dinner and headed home to crash.
What a whirl wind day!

Sammy's birthday

It is hard to believe my baby turned 11 yrs old last week. Where has the time gone? It just seems like yesterday she was falling off playground equipment and learning to walk. We wanted to make her birthday something special and with all the snow we have been having we thought it would be cool (in more ways than 1) to go snow tubing. We looked up and planned for weeks for this special day. As the week of her birthday was here we watched the weather...what do you mean it is going to be in the 60s. I would usually love that kind of weather but not for planning a snow trip. Her birthday we had almost beat the temperature record..we only missed it by 1 degree...we hit the 70s that day. I didn't have a back up plan what were we going to do??? I keep calling the tubing place they keep saying no worries we will be open. How are you going to open the tubing lanes if we don't have any snow? As we pulled in Friday night in our short sleeve shirts we were glad to see they were open. Moonshine had a 12 foot base and kids were flying by. We got our tubes & headed up the mountain...you could walk or take the pully or should I say fall up the hill. It was a blast and I think Jonathan & Sam went down 30 times and we closed the park down. Sam did have one issue, she hit a chunk of ice and bumped out of her tube but she was ok. She bounced right up and went right back up. We did single runs, double runs, and a few trains. It was great and the Bear & Ho had a blast watching them fly down the hill. The moonshine people were great and we will most diffidently go back. The weather thru me for a little worry but everyone had a blast. What else to you plan the kid that isn't afraid of anything other than flying down a mountain wide open? Happy Birthday Shorty!