A Year Older

Thursday, Craig took Jordan to Disney World's Magic Kingdom for his 13th birthday. Saturday Craig and Jordan left for the week at scout camp. So Friday we celebrated Morgan and Jordan's birthdays. Craig and I took them to see the new Harry Potter Movie. They loved the movie, but wished it had been more like the book. Friday evening we had pizza, cake & ice cream, and presents. We didn't realize that we had no birthday candles, until we were ready to sing to the kids. So we improvised with a red tea light candle for each cake!

Jordan loves to draw, so Craig and I gave him soft pastels and a pastel sketch pad with colored paper. This brought a nice smile to his face.
My mom has continued with a tradition that her mother started. Each grandchild gets a check for their birthday. The dollar matches the childs age. My kids look forward to the birthday card with a check in it. They plan for what they want to spend their money on.

Jordan has been interested in dragons for several years. Grandma and Grandpap S gave him this cool book. He was also happy to hear from Grandma and Grandpa W.

Stuart and Raeleigh each gave gifts to the kids. So we had to take pictures with them too!

Morgan like most teenager girls likes to dress with accessories. Craig and I gave her a turtle necklace and bracelet, both made of stone. She is such a pretty girl.

We are blessed to have Morgan and Jordan in our family. They are both terrific people that bring good times and challenges to our lives!

CHS ribbon cutting

Craig and Samantha standing in front of the restored historic Charlotte High School. This first building (commonly called the three story) is the only historic part of the campus.

Charlotte High School as well as several other schools in our county were destroyed by hurricane Charley in Aug. 2004. Rebuilding the campus has been a slow process that is not finished yet. However the freshman and sophomore will have new buildings to meet in when school opens. Most of the junior and senior classes will still be in portables for a few more months. Craig is also hoping that the changes to the dinning room will be done when school starts. He does need somewhere to feed the 2,000 students!

There was a ribbon cutting and open house on July 13, 2009 for the completed parts of the school. The ribbon cutting took place in the new axillary gym. The school board was there.

Jerry Olivio, assistant super intendent conducted the ceremony.

Barbara the school board chair speaking. Jerry Olivio, David Galler (super intendent), and Wayne Goff (a CHS graduate.

Dr Dave Galler was pleased with prospect of the nearing completion of the school.

Barney Duffey, CHS principal, spoke on the excitement of opening the new school and how much tradition is in the school. Wayne Goff also spoke. He told stories about starting 4th grade at Charlotte and continuing until he graduated 12th grade. Mr. Goff was a student at the school when there was only the one three story building.

Samantha snapped this picture while waiting for the ribbon cutting ceremony to start. Craig graduated from the school in 1979, Tony graduated in 2006. We hope Patrick will graduate in 2011 and Samantha in 2013.

This is a picture from inside of one of the new buildings, looking onto the pathway that leads to the cafe dinning room. This is supposed to be done before school starts.

The Tarpon Fish is the school mascot. Samantha is standing next to one of the many tarpons on campus. This one happens to be in the main office.

This is a window that shows the original construction on the historic three story building. This building sits at the front of the campus. In the picture below, Craig and Samantha are standing in front of the three story building.

Unfortunately I did not take pictures of the inside of the new buildings. Not sure what I was thinking there. The new school is very nice. So much technology to be used in the classrooms. This is a nice opportunity for Samantha and Patrick to be students there.

Inventor

Our Stuart still loves to create new things. I came downstairs last week to find his Hess Trucks taken apart. The pieces were all over the dinning table. I was not to happy about this, however, Stuart was thrilled. Later that same day Stuart took some of the truck parts and a tub (that is supposed to hold toys) and taped them together. He was pleased with his new "Tank".

I tried to get a closeup of the tank parts.

I love the grin on Stuart's face in the other picture.

Not just on TV

Craig and I came home last week to the kids telling us that the new dishwasher was leaking. Neither of us were very happy about that news. Then Craig opened up the machine to find MANY soap suds. I immediately started to laugh, Craig was not to thrilled. I also said "I thought this only happened on TV!" It was Patrick's dishes day, he discovered we were out of dishwasher detergent. At the suggestion of his sisters he used regular dish soap. Craig and Patrick scooped out the visible suds, then started the dishwasher again.

Of course as the machine continued to run more and more and more and MORE SUDS appeared on the floor. Thus all the towels! It took four runs of the machine to get all the suds out. Now we all know to only use dishwasher detergent in the dishwasher! It was/is definitely worth a good laugh.

Independence Day!

On July 4th, Independence Day, Craig and I took the four younger kids to the downtown celebration. There were several things to see. The kids had brought their own money to spend, that is always great. Raeleigh really wanted to jump in the bounce houses. That is until she found out that it would cost her $5 for five minutes of jumping. She decided to save her money for something else!




Craig and I saw this shirt at walmart. We had to buy it for Raeleigh, because she goes to Liberty Elementary!

















There were these cool looking military trucks/tanks. We looked at it. Stuart was especially interested. He stood in line for several minutes to look inside.

Stuart got up inside of the truck/tank. We couldn't take a picture of him inside, oh well. Stuart loved it. He even got to make it spin around, just like you would if you were shooting the enemy. He was very impressed by the missile shooting device on the sides, "they can shoot 4 missiles at once!"

A cool little race car. Stuart and Raeleigh also sat in it. Of course the boys said they would love to race!

Cooling off in the heat, infront of the fire truck. Stuart and Raeleigh decided that it would be cheaper for them to share the icee.

I love to watch fire works. I am grateful to live in a country that gives me so many freedoms. I am thankful to be a citizen of the United States of America!

:) Love This :)

Morgan made this shirt at one of her YW leaders houses. I appreciate my kids leaders. They are terrific people!!!

July 3, 2009

As your kids get older, it becomes more interesting to have family outtings. At least when you have an 8 year age span. The teenagers are unhappy about going to things the little ones enjoy.

We went to a free Independence Day Family Event.

Patrick, Morgan and Samantha found places to sit and look grumpy while the rest of us walked around.

Stuart and Raeleigh loved the pitching practice. They each got to throw three balls. This is a picture of Raeleigh just after she pitched the ball. Look closely and you can see the ball in the air.

There were so many bounce houses. This one was like an obstacle course with big slide at the end. Stuart and Raeleigh both loved this.

There were four water bounce houses. This was the kids favorite. They loved to run and throw themselves down for a slide. Raeleigh is in the first picture and Stuart is in the second. Samantha eventually decided to try it out, she is in the 3rd picture.

Samantha, Stuart and Raeleigh had a great time getting wet! We were glad Samantha found something to be happy about.

While Stuart and Jordan waited in line for shaved ice, Samantha and Raeleigh played catch with a tiny football.

Just before we left the kids got a snack of dirt to eat. The dirt was in a big trough!

I snapped this picture of Patrick on the way home. He was so not happy to be with the family. Teenagers you just got love 'em and laugh!!!!