Camp Wesley Woods

WHAT. AN. AMAZING. WEEKEND.

Friday afternoon found us excitedly packing for a "camping" trip with our "church friends" (as the kids call them) to Wesley Woods. WW is a camp in the Smoky Mountains supported by the United Methodist Church. Friday evening we had dinner cooked by camp staff, did crafts and watched a camp staffer build a fire so we could roast marshmellows and make smores.

Saturday morning came quickly. Very, very (very!) quickly. Followed by another well-prepared breakfast (and COFFEE), a hike, facepaint, canoeing, lunch and swimming.

We are very blessed to have a church that supports young families and children/preschool ministry leaders that make us feel like we're the most important people in the world. We have a lot to be thankful for after this weekend. For example, great friends, new friends, being able to watch your children have THE time of their life, using their imaginations to the fullest and laughing so much you can't tell whose laughing kid is whose. We were able to enjoy absoutely perfect weather, gorgeous surroundings, caring camp staffers and absolutely no major problems the entire time. We weren't even there for 24 hours, but I felt like one of those families on those weird farms (sorry, I mean no offense with the word "weird." But...I'm going to anyway)...where everyone raises all the children. Some kids sat with other parents at mealtime, no one blinked twice at disciplining other people's kids and parents shared their shoulders, canoes and hands with all children, and some parents even slept with kids that weren't theirs! Now, that's the definition of "family" and "friendship!"

On the other hand, there are also some other things we're really grateful for. Like being at home in our own bed that doesn't creak everytime you take a deep breath and has a real boxspring instead of plywood. We're also grateful that our children both have their own rooms and that we don't often have to share a bedroom with other bears, errr, I mean, friends. We're grateful for alarm systems and doors that have child resistent locks on them. I'm so happy to have spent this time with our friends and I truly, truly cannot wait until this time next year!!

Moral of the story: We feel very, very blessed for many, many reasons. If you were a part of this weekend with us, you are definitely a blessing in our lives!

Cooper, Kendall and Ty patiently wait on our camp guide to get our fire started.

These look like two VERY experienced boaters, eh?

A picture-perfect Saturday afternoon A family photo in front of the waterfall. Yes, I said "waterfall." Listen, it hasn't rained a lot lately. Give the Smokies a break.

A HUMONGOUS thanks to Mrs. Brittany and Mrs. Denise for a fantastically memorable weekend. Our backs and necks are thankful to be home in our own beds, but we still can't wait until next year!

The Rest of Kali's Visit

Poor Kali. We only took about 3000 pictures while she was here, all of which obviously couldn't fit in one blog. Then, school starts and all is seemingly forgotten from the cousin's visit. Not so, I promise. We did do a few other things besides go to Dollywood while Kali was here. The poor girl probably couldn't wait to get home and out of the grasps of my two little monsters. She did have a drawer and basket in Kendall's room as "her space" but had to alternate nightly which room she was sleeping in. I can't even begin to count how many times I heard "Mommy, where's Kali?" or "Kaaaaali, will you help me?" "Kaaaaali, are you sleeping with me tonight?"

We enjoyed a wee bit of ice cream.

Tent #2. This is the tent on the floor for the other person that HAD to sleep in the same room as everyone else. Not pictured is the incredibly difficult bed tent that the other 2 people slept in.

We provided some arts and crafts at Camp Tennessee. Including, but not limited to, homemade playdough, lipgloss, and personalized magnets and magnetic boards.

The yummy lipgloss (and if you're Cooper, "chapstick")

We played a game almost every night after dinner.

We miss you Sweet Girl (and the rest of your wonderful family, too!)

A Hobby "Fore" Everyone

We had a lazy Friday morning recently, before school started, before we lost our lazy Fridays for Four when school started. It was hot and for some reason, we got a hankering to hit the driving range early in the morning. So, Chip, Cooper and Kendall wore their best golfing gear, packed up the clubs, tees and hats and got in the truck. I grabbed my flip-flops, sunglasses and travel mug of coffee (and my camera), given that I have round-about zero desire to hit a golf ball.

Cooper gets a little instruction from his favorite Pro.

I'm no professional here, but this girl looks to have a future in this sport!

She clearly had a horrible time. In all seriousness, she LOVED every second of it. She also loved dumping the balls out of the bucket, giving Daddy a ball when he needed it and singing and dancing for no one inparticular... but she also LOVED hitting and was insistent that she could do it all by herself!

He wasn't having such a bad time, either! Cooper later went to the real golf course and played with Daddy. Kendall cried that she couldn't tag along as well! I can't say that I'm disappointed that I'm not in this photo, seeing as I have no appreciation for the sport. However, this picture makes me very, very happy. There isn't much that's better in life than seeing the 3 people you love the most in the world enjoy something together.

The "Other" Child

Poor Kendall. I've only blogged about twice in the past 4 weeks or so and both of those have been entirely about Cooper. Little Princesses will start to worry if they continue to get left out like this!

So what's Kendall been up to? Well, not too, too much, except for that fact that she misses her brother. She waves goodbye to him every morning on the front porch and then comes inside, settles into her cartoons and about 5 minutes later looks at me and says in the saddest, meekest little voice ever: "where's my brother? Where's Cooper?" We go through this every single morning. This particular morning I asked her why she was so sad and she said "because he said he would play with me. Now I don't have a brother to play with me." Even her preschool teacher says she's a different little girl these days for the first little bit in the mornings. Cooper and Kendall would go into the same class for the last few weeks in the morning at daycare because Cooper was bumped to a temporary kindergarten class and the teacher didn't arrive until 9. I think Kendall got a little TOO used to that morning routine.

It's not all about Cooper though. Kendall gets to run errands with mommy on Mondays while Cooper is at choir at church. She LOVES to ride in his carseat to school in the mornings since Cooper rides to school with Daddy. While Cooper is officially signed up for fall soccer, that hasn't started yet. So Kendall's extracurricular activities are taking the limelight for now.

Kendall is now attending the same dance studio as I did (well, new location, but still...). I should probably say "the same dance studio as Aunt Kara" since I had about 2 tap recitals when I was about 5 and that was it. My dancing career ended abruptly after one of my fellow dancers lost her shoe and hit a parent sitting in the front row at our recital when we were in kindergarten. All caught on VHS tape, of course. I quit, I'm sure, to gaurantee I never suffered such embarrassment. Speaking of, I've really gotta find that video!
My shy little ballerina practices before the rest of the class comes in. You can't NOT love that face.

Love You Sweet Girl!!!! You'll have your first day of kindergarten in less than 2 years and I'm sure that particular blog will make Mommy and Daddy cry even more than Cooper's did. You're my "Baby Girl" and I'm soaking in every tiny little moment you and I share alone together these days!

Misery Loves Company

...Or so they say. So I'm going to share with you a poem that was given to us on the first day of school along with a stern, finger-in-my-face instruction not to read it until we got home. If this doesn't affect you, you're made of stone. And I'm going to let YOU drop Kendall off for her first day of kindergarten!

The First Day

I gave you a little wink and a smile

As you entered my room today.

For I know how hard it is to leave

And know your child must stay.

You've been with him for five years now

And have been a loving guide,

But now, alas, the time has come

To leave him at my side.

Just know that as you drive away

And tears down your cheeks may flow

I'll love him as I would my own

And help him learn and grow.

For as a parent, I too know

How quickly the years do pass

And once it was my turn

To take my child to class.

So please put your mind at ease

And cry those tears no more.

For I will love him and take him in

When you leave him at my door.

I listened well and didn't open that paper until I got home, after which the tears flowed and flowed. I'm pretty sure I saw a glisten in Chip's eye as he read it as well. Cooper couldn't have been more excited about his first day. He ran in the school at full speed, smiled at the teacher and showed Daddy the green tractor that he claimed to be his favorite part of the classroom. Everything was going well, I was concentrating hard on Kendall, writing a cafeteria check, and anything else that would keep my mind off crying. When I announced it was time to go, Cooper started crying. So, you can probably guess what I did. The teacher's assistant called me about 15 minutes later saying that he had cried for about 1 minute and was participating in the group activity as she spoke. I later learned that his teacher had asked for his help in filling all the boy's water bottles, which has been his morning job ever since. We are fortunate enough to have two teacher's assistants living right beside us and we've gotten a few updates about how great he's doing. It's been quite a change to not be able to just pick up the phone and ask how he's doing or at least walk in at the end of the day to get him and talk to the teacher. I'm not so sure I like it!!

In the days since that first, Cooper has requested to get out of the car and not be walked in by Daddy in the morning. That was quite a shock, but it's safe to say he loves school. On his second day, while waiting for everyone to get in their cars, Cooper's teacher walked by and talked to him through the window. His grin was the biggest I'd ever seen cross his face. I said "you really like Mrs. Johnson, don't you?" And he said "No! I LOVE her!!" As a parent, you just can't ask for anything better than that!

Life has definitely changed. We've gotten signed up for soccer for Cooper, started ballet for Kendall, Cooper started choir at church on Mondays and our extremely different schedule of picking Cooper up at 2:25 has drastically changed our daily life. I'm assuming at some point this all becomes normal and a lot less difficult!

Brother wants nothing to do with Sister's kisses on his first day of big school!

Kindergarten. Really?

I've heard just about all of it. I've been asked no less than 200 times "are you ready?" I've been told "it's so exciting" and "he'll love it" and "don't worry, all the moms cry." Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not here to tell you I didn't think I would cry, but I have to be honest. If I run over a squirrel, I cry. I'm one to cry, so I absolutely, positively knew that I would cry on the first day of kindergarten. I just didn't know I would be so emotional about it. It didn't start until this week. Kindergarten Parent Orientation on Tuesday, to be exact. Just the hallways, the PTA sign-ups, the art teacher that I had in elementary school teaching my own child, talks of "9 weeks" and Fall Break and school fundraisers...All the things that have always affected other people. Things I knew existed, things I understood and even looked forward to at one point or another.

There's this feeling I have tonight as I write this, a feeling of this is it. There's no backing down, no turning back, no stopping the clock. I thought our lives changed the most they ever possibly could when we had Cooper. People always tried to tell us that we had no idea how much we would change, how much our lifestyle would change and our priorities. They were all correct, of course and while I believed that was the end of the drastic changes in life, I now laugh at myself. Oddly enough, no one has warned us about the potential for kindergarten being a life-changing event. Such information makes me believe that maybe, just maybe I'm being a little bit too emotional, too dramatic, too everything about this. Alas, I can't help but feel like this might be the second most drastic change in our lives for quite some time. Am I ready for PTA meetings (or whatever it's called these days), volunteering to teach my children and their classmates to READ or help them in their art classes, ready for science fair projects and gym class excuses, slumber parties and friendship bracelets? We'll find out tomorrow, around 7:50AM, I suppose.

Tonight was hard. Never in a million years did I think that I would cry reading Cooper stories at bedtime the night before he started school. I suppose that was probably because I had never really thought about the actual scenerio of reading to Cooper the night before school started! Tonight I asked him if he wanted to read a book about going to Kindergarten. We changed the character's name to Cooper and the teacher's name to Mrs. Johnson. It was fun and Cooper asked somewhere around one million questions about his actual Kindergarten throughout the story. And then. He almost killed me. He asked if we could read "Momma, Will You." It's my favorite book to read and is a very sweet story about a mother and her little boy and baby girl. However, it isn't about superheros or trains, monster trucks or racecars, dinosaurs or monsters or dragons...so we haven't read it in a very long time, not since my baby boy became a BOY. I finally moved it to Kendall's room in hopes I could continue reading it to her. But when deciding our next book tonight, he asked me to read it. "I want to read the one about the Mommy and the kids and the animals. I love that book." You may have heard it tonight...my heart breaking, that is. But in a good way. Then I thought he would N.E.V.E.R. get to sleep tonight. "So, Mommy, I will have the same art teacher as you? Will you be in my art class? Will I get to play with the tractor when I get there in the morning? I get to eat in the big lunch room? Is my school as big as Kori's school? Did Kali used to go to my school? I get to ride with Daddy on work days? Will Brody be on the playground with me? I met that new boy the other day, he will be my new friend, right?" And the icing on the cake and what started the official night-before tears was this:

"Mommy. I used to be a little bit shy but I'm not anymore so now I'm going to be really excited to go to Kindergarten!!!!!"

The other heartbreaking quote of the evening came from Kendall. We were talking about the drop-off procedures in the mornings, etc. Chip will most likely bring Cooper to school most mornings and I will bring Sleeping Beauty to daycare an hour or so (or 2) later as usual. Kendall, her mouth full of bananas and milk actually looked like she might cry, hung her head and quietly said "I'm so sad. Cooper won't be at my school anymore. I will miss my brother."

Yes. Indeed, that large waterfall-like sound you heard your way was in fact my tears hitting the floor.

Have fun, my sweet boy. I know you'll love it, learn much and begin a lifetime of amazing memories, just like your dad and I did. We absolutely cherish the memories we have of our school years and wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. To this day we are still close to people we began our very first day of kindergarten with. Why on earth wouldn't we wish the very same for you? Those friendships, along with all the others you'll make along the way, will be much of what makes you YOU, what grounds you and what guides you. We may shed tears on your first day of school, but trust us, it's because of what a breathtakingly important day this is for you. We love you!

A Brick for Everyone!

Blount County has been truly blessed with the Clayton Center for the Arts. It was mildly devestating to see Wilson Chapel torn down to make room for the CCA. Besides, I spent almost every orchestra concert during my youth in that hall. Not to mention dance recitals (yes, back when I danced), plays and other various community activities for myself, my parents and my friends. However, it was time, for sure. And in it's place is an amazing group of buildings with far more to offer (and infinitely better acoustics). In the courtyard, for those that are unfamiliar, is a brick patio and on those bricks are names of community members, businesses and most importantly, children of Blount County and those important to Blount County residents.

KENDALL LEE

KORI LEE

COOPER EDWIN

KALI RAE Not Pictured: The actual SAMUEL PHILIP

The kiddos and The Clayton Center for the Arts

The Wilbourn Invasion, 2010 Version

I apologize for my blogs being all out of whack. Not only did we have to change our background but I can't seem to keep my blogs in any kind of order either. SO. Before Kali came to visit alone, she came with her mother and sister. Uncle Phillip had to work, or so he said. :)

We enjoyed lots of time with the Wilbourn girls, but we (okay, I) didn't bring my camera to many other than our fun trip to the mountains.

I just love these kids. I think I'll consider keeping them!

It's impossible to get a good, serious, smiling photo of all four at the same time. I've officially stopped trying.

I couldn't pay everyone to look at the camera at the same time. It's like I'm constantly dealing with children of all ages.

Wait! Wait! Wait! Is everyone looking? I think so!

We had an early birthday party for Kori and Kali. As everyone was leaving, this is what we saw.

Everyone contributed to this fudge marble, fondant-covered Tennessee themed cake! Notice the mountains, the waterfall and OF COURSE, the Power T.