In the Good Old Summertime

What a summer! It is the first day of school today and Faith started FOURTH Grade!!!! She is in Mrs. Christian's class this year. She had been originally assigned to another teacher but when we got to school this morning, she had been moved to another class. I think she will be okay with this because she had wanted Mrs. Christian in the first place. I hope it didn't make her too nervous to be expecting one teacher and end up with another teacher. Did I mention she was in FOURTH grade. It was just yesterday that she went to kindergarten, see...
This will be her last year at Coles Ferry Elementary. Next year she will go to Castle Heights Upper Elementary but John Derrick will start Kindergarten at Coles Ferry. I am already getting weepy eyed about John Derrick going to school. Kids just grow up way too fast. I miss my babies. I am already forgetting what it was like to hold them in my arms. Kevin and I are done having babies so I have to be content to watch my beautiful children grow and mature and try to enjoy every moment that I can.

Like I said, this has been a crazy summer. Summer break has always had a wild effect on the kids. I have always tried to keep the kids busy so we are not sitting around watching TV all summer long. We would do the library summer reading program, go swimming, go to the movies, do VBS, and try to go on a picnic. It always seemed so chaotic and when school would start there would be a since of peace for a few weeks while Faith settled into a school routine and John Derrick would enjoy a few weeks of doing nothing before he started back to Mother's Day Out.

This summer had the same wild effect on the kids except we did not do much this summer. We only made it to the library a few times this summer. I only went swimming once with the kids. We didn't get to see one free movie and the kids went to VBS but I didn't help this year. I spent most of my summer recovering from two different surgeries. The kids did get to spend a lot of time with Grandmommy and Granddaddy and several different babysitters while I went to doctor's appointments. I did have a lot of good feeling days this summer but I just didn't try to do anything and unfortantly the kids watched a lot of TV and played on the computer most of the time. I think I slept in almost every single days except those days that I went to the doctor. There were days that I would wake up at would wake up at 8:30 in the morning, feed the kids breakfast, waste the WHOLE morning doing nothing, take a shower around 10:30, and then feed the kids lunch just to sit around and do nothing some more. What a waste of time. Poor kids, I was beginning to think that they liked when I went to the doctor just so they could go somewhere.

Well, we did do a couple of things this summer. We went to the beach. John Derrick got to sleep over at a friend's house for the first time. Faith got to sleep over a few times at friend's house. We went to the lake for the fourth of July. We went to a Nashville Sounds Game for Kevin's Father's Day present. We took a Saturday and discovered a place in Kentucky called Kentucky Down Under. We got to feed exotic birds and pet a kangeroo. It was a really neat place and the kids had a lot of fun. I took the kids one day to the Discovery Museum in Murfreesboro just to get out of the house for the day. So while we wasted most of summer doing nothing, we did do a few fun things. Next summer will be different, that is a promise.
Pe.tting one of the kangeroos at Kentucky Down Under. This is a male kangeroo. We saw a mommy kangeroo with a baby in her pouch. I was not able to get a picture of her but it was so neat to see.
The picture of Kevin and I that Faith took.
Kevin and John Derrick feeding a bird at Kentucky Down Under.


Faith making a bowl out of cloth and glue at the Discovery Museum.
John Derrick and his tongue sticking out. He was really concentrating at what he was doing at the Discovery Museum.
This was John Derrick's favorite thing at the Discovery Museum. He could change the tires and muffler and add "fluids" to the car. His tongue was stuck out most of the time while he was "working" on the car.
Although the Discovery Museum is geared toward slightly younger kids, Faith had a lot of fun. I am glad that she doesn't think she is "too cool" for things like this. It helps keep her little just a little longer.