2019-2020 Back to School!!!

The day has finally arrived . . . back to school!!  

This little guy is starting fourth grade and is so excited about having personal bests at school and about the Diamond Del field trip.  He's not so excited about "learning about our state."

 This sassy girl is starting eighth grade and can't wait for the big DC trip!  She's also pretty excited to join Jazz Band this year as her recharge group.

Here's to another wonderful school year.  Praying the Lord shines through them each day as they learn and grow.  So thankful for such incredible schools we get to call home.  Let the year begin!

PSE Meet the Teacher ~ Arbo

We are thrilled with Preston's teacher this year, Mrs. Arbo!  She has been at PSE forever and is truly passionate about teaching fourth grade.  Can't wait to see what this little guy learns this year.

Summer Homework Frustration

Preston has done a great job of reading all of his summer homework reading books . . . but boy did we meet some resistance when it was time to put together the poster project!  This has been dragging on for days (and I even bribed Savannah to help him with some new shorts) but today was the worst day when he almost melted down, refusing to finish the poster.  Ugh!  Hopefully we can wrap this up soon and be ready for school next week.

Soccer Tournament Opener

This weekend was Preston's first soccer tournament with the new team.  He had two games on Saturday and then another game on Sunday.  The first game was super close, they lost 3-4 but the other team got a good freebie with a penalty kick straight into the goal.  Preston scored 2 of the team's 3 goals too!

Unfortunately, they lost the second and third games too, but they still played well as a team. Here's to a great season as they learn to work together and further develop their skills in this next level of play.

Carowinds Water Park

The kids have been begging to go to the waterpark at Carowinds all summer . . . so we finally found a day when the Marions were also available and headed to the park for some wet fun.  The kids played for hours.  Honestly, I think it was the longest we've ever spent at Carowinds! Lines were super long, but we still had a great time.

My Birthday Fun

I wanted to keep things simple so after my birthday dinner at Red Robin we hit TCBY for my free birthday dessert!!  Here's to another fun year filled with lots of special memories. :)

A Little Family Getaway ~ Tubing

We have been trying all summer to plan a getaway for our family... but between soccer, month-end, and other previously scheduled activities it became quite difficult!  We finally settled on a mountain vacation for just one night.  The kids were a little disappointed that we weren't going to the beach again, but this was just way more doable and much closer too.

We left on Sunday after church and lunch with Mrs. Broome.  Our plan was to stop at the Whitewater Center for ziplining and then head to Boone for dinner at Macado's (Savannah's favorite) before calling it a day.  However, the ziplining plan didn't really work out as the single event passes were already sold out, plus we weren't sure Preston would have been tall enough anyway.  So instead we spent an hour or so walking around and enjoying the sights and free adventures.  We made it to Boone only to discover that there was over an hour wait for dinner, but we didn't want to disappoint the kids again so we waited.  It ended up being a nice dinner and then we called it a day.

Dave did some research on hiking places and we tried out a new trial before heading to go tubing.  It was a perfect day for hiking, nice and cool.  Savannah complained most of the way and insisted we end early so we headed back to the hotel to check out and get dressed for the water adventure.

Here is a picture of the tubing check-in at Rivergirl . . . had this place not been highly recommended we would have checked out right away.  Boy was it interesting!

We packed a cooler and opted for the 3-hour adventure.

We stopped several times along the journey to get out and play . . . once Preston didn't' realize how deep the water was and sunk WAY over his head.  Thankfully, he popped right back up and climbed into the tube.  From that point on he wore a life jacket. :)

It was such a fun adventure and a treat to be truly unplugged from the world for a few hours.  So we enjoyed the water before heading back to Charlotte and straight to soccer practice.  Thankfully we were only a little bit late and Jac's mom saved the day by bringing Preston extra soccer socks that he forgot to pack!

So now our vacations are complete and we are ready for the routine to begin.  Back to school, soccer, homework, and early mornings.

Savannah Rocked the SAT!!

Savannah was super excited to get her SAT medal in the mail today.  Unfortunately, we missed the awards ceremony because it was during EOG testing, but thankfully Duke TIP still mailed her the award.  She scored high enough in both verbal and math to earn this beauty . . and as a 7th grader!  Quite impressive!!

Urban Air Adventure

We took advantage of a super deal and enjoyed some cooler time playing inside today at Urban Air.  The kids jumped for hours and were exhausted when we finally left in time to go home for soccer camp.