To quote my mother.......

The day she was born.....almost 11 years ago.....
              
                   "I can see her now.  A little letter jacket with "Riah" written on the back. 
                                        Gonna be a cheerleader some day!"

Such a short summer.....

I don't know who I hate it for worse, me or the kids. I think this was the shortest summer on record. We go back in 2 weeks! But, alas, the kids have had a blast. Gone a zillion miles an hour, and are just now slowing down enough to see the sun in front of them. I'm pretty sure I didn't even get finished posting about the end of school last year....what's up with that? Oh well. Here's a little of what we did this summer.

We ate outside a lot.....

We got a cool new slide/pool.

We took in a few Braves Games......

(7 rows up....yeah...that makes for a MUCH better ball game!)

We played at the church for 4th of July....

And we ate icee's...

And then we went to Pigeon Forge for a couple of Days and played at Dollywood......

We took our time getting there....and stopped for ice cream at a truck stop. 

We stopped at the top of the Smoky Mountains.....

And the kids stood in two places at once.....

And they all grew up.....Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy.......

too........

fast.  :o(

Give me an "S"!!

And the last year of elementary school begins all over again.  With my baby girl.  We finished 4th grade high on the hog!  All "A" honor roll, awards you can't imagine and a teacher who taught both of us so much.  She finished gymnastics almost perfecting her round-off back handspring by herself, and in 3 short weeks, she's off to cheer camp!  We can't wait.  She'll be cheering for the same park Tanner plays baseball at....our intent is to buy stock and become rich and famous with it some day!  I love being a ball park mom.  I think I've waited all my life for this.

Riah supporting T at the Soap Box Derby race.  We got awesome matching

sunburns on our left shoulders that day.

Awards, awards, awards!!!

Riah getting her awards from her awesome teacher, Mr. H.

Mr. H. and Riah

and the awesomeness that begins in 3 weeks.....

That's actually a pic from last year....she'll be there next! 
Watch for that letter jacket that just says
"Riah"

5th Grade...here we come!!!

more T.....

Ok, so like I said, T finished up 2nd grade.  Seems a little odd...since I think he acts way older than a 2nd grader.  He had a stellar year.  He impresses me like non other.  He is kind and aware, but not a pushover nor a sissy.  He is honest and he is a best friend....to so many.  I have an amazing son, that I know will make an amazing man, husband and father....in like 47 years.

Ok, end of year pictures.  At the end of the year, his class put on a skit about The Wizard of Oz.  Tanner chose to be the Tin Man.  Mom of course, chose to go over the top.  I actually felt awesome a little bad when the other little Tin Men came into the room, and the one little boy looked at T's costume and his jaw hit the floor.  I really did feel bad when that same kid said to his mom "Tanner has a real oil can, not this dumb watering bucket".  Yikes.  Overachievers can make life suck sometimes. 

Aunt Kathy did the awesome job of finding the oil can (yeah Aunt Kathy!) and then to find the right auto parts store that clearly loved kids enough to care about ordering the proper tin funnel for his hat.  Amazing.

Eric and I spent all of Memorial Day weekend running countless errands to find all the silver/gray clothes, paint, dryer hose, blah, blah, blah.  Eric spray painted EVERYTHING, and then saw a whole new side of me when I said, "Just trust me....the OCD in this instance is a good thing!!!"

And here is the awesome Tin Man:

Such a performer, isn't he?  "Let me stare at the back wall while I do this acting thing!"

Off to enjoy a VERY short summer and then back to the grind in 3rd Grade.

My "baby" is in 3rd Grade.  Vomitosis.

Not so sure where to start....

So, let's start with a list so I don't forget:  And in order of appearance........

Madeline-Wrapped up her last day in elementary school.  I, the lively 30-something girl of 3, now has a middle schooler.  Is that even possible?  I remember the day I took her to kindergarten.  There is NO WAY that was 6 years ago.

Sariah-Wrapped up her last day of 4th grade and is now on top of the world.  Starting her final year in elementary school (OMG....really??  This is not still happening!) and the first year without her big sis there to boss her around, show her the ropes.

Tanner-Wrapped up 2nd grade, is well on his way to having a perfect elementary school report card (yeah, all A's for 6 years....only 1 kid in Maddie's whole grade pulled that one off!) and is on a break for only 2 short months from baseball.  How odd....I miss the chaos.  I could really use a practice to race home and get to!

Now....On with the show!!

Tanner Andrew....2nd Grade: Cont'd.

Soap Box Race!  Need no explanation.  Pictures are so much more fun!!!

My fave part....us "screaming" as if us saying "Go T" would actually make him go faster.  Pretty sure we are used to being on the ball field. 
That was fun!

Tanner Andrew....2nd Grade

I think we should back up a little bit and give you a rundown of how life has been for a busy 8 year old.  We finished up his baseball season just as the heat was plaguing Georgia.  We made it to the playoffs and got very excited for a few days of non stop ball playing.  Long story short, they played like pro's and lost in their 3rd game, but to a team who was on their 1st game of the day, and us on our 2nd....in the middle of the day....in 95 degree heat.  I think every Mom and Dad at the field said multiple times "I don't know whether to pray for them to win or pray for them to lose!"  Tanner played so hard, and during the second game on the final day, got to play 3rd base.  I have to say, for a mom who LOOOOOOVES her son playing catcher, I loved him at 3rd.  He moves so quick and he let's no one by him.  He took out 1 player by tagging him with a clothesline!  Let's just say if some kid had tagged T like he did....I'd have been on the field.  Um....yeah, dem's the breaks!   And now for some pics......

He did his very best hitting of the season at the tournaments....it's no secret he responds well to bribery.  :o)  We love baseball.  Next season=kid pitch.

He can't wait!