music around the world

we enjoyed a wonderful music concert on garry's birthday, including coleman and his fellow second and third grade friends. he did an awesome job...singing every word of every song, and standing still in between each one! wOw! they ended the concert with an american medley...which always warms my heart! what a joy to hear those sweet voices sing about our beautiful country!

drive swim dance

what a fun weekend we had in kansas city! since hampton and coleman LOVE to stay in hotels and swim, we decided it would be fun to do just that! we had fun eating at cheesecake factory (coleman's fav), swimming, playing crazy 8's and old maid, room service, watching the olympics, and giggling! lucky for us, our dear friend, tori, was performing in the state dance competition that same weekend in kansas city as well! tori is the daughter of candie, my friend for nearly fourteen years (and babysitter for austin as an infant). what a treat to have lunch with candie, randy and tori...and watch a day of dance. tori expertly danced in two performances, sharing first place in both, and second overall in state! yay! though the day was long, and the wooden bleachers were hard...we had a wonderful time!

bosley

hampton cheerfully left school on friday with "the bosley bag," including bosley (a stuffed dog), clothing, a brush, and other necessities for the weekend! the smile that wrapped her sweet face was enormous! she was SOOOOO excited! we had fun carting bosley to several basketball games, where bosley was able to wear his special game shirt. luckily, his brief encounter with our dog dodger, came to an abrupt end, as dodger happily plucked him from the kitchen counter to engage in some pretty aggressive play. after a few shakes, we were thankfully able to free bosley from dodger's ferocious bite. whew! how on earth would i explain that bosley was unable to physically return to school in the bag with his belongings? his visit was fun, nonetheless, as hampton changed his clothes as many times as she changed her own...the count escapes me at the moment!

coleman the artist

coleman's color wheel was proudly displayed at the andover public library as one of the select pieces in a special school gallery. we enjoyed viewing all of the amazing artwork, but especially loved the time we shared with coleman...as a shining artist! he chose a yummy local mexican restaurant for dinner, where we further celebrated his artistic accomplishment!

hampton moves her hips like yea

hampton's latest moves at age four. she was excited to perform her "show" on top of the kitchen bar for me, playing music from my phone, and dressed in her 12th outfit of the day. wOw...i had no idea she could move her hips that way!

snow day

the kids enjoyed their first snow day in three years today...that is, once the snow quit falling! they each did the happy dance as i awakened them to say that school had been cancelled. due to the frigid temps, they lasted all of about 20 minutes, enjoying sledding down the small hills and the slide. dodger enjoyed every bit of the snow too, however, as you will notice, would not stop to pose for a pic! coleman filled cups with snow, which they later enjoyed with cherry syrup on top! fun day all around...i must say, even as a mom, i love snow days just as much!

stellar speller

we were happy to cheer on coleman, along with three additional third graders who made it into the 3rd-5th grade spelling bee this year! out of the sixteen 3rd-5th grade students, coleman amazed us as the words became more and more difficult, and more cuts were made. with each word, i hesitated to even take a breath, apparently being much more nervous than him. that could have been because coleman chose to spell the words aloud, without first writing them down. he made it through round 9, and was one of the final four (two third graders and two fifth graders). the killer word, "oblige" is now a word of despise. "but mom, i could spell rutabaga!" his classmate went on to win, which drew an ocean of tears from coleman. defeat...no matter the reason, is difficult for coleman's competitive spirit. i have no doubt we will enjoy the bee again next year! congratulations coleman! we were proud after word one!

one candle for dodger doodle

we celebrated the first birthday of our sweet dodger doodle today! what a treat! he feasted upon doggie "frosty paws" ice cream, and the kids shared a sundae with him! hampton dressed up in her party dress and heels for the occasion, and austin and coleman were on hand to help feed dodger his treat, and blow out his one, sparkly candle. oh yes, and hampton helped with that, too! what joy he has brought to our lives! we brought him home nearly three months after his birth...a small pup, and he has grown, and grown, and grown to be quite a large pup, weighing in at a mere 80 pounds-ish! and yes, it is my fault, that i trusted the breeder, who said he would be around 50-55 pounds. all in all, we love him just as he is, all 80 pounds of fluff! he is honestly the perfect dog...he smells good, he doesn't shed, and he LOVES to be around people...which means he is ALWAYS right in the wrong place (in a good way, of course!) happy birthday, dodger doodle!

hApPy NeW yEaR

to all! we have been anticipating the big drop of the ball for a mere three hours now. hampton kept asking,
"when can we have the party?" of course, she was proudly donning her favorite ballet gear for the duration of the night! fInAlLy, we were able to celebrate as a fam (for the first time in a LONG time). we toasted the new year with champagne and cherry 7-up...what a treat! then we danced the night away...that is, because hampton thought the party had just begun! cheers to a terrific 2010!

numana

since my dad cannot sit still long enough to plan his retirement, we willingly accepted the challenge of assisting in the new venture he has embarked upon. numana. it is simply an organization born in the small town of el dorado, kansas, with a mission to accomplish great things. our family was fortunate enough to assist in one of the first food packaging events, with the benefits of our labor sent to starving children in haiti. together with the salvation army, numana is helping to provide at least one healthy meal to each child who attends school...this, with the hopes that their parents will send them (if for that reason alone). wOw...what a blessing the evening was! after coleman poured a carefully measured cup of rice into the bag (which was filled with soy, vegetables, and a vitamin tablet by me ma, evan and jessica), austin and alexis carefully measured the weight of the bags, before passing them to me or jessica for sealing. following the sealing process, hampton and evie carefully patted the bags down flat for easier packaging. garry, then placed the bags of food in a numana box before sealing them for delivery! our family alone packaged 2,000 meals in about two hours. while we were there, over 30,000 meals were packaged. in the two day event, nearly 300,000 meals were packaged! what a great feeling to do something so simple, yet so wonderful, to benefit children who are literally fighting for life daily. the kids had an absolute blast (hampton repeatedly said, "this is so fun, mom!") i must also admit that there have been a few tears shed as well. at bedtime, they remember what we did and why we did it. coleman, through tears, said, "i just feel so bad that they don't have food and water!" a humbling, yet magnificent opportunity to do something good! coleman even asked to take a bag of food home, to see if it tasted ok! so thankful to have been a part of something of this nature! thanks, dad! you do many great things!

christmas morning 2009

wOw! santa was extra nice this year, delivering just as each child wished! austin happily found tons of jordan gear, new lebron nike shoes, xbox and games. coleman was happy to spot the scooter he had requested, along with two new pairs of shoes, clothes and new wii games. hampton was happy to pull on her new uggs, before playing with her new barbie house, airplane, and bike! what a fun morning! oh...and he ate ALL of the cookies, and drank ALL of the milk! the reindeer enjoyed the carrots! merry christmas all!