What have we been up to?

The last week or so has been pretty standard at our house. Just hanging out, going to the gym a few times, playing outside and swimming at the neighborhood pool. Chris was gone for 8 days to Jamaica on a mission trip, but he's back now and everything is getting back to normal.

School begins in one more week!!! Morgan goes back to school August 3rd and the little kids go back to preschool on August 17th. We've had a great summer and it has flown by fast, but I am getting ready to have a schedule again. Dave Ramsey probably wouldn't be too proud of us this summer. Since this is the first summer that we've really been on a paper budget (and really trying to stick to it), it's definitely been a learning experience. Our credit cards are still paid off, but money is being shuffled from one envelope to another. The summer months really put a new spin on the financial situation. Well, I guess we'll know for next year.

One more thing I've done in the last week is sign up to run a half-marathon. Not just any half-marathon, but the Disney Princess Half Marathon. Yep, that's right. I'll be running 13.2 miles around Disney World with JUST GIRLS! It's going to awesome, but definitely my first and LAST half-marathon ever! My body just isn't made to run long distances, but I figured that if I'm gonna do it I better do it now!

So, we'll keep truckin' on for now. August will be filled with buying school supplies, getting used to the schedule, early bed times, more time to clean the house and getting used to middle schooler.

Aubie's 50th Birthday Party

Last week, my mom called to ask if I would be interested in going to an event put on by the Atlanta Auburn Club - specifically Aubie's 50th birthday party. For those of you who are so unfortunate as to not know who Aubie is... he's the tiger mascot for Auburn. So, anyway, of course my answer was SURE! Tonight, my mom, Ivey and myself had a girl's night out and headed down to Cobb Galleria for the party. It really was a lot of fun. There were vendors there selling Auburn parafanalia, food, a silent auction, drawings for prizes and a short program to introduce the new head coach. It was a lot of fun and I got several new pictures. I always have a great time at Auburn sporting events because I love the atmosphere and excitement of the fans. I'm still trying to find tickets to a game or two this season, so that's my next big project... Here are a few pictures from our fun night!

Here is one of Auburn's eagles - Nova. He is one of the eagles that flies in the stadium before the game begins. It truly is awesome to watch and gets the fans ready to cheer on the Auburn Tigers. WAR EAGLE!

Here the kids gather around Aubie to sing Happy Birthday. Several former "Aubie"s are standing in the background.

Basketball camp

Morgan went to basketball camp last week at Blessed Trinity High School. I decided back in the Spring that he needed some sort of camp to go to this Summer to help him develop some athletic skills. He has always been interested in sports and fairly natural at playing them. As a mom, I really want him to be involved in something, whether it is band or sports, while he's in middle school and high school. The past couple of years he has shown more interest in basketball, so I decided that's what we would work on. I searched the internet for a legitimate basketball camp in our area this summer and came up with the Nike Elite Hoops basketball camp in Roswell. It was a week long camp that lasted from 9 AM - 3 PM every day. To say that Morgan didn't want to go at first would be an understatement. He was extremely nervous about being at a new place with people that he didn't know. I could totally understand his apprehensiveness, but I also knew that it would be a really good experience for him both physically and socially. So, he went. And... HE LOVED IT! I delegated Chris to the task of taking him the first day and staying a few minutes until Morgan was comfortable. Then, I picked him at the end of the day and he had a huge smile on his face. He made several new friends, got great exercise, practiced and learned basketball skills and gave Mom and siblings a break! At the end of the week, his coach gave him a hand-written evalutation to take home along with several goodies.

Pirate's Cove

Today, the little kids and I met a couple of friends at a new play place while Morgan was at basketball camp. I had heard of this place from a friend's blog and knew that we had to check it out! The place had a HUGE sand box, pirate's fort, cannon ball shooters for foam balls and several big jump and slide things. It's a bit of a drive from us, but the kids LOVED it and played for almost 3 hours. They would've stayed longer but I was starving (I had to do the "good Mom" thing and give my lunch to Gavin since he left his in the garage on our way to the car). Anyway, the kids had a ball and it was nice to be able to sit and chat with friends. Here are a few pics:

Ivey and her friend, Jacob, watch where the ball is going after shooting it! They collected balls from around the area to put in the yellow bag to shoot.

Gavin takes his turn with a cannon ball launcher!

Ivey and Zachary play so nicely in the sand box.

Gavin loves to climb, so he was constantly climbing up into the fort and then sliding down the poles. He had lots of fun and cried when it was time to go.

It's a rainy afternoon here in the ATL - thank the Lord!! We need the rain and I know my flowers are so happy right now! The rain started coming while we were eating lunch, so I told the kids that they could play in the rain when they finished their lunch. As to be expected, they were immediately not hungry anymore and went to get their bathing suits on. I took a few pics of them playing and having a great time together for the photo album. It was raining really hard and we came in just before the thunder began. What fun to be a kid!!