School is Underway

Wow! The summer is gone and school is underway. Robby is now in kindergarten, Drew: 3rd grade and Hannah: 8th grade. It gets easier in some ways, yet harder in others. Robby is already reading small words all by himself. Not bad for a kid who can't sit for more than 30 seconds. What do you know, he is listening to me and learning along the way. He also started soccer. He's had 2 games now and he scored his 1st goal last night (in his own team's net). That's ok. He's having a great time. He just runs around the field with a big smile on his face.
Drew scored his 1st goal in soccer last week. Yah Drewman! They ended up tying the game 3 to 3. But he scored the 1st goal of the game. We were so proud of him! Soccer is so good for him.
Hannah just got her braces off. She's very excited about that. She looks so beautiful (with or without braces). I can't believe she's in 8th grade this year. She is growing up so fast.
Jason took a day off at the beginning of the month to go with us to Port Huron. We had a great family day to celebrate the boys' adoption a year ago. We got to go on a light ship and the retired Brambles Coast Guard ship. We followed the tours up with ice cream as we watched a freighter heading north on the St. Clair River. What a good day it was!
Hannah and I got a chance to go to Chicago to see Uncle Jeff and Aunt Marta (Jason's brother and sister-in-law) last weekend. We had a great time. We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo, an art gallery (Aunt Marta was helping set-up a non-profit fundraiser there), and most importantly, a Chicago Cubs game. LOVED IT! The stadium was AWESOME! I believe it is the oldest stadium (98 years old)in MLB. Chicago is a great place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. It's just a whole different world to me.
Jason had a man's weekend with the boys. They hung out with the McCausey men. Drew got a chance to shoot Josh's bow and just do some boy things. It was a great weekend for everyone.
The trees are changing color and things are cooling down (finally). Looking forward to a great fall.

Sonny's Rest-Up

Vacation is over with, how sad. But we had a great time! The weather was pretty good (only 1 wash out day), mild at the beginning of the week, but warmed up at the end of the week. Kids had a great time fishing, swimming, watching a movie every night, playing games and pretending they were pirates and going on a treasure hunt (the 3 younger ones anyways). The 5 older kids were bad pirates and tried to steer them away from their treasure hunt by making them do things for them. In the end, the boys found their treasure (bag of rocks) on the ends of their fishing rods in the river.
Drew was the true fisherman of the week with two 17 inch long, big mouth bass. He caught them right off the edge of the dock. Robby wanted to fish too, so he asked Nolan to use his fishing rod to cast out. Well Rob, being 5, got bored so he spent most of his fishing time running up and down the dock talking. So while Nolan was fishing for Robby, he caught a 17 inch, big mouth bass also. Robby went screaming down the dock, "That's my fish. I caught a fish." Poor Nolan! But Nolan did end up catching a pretty big pike (or something like that) a few days later.
Hannah spent her vacation reading, taking pictures and shopping. Fortunately Bekah and Kayla enjoy all of those too, so the girls spent lots of time by the campfire pit reading and taking pictures of the freighters going by. Everyone loves Sonny's. There is something for everyone.
While we were in the U.P. we went to Mackinaw City, Whitefish Point and the Soo Locks. We had a great trip. Can't wait till next year!
Now it's time to great ready for school. This year will be a challenge, but I am looking forward to it. I get so excited when their school books come in the mail, it's like Christmas all over again. Kids aren't excited, but mom is.
With school starting comes the changing seasons here in mid-Michigan. Thank you Lord for the great summer, but I am really looking forward to the cooler weather and the beautiful fall colors.

Rock Lake Christian Assembly - 2010

Another successful year. We had so much fun. Even though I wasn't with the campers the whole time, it looked like they (all 35 of them) had a great time too. Drew got to experience sleeping in the lodges with the campers (even though he wasn't technically a camper last week) and he did so well. He seemed to love being a part of the group. Robby stayed with me at a cottage with Hannah and a couple of the junior, junior faculty girls (teenagers). He had a great time. It was good for him to have some apart time from Drew.
I was very proud of all three of my kids. Hannah stepped up to more responsibility in being assigned to help with a team of campers for the week. Drew did what was asked of him by being a runner for Jason and a helper to Grandma(the nurse for the week)in getting the kids to get their medicines at mealtimes. I didn't hear him complain or argue even once! And Robby did pretty good about being obedient and following instructions from the girls who watched him while I taught my Christmas Traditions class. As I told my friend Renee, it gives me a great feeling to see my family come together in a mission and make 3rd and 4th grade week a success. I am so thankful to have children who are picking up our mission to give a week every year to God and to tell others about His love.
We had 3 baptisms Friday night, and many seeds were planted. My Christmas Traditions class went well. I was able to talk to the campers about many traditions and relate them to the Bible. We looked up scripture and talk about Jesus' birth. Hopefully the campers will remember all that was taught to them (from all 8 classes) in a few months when they see Christmas decorations and prepare for the Christmas season. This group of campers seem to be really interested in this year's theme of Christmas. I think they got it!
Robby's 5th birthday was on Thursday during camp. Lucky Kid! He was Mr. Social. He sure has a way with the ladies. He wore the birthday hat his "Birthday Boy" t-shirt that we made together and all the campers sang "Happy Birthday" to him at lunch that day. We'll do some more celebrating with a pinata up at Sonny's (vacation) next week. Makayla (who's family will be with us next week in the U.P.) has a birthday this week. We'll celebrate both birthday's on vacation.
So now that camp is over with for this year, now we can look forward to vacation next week. Sonny's Rest Up, here we come!