A Visit from Long-time Family Friends

it's definitely spring break:

spring has finally arrived in South Carolina...

and what better way to celebrate than to hit the beach....you know, instead of doing school :D



 

surprise from a long-time childhood (camping) friend

just showed up in the mail today and REALLY made my day!  thank you! 

Homeschool Happenings: Pumpkins and such...

 Wood pumpkin crafts that the girls found in their homeschool workbox "surprise of the day" bag

Another one: pumpkin and poetry craft, along with the history of jack o lanterns

The girls working fairly independently and cooperatively with their newly implemented workbox system...this is a HUGE hit that works very well for all of us.  A little preparation on the teacher's end goes a LONG ways!

And we FINALLY made it to our first homeschool swim/gym class at the Island Rec Center pool...wait?  this is NOT a pool????  VERY insightful;)   Yes, that's right, after missing the first few classes, because we were traveling, we thought it would be fun to make our first appearance today.....just to find out that we didn't get the memo that there weren't enough swim instructors, so class is canceled this week.  But, I wasn't the only one to not receive the memo...our good friends did not; so we *settled* for plan B....poooooor us:D

Guess What We Did?

I bet ANYTHING you were expecting me to answer that we went to the beach...weren't ya, weren't ya:D

Well, although we're relatively new to the neighborhood, I'm VERY sad (for us and the other neighbors) that we're losing such great neighbors---but I am of course very happy for their family!

We've had some festivities (amidst all the packing and loading) this week, in honor of our friends who are ditching us for Atlanta!

There was a going-away party...pictured here is their older (4) year old son who clearly is enjoying being surrounded by the older ladies:)

We ladies had a night on the town....partying it up first at Panera's:D; after some soup, bread, and pastries we were really roaring to go so we headed over to a town favorite spot, on the May River and just chilled for awhile.  But one out of three of us was pooped out after all this heavy-duty partying, so she headed home, and the two remaining decided to really live it up...........

Two words.....

 

Skee-Ball Addicts!  (for those who are wondering, the dash technically makes skee-ball one word...that's my story and I'm sticking with it!)

Shhhhhhhhh.....don't tell my girls, they have NO idea that's what we were out doing on this particular night...and that we won these cute little dolphins!

We were considering maybe just playing skee-ball, you know, instead of packing boxes, etc.

But now we are thinking, that that very thought alone constitutes the need for us to enlist ourselves into Skee-ball Anon or some help group like that!  (but before I do that, I'd like to research online to see if I can actually purchase a skee-ball machine...I really am THAT addicted:D)

As a funny side note, my friends rented a Budget truck---I drove E to Savannah to pick it up, as her husband wound up having to work that day (he works for a college and it happened to be open house on packing day:O...oooops:D)  So, petite E had to drive this 24 ft tuck by herself back to her house---she da woman!  Then, after packing most of their stuff yesterday, they realized it wasn't big enough....so they rented a trailer to tow behind the truck...only Budget doesn't carry enclosed trailers....so, they wound up renting it from U-Haul....only U-Haul would not rent it to them if they picked it up with a Budget truck; so they had to borrow a neighbor's van to go pick it up....thankfully, the place in Atlanta will permit them to drop the trailer off with a budget truck.  I thought this was all kind of funny----except for the inconvenience part, of course.

You didn't really think you'd get away without our weekly beach update, did you:D

"Scrunchies: Yay or nay?" (a friend's Facebook vote)

Well well, it appears, based on the jury's decision, that I am indeed, (shhhh) behind the times.  A friend posed a question on Facebook today, requesting whether scruchies are in or out.  Apparently they are SO OUT!  I'm going to quote some of the responses...since this is Facebook, and it's not exactly "private" I don't see an issue with this:)  (I will, however, keep the commenters' identities private...you know to protect the innocent (esp. those in FAVOR of scrunchies...there weren't many:(  Though, even those vehemently opposed do admit to still having a few in their collection:


Nay.....but I still have some :)

Only when I clean the house or do yard work, and then it's not so much a scrunchy as a pony holder with rhinestones! I'm fancy like that.

um, that's a FIRM yes for me---1. I don't have the thick beautiful hair you were all blessed with, so w/o work, it's lifeless, limp and matted to my head. 2. I LOVE where we love, and I will take fricken hot over bitter cold anyday---(and btw, the weather has been GOREGeous the last few days. But, one must be practical in "fricken hot:D)" 3. (and I just saw your last post)---I worked in a major corporate environment---and I still wore scrunchies--even in the days when we still had to wear suits:D  

lol. I love anything with rhinestones. There are lots of cute hair thingys. There are people at my work who actually wear the scrunchies to work - to an executive office.

Oh sorry (name left out to protect the innocent scrunchie sporter)  for just dissin' your scrunchies then. HAHA! i didn't see your post before I sent that. DITCH THEM! Lol........  

hee hee--it's ok--I think I'll be ok--maybe, after I call my therapist!

You are correct! There are so many choices when it comes to hair thingy's...(name left out to protect the innocent scrunchie sporter) ditch the scrunchies and get to the drug store and see! You will ooohhh and aaaahhhhh! I promise!  

I must share in my woes with you---currently, I am sporting not only a scrunchie--but one of those new popular head scarf thingies:D:D because my hair is so matted today--I have bunches of those--and those came out this year--I tried on some of those cool rhinestonie barrets, etc--they slip right out of my hair--because it's baby fine (though a lot of it)--but it's also super soft, and things just slide right out--even little girl barrets won't stay in--WHY GOD WHY???? :(

Take a pic of the scrunchie and scarf in your hair and post it. :)

YES!! I love scarves!

Scrunchies to a corporate job - negative (not that anyone will tell you to your face, but they look lazy and sometimes trashy). Regular hair ties that match the hair color = yes. Fun headbands = yes, but only if you can pull it off (no peacock feathers unless you're a damn diva and your clothing is classy but matches the style). I make fun of scrunchie girl at work. She looks like she just came here from garage sale shopping.

ya, I was that corporate scunchie girl, wearing scrunchies with suits:D but (in my defense:D) they weren't sloppy/ casual scrunchies--they were usually black with a little glitter on them---"fancy" scrunchies-----and I didn't wear them to work as pony tails, I wore them intermingled in my own hair as "buns"-- I just felt that that actually looked MORE professional than wearing my long hair down (perhaps I should have considered a more professional-looking hair style, than long and straight)--but I didn't, thus the "fancy" scrunchies!-

Yes, the jury has definitely made their decision, and thus I hang my scrunchie-infested scarf-sporting head in shame:/
     

Food, Friends, Family, and Farewells

Farewell lunch with friends at Matty's

Farewell dinner with family at Erv's Mug

Scrapbook Page

St. John Vianney Festival

It was a wee bit chilly for June (mid 60's and not much sun)---but we had a fun cheerful day. My friend T made a great suggestion that we meet him out at this very popular church festival in Brookfield. Now, I grew up in a town that is notorius for its church fests, but I've NEVER seen one like this---it was a HUGE carnival. Normally I'm not a big fan of allowing my girls to go onto mobile carnival rides--they are transported around, not permanent--therefore they feel less safe to me. However, I decided to live on the edge a bit today, and the family had a great time! I was also glad to spend one last day with my good friend T and his youngest daughter, and some of their friends--and the girls had a blast!!!

More Band Moments and Memories

I'm going to miss these two guys---a LOT--we're not even gone yet and I'm all nostalgic and weepy-eyed:( I even have more plans with both tomorrow and next week, but I already really miss them:( They've really become very close friends, not just with me, but our families have gotten to know each other. We won't be losing touch though--and there will be visits with one-another!

Sniff Sniff

Ok, so last night was my last "official" rehearsal with the Brookfield Civic Band--I made a few VERY close life-long friend ships in this group; and I can honestly say, this is probably my only regret with us leaving. Pictured above is my wonderful friend and band director and myself--and a couple of more friends. Coincidentally, my band director (K) and I actually went to college together--though I was a senior when he was a freshman; but we have a lot of the same friends through the music fraternity; and we played in Wind Ensemble together. However, we didn't know each other directly back then. As more coincidence, K played tuba in a brass quintet at my wedding--though we still didn't know each other. And as a further coincidence, he teaches in the home-town in which I grew up--the whole school district and band program where I was trained in my early days of music; and he's the current director for the Band of the Black Watch---of which I'm an alumni (we were a field show band who competed across the country during the summer---if you aren't familiar--this is a you-tube from when I was in Black Watch in its very early years in the mid 80's--cool stuff (obviously this is VHS converted to digital:D) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CxuEpT7q2Y&feature=related

So, yes, we're moving--if you don't know the details and would like to know (and you know me, send me your email address and I'll fill you in!)

Road Trip all the way to--ILLINOIS!!

We had a great weekend! The girls and I road-tripped to the Quad Cities to help our cousin celebrate his high school graduation!


Of course a mini vacation and a hotel means we clocked in some pool-time!!!

And more pool time!!!

And of course a high school graduation with a class of 560 students, didn't sound like our kind of thing...


So for us that meant---icecream!!!! Check out Sponge-Bob---I thought my niece Julie would especially appreciate the masacre of Bob!



Apparently Whitey's is a legend around the Quad Cities, so we didn't want to miss a rare opportunity to experience this!


As and added bonus, a friend of mine, whom I haven't seen since elementary school---happens to live in that part of the state!


So we had a WONDERFUL visit at her gorgeous new home, on her beautiful large farm!!!

And ALL of our girls, of course, had a blast together!! So much so, that as we were pulling out to head back to Wisconsin, Angel girl announced that she's going to move in with her new friends at their farm:)