Back to School

This year Mallory started a new year of preschool, Molly began First grade and Madison began Fourth grade.  It'd always hard to say goodbye to summer, but the girls were excited for the first day of school.  We decided to switch Mallory to three days a week this year.  On Wednesday she gets to stay and have lunch with her friends.  Her teacher is Mrs. Hatton.  Mallory continues to love school and her teacher.  Molly went through the typical growing pains that I see every year with my own first grade class.  She was worried about making friends and we tired after a full day of school.  After a few weeks she settled into the routine and had made lots of friends.  Her teacher is very creative so Molly's "out of the box" way of thinking seems to fit well in her class:)  Madison has a busy schedule with lot of responsibilities that she's trying to adjust to as a Fourth grader.  She is involved in Orchestra and Chorus.  She is learning how to play the violin.  Also she is on Safety Patrol and was elected by her class for Student Council.  She has lots to keep track of and it's been a big adjustment. This year I have one of the biggest challenging of my career.  I have 27 First graders in my class.  This is the largest class I've ever had.  It's a wonderful class and we have lots of support from parents and a classroom aide.  Every day is getting easier for all of us.  I'm excited to begin helping out at Madison and Molly's classes on my days off.  We're looking forward to another great year!

Summer Memories

We had another great summer full of good times and memories.  It is truly my favorite time of year and not just because I get the summers off!  It is so wonderful to slow down and to not have to deal with homework and schedules.  We are busy, but in a non-stress kinda way.  Our family really needed the time to take a break from the scheduled routine.  I started the summer by attending the graduation ceremonies for the first class I ever taught when they were in second grade!  There were many kids very near and dear to my heart.  It is still my favorite class to date.  We went to Jennifer, our favorite weekend babysitter and our cousin Amanda's graduation parties.  It was great to see family and friends.  We had Duane's company picnic at Houston Woods and won a free night at the lodge there.  Our goal is to use it as a night away without kids before it expires in a year.  Fingers crossed!  I celebrated my 35th birthday.  I got a mac book which I wanted for a long time and am madly in love with!  Not going to spend a lot of time dwelling on being a year older.  Next subject.  We spent a lot of time at Pleasant Hill.  Mallory has come so far with her swimming skills.  It was the first time in years that I could sit in a pool chair and just relax.  I always had to keep my eyes on Mallory though, because she has no fear.  By the end of the summer she was jumping off the high dive and swimming all the way across the pool.  She has great role models to keep up with.  We are a family of water lovers.  We started a new tradition of weekly pool nights with the Nels family.  Such a great idea!  We took turns every week meeting at one if our pools for an evening of pizza, swimming and cocktails.  Fun for the whole family:)  We must continue to tradition every summer!  We got Kings Island passes this year.  Again, I felt my stress level drop.  I could take the girls by myself for the day without skipping a beat.  We really enjoyed Kings Island.  Now that she was tall enough, Molly ended up being even more of a roller coaster enthusiast than her big sister, much to Duane's delight!  They all three spent a lot of time on the big coasters.  We made our usual trips to Orchardly Park, Wegerzyn Gardens and Krispy Creme.  These are special places that are a must every summer.  The kids spent a lot of time playing outside with the neighbors.  My parents came for a visit and we spend an evening at the Greene.  The girls love playing in the fountains there.  Madison went camping for a few days with Lola.  While she was gone I took Mallory and Molly to the Newport Aquarium for a special day for just the two of theme.  It was an all around great summer!  I will always wonder if we should have had a fourth child.  But this summer I was in such a good place.  No diapers and nursing babies, and not  dragging strollers and diaper bags around had it's perks.  I was truly enjoying the sudden independence that all three kids have developed.  It was nice to catch my breath!  We were all sad to see the summer end.  But we always have next summer to look forward too!  

Summersville Lake

We made or first trip to Summersville Lake.  We met up with Dale, Janet and Logan.  The drive was less than 4 hours for both families.  It was such a beautiful lake!  The water was so clean and clear and we were surrounded by rocky cliffs.  We had beautiful weather.  Duane, the girls and I stayed in a Chalet for two nights.  It was a secluded little place in the woods.  We loved it!  The girls were thrilled to have a loft all to their selves.  There was a hot tub and a fire pit in the back.  To top it off we were two minutes from the campground where Dale, Janet and Logan were staying.  They had a great set up too.  They were able to anchor their boat in a cove right over the hill from their camp sight.  The kids had fun swimming in the cove in between trips out on the boat.  We were having such a great time, we decided to pitch our tent on Dale and Janet's camp site for one more night.  We have not had great luck with tent camping but I was willing to risk it.  It did rain but luckily it stopped right when the tent started leaking.  There were lots of firsts on this trip.  Madison, Molly and Logan all learned how to knee board and Mallory went tubing for the first time.  Madison made her daddy so proud when she finally came up on two skies.  She was tired and frustrated, but she didn't give up.  She learns new things a lot like her mother.  Once she turns the frustration into determination, she finally meets success.  Duane was in the water helping hold her skies still and after a few tries, she popped right up!  We spent a lot of time eating good food and doing lots of floating.  We spent a little time at the beach.  The kids made good use of their snorkel gear.  We spent an afternoon at the cliffs.  There was a smaller edge that Madison, Molly and Logan were comfortable jumping off of with Dale and Duane.  There was another really high cliff that Duane and Madison jumped off of.  I second guessed letting her do it the second she jumped.  But as soon as she hit the water she was asking to do it again.  Crazy girl!  It was the perfect end of summer trip.  I was floating in a tube with my eyes closed, feeling the sun beating down on me thinking, in a few weeks school is going to start and life will be crazy.  I'm going to remember this moment for a long time.  Can't wait to float in that tube on Summersville Lake again next summer!   

OBX

Every year we get more and more excited for our trip to the beach.  As always we had a wonderful week!  The entire Scott family made it this year along with Aunt Susan, Aunt Cindy and Sara.  The girls had lots of attention.  We are finally at the point in our lives where vacation actually feels like a vacation.  The girls are getting more and more independent all the time and they are such good swimmers.  Mallory made huge strides with her swimming abilities this summer.  So Duane and I can actually sit back and relax a little.  I miss when the girls were babies, but I don't miss digging sand out of diapers and tiny sand covered hands that always seemed to make their way into their mouth.  Molly was even more confident in the ocean.  She loved tubing.  That's what she and Madison and Logan spend 90% of their ocean time doing.  Mallory was warming up to the waves, but she was partial to playing in the sand.  Duane and I were able to take some walks alone together.  We walked up to the beach house where Grandma and Grandpa Scott and Uncle Brian and his family were staying and visited.  Later in the week we spent a day there.  We even had an entire night to ourselves thanks to Aunt Susan, Aunt Cindy and Sara.  The weather was beautiful.  On the last afternoon a pretty wild storm rolled in.  It cut our beach time short but was an awesome sight to see.  We were all sad to leave.  I had the beach blues for a while after we left.  A week just isn't enough.  But we have the memories to last us until we make new ones next summer at our home away from home.