Our Week and Their Week

When Emily decided to stay home from vacation and play All Stars, Mike was originally going to stay with her.  After talking with the family and thinking about things that would be happening at each location, we decided it would be better for me to stay with Emily and Mike to go with my family and Ryan and Lydia to Myrtle Beach.  I know that seems weird, but that is the way we decided to handle things.

While it was sad that we were separated for the week, all of us really had great weeks!!  The following are pictures with captions so that you know how we all spent our week . . . .

Our first day was a bit emotional for me.  My family had never been apart for a whole week.  Plus knowing that Emily was missing out on time with her cousins made me sad.  And I love and missed the pow wows that my brother and I have when we are on vacation.  We did have a good week despite this though.  Our first day we had softball practice.  After practice, we got together with my good friend Holly and her daughter Emily.  Emily and Emily were both part of the all star team.  We went swimming at Swift Run pool.  I have blogged about Swift Run before.  Swimming with Emily took Emily's mind off the fact that her brother and sister were headed to the beach.  Softball practice did that too. :)  Jumping off the diving boards--an all day activity.

Thanks to my great friend, Dana, Emily and I got to go to a butterfly farm.  Neither of us had ever been to one and we really enjoyed it.  Dana worked at one over the summer so we went to work to see her and her daughter, Katie, who went to work with her.  The butterflies would land on your head and shoulders and hands.  It was really neat. 

 The photo opps were endless!!!

 Katie and Emily checking out the butterflies

Emily and Katie had several private rides on the cow train.  This place is a business that is open throughout the summer, but is mainly a pumpkin patch and corn maze in the fall.  Their summer business is not as much, but the owners live right there so it is not a huge deal for them to not be busy.  We have visited and blogged about Back Home on the Farm before.

Meanwhile, we received pictures from Myrtle Beach, showing us what a great time everyone was having.  So glad they all had such a wonderful time!!

Emily and I decided to go see the Dori movie that was out in the theater at that time.  Typically, we don't do movies unless they are dollar movies or ones we can watch at home.  Too expensive!!  It's very different with two verses five.  It was fun.

Our reason for not going to Myrtle Beach.  Softball!!!  Emily's All Star team came in 3rd.  Not great, but not terrible.  :)

 We have a tradition that we visit Krispy Kream every time we go to Myrtle Beach.  We watch them making donuts and we each eat one warm donuts before leaving.  It is fun!!  Many pictures have been taken in this building.  This one was sad to get.  So glad they all got to go!

We did a lot of dog walking while our family was gone.  It was a nice thing to stay back and not have to find a place for the dog to stay.  Loki liked that we were home with him.

Another tradition we have is going to Bass Pro Shops with Daddy.  Mike loves to shop and dream shop more than any man I know!!  It is crazy!!  :)  We go to Bass Pro Shops and spend probably 2 hours in there each week we are in Myrtle Beach.  This year was no different.  We have lots of pictures over the years of the kids on boats and four wheelers.  Look back through this blog and you will see them in Myrtle Beach blogs.

More softball with softball friends.  This is Emily Sponagule.  Same one we went to swift run with.  She was on Emily's regular season team as well as on All Stars with her.  They are sharing some french fries.  :)

 Mike sent pictures of Lydia's beach artwork.  Loved seeing this one as well as the one that said "Love you mom!"

 Got some pictures of Ryan and Adella fighting the waves.  They are in there somewhere.  :)

Another beach tradition, that dates back to when my brother and I went to the beach as kids, is putt putt.  There are so many putt putt courses in Myrtle Beach.  We love them!  I received this one late in the evening and knew they had, had some dinner and were doing the mini golf thing.

Lydia found her name!  Lydia never finds her name anywhere!  Ryan and Emily are ALWAYS found.  This picture was sent to me with great enthusiasm behind it!

 I am not completely sure what Lydia is doing in this picture.  This is at Broadway at the Beach and apparently some weird Facebook parody.  Funny.

I never realized how many traditions we had at the beach until I started doing this blog.  :)  These are both pictures of Lydia at Broadway at the Beach.  Mike took the kids out one day to spend the day out.  Just them, and let my parents and my brother and  his family have some time without them.  This was the day they went to Bass Pro Shops too I think, but not sure.  These two pics were taken at Broadway at the Beach.  Too funny!!!  Missed going there this year!

This one was the hardest to receive.  At the end of their day by themselves, Mike took the kids to the Cherry Grove Pier.  This is another tradition of ours.  We go every year.  It is beautiful there!!  When he sent this, he didn't even need to tell me where he was--I just knew.  They were at the pier.  :)

We had another fun adventure that week due to my awesome friend, Dana!  Dana and her daughter Katie had a pass to go to Shenandoah Caverns.  I have been to caverns before, but I have never taken my children. I hate that!  I never really think about it, but again it is one of those things--with 5 members of your family, it can get costly.  So it's not something I am pushed to do.  This pass she had allowed two adults and two kids.  It was perfect!  Prior to touring the caverns, we had to wait for our tour.  We went upstairs to the place they had various old parade stuff.  This bear was on a parade float at one point.  There was another museum we went to that had stuff from all the past Rose Bowl parades.  These bears were from a Macy's parade I think.

 This is Dana's daughter, Katie along with Emily when we first entered the caverns.

The area behind Emily's head is the original opening of the caverns.  The place the two boys who founded them (who have since passed away and their family sold the caverns) accidentally by climbing down in to them.  The boys came down and played in those caverns for two years before ever telling anyone they had found it.  They were around 11 or 12.

 The two of us down in the caverns.

  We really liked this part of the caverns.  :)

This is what they call their elephant.  It is also the closest stalagtite and stalagmite in the whole caverns.  His trunk and the stalagmite below it.  I thought it was neat.

 After the tour of the caverns, we went to the museum that had the Rose Bowl Parade floats.  This was really neat!  Of course the roses were no longer on them, but you could see bits of the flowers and the stuff the flowers were stuck into.  The colors were not vibrant like they are on the floats in the parade, but the size of everything was huge!!  This is Emily with a turtle that was a small part of a large float.  She has a thing for turtles.

 As you can see this was a VERY large woman that was once on a float.  Her arms extended out the way Katie and Emily have their arms.  I couldn't get back far enough to get the whole thing.  HUGE!

 This was part of a float that had been removed and was sitting on the floor.  We felt like we were in London.

 This was my favorite float.  I am not sure if you can read the "fun facts" sign or not.  This is what it says . . . "The ducks first appeared in the 1991 Rose Parade."  "They appeared as hockey players in Philadelphia's Thanksgiving Parade."  "The flowers in the treetops of the float were originally used to decorate for John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Ball."  Love that fact!  I know you can't see the flowers well--and they were really not that pretty, but dried and very cool to see.  It was a fun day.  However, we rode home in a pretty scary flood.  Thank you Dana for making our day and our week so fun!!

More traditions.  Again, one that dates back a long way.  My mom taught my brother and me how to make drip castles and she made them as a kid herself.  They are really fun and look really elaborate!  This is my mom, my brother Paul, Lydia, Ryan, my nieces Adella and Penny--all building the drip castle.  We make one every year!

Love these!!

Two more pictures were texted to me during the week.  They are two of my favorite.  The first one is of Lydia and Penny.  Was too funny how they had the same bathing suit.  They really liked that they shared this common bond.  :)

I think Lydia looks so grown up here.  :)

This one is the cousin picture.  We also take a cousin picture or pictures every year.  This years was missing one cousin.  Still love it though!!

Since Emily and I were not able to go on vacation with everyone, my brother invited us to meet them in Richmond to spend the night and swim at their community pool.  It has several pools and diving boards, etc.  This was really good for Emily and me.  Made us think we spent a little vacation with them after all.  While we hated having to stay back, we are glad we did. Being asked to be on the All Star team doesn't happen all the time!  Plus, made for an even number of cousins at the beach.  I am sure things went smoother.  :)

 

Thank you to Mike, Aunt Allison and Uncle Paul for sending me pictures of your fun beach week!!!

Softball All Star or Beach Bum?

Emily had the great honor of being asked to be part of the Elkton Little League All Star Team this year.  She was so excited to be asked to be the team catcher as the group of girls that are asked are only 12 or 13 of the best in the league.  Such an exciting time!!  This year the All Star tournament week fell the same week we were to take our family vacation.  Vacation that we take every two years with my parents, my brother and his family.  This was such a tough decision for her.  She desperately wanted to go to the beach with her cousins and her grandparents, but she wanted to be part of the all star team as well.  As difficult as the decision was, she decided to be on the All Star team and she and I stayed back while Mike, Ryan and Lydia went to Myrtle Beach for the vacation.

After the first All Star practice, we got the girls together to take a picture to recognize their accomplishment.  Emily was smiling ear to ear.  I know she was happy with the decision she made.

All Star girls L to R--Front--Emily Washington, Aspen Jones, Lillie Belle Merica, Reagan Sipe, Camden Kanney, Braxten Jones   Back--Emily Sponagule, Lilly Raynes, Emily Campbell, Brooklyn Lam, Alexis Kisling, Isabelle Cubbage, and Alleya .

Emily's Little League team this year was the Shooting Stars.  Her coach, Crystal Jones, was her coach again this season.  We like Crystal a lot.  She and her husband Robbie are great with the kids and they help coach Emily's travel Crush team too.  Emily is very comfortable with them.  In addition, this year she was able to have three other coaches that helped out.  Norris Richards (whom she loved), Dusty Campbell (father of a girl on her travel team too and has become familiar with him over the years) and Drew Breeden.  He is the step dad of one of the girls on the team.  They were all fantastic!!  Crystal was the coach who highly recommended Emily for the All Star team.  Emily was the catcher for the majority of the Little League season and Crystal knew she would do a good job,  She did!!

Emily and Norris.  Her favorite coach who reminds her of Uncle Jeremy.

While the All Star team didn't do as well as everyone had hoped, Emily was the starting catcher throughout the games.  She was fantastic!  She made the paper too!!  These are the pictures that were in the paper.  She tagged her out!!

The way the All Star games were played, the first week of games was the same week we had planned our family vacation to Myrtle Beach.  The vacation we go on with my parents, brother and his family and the 5 of us.  This year Mike took Ryan and Lydia and joined the others in Myrtle while Emily and I stayed behind to participate in All Stars.  She was bummed, but still very excited to receive this honor!!  This is her game!!  While she is taking this year off of travel ball, I think softball will be something she plays for years to come. 

Good-bye McGaheysville Elementary School!!

Our era at McGaheysville Elementary School has come to an end.  I can't believe it!!!  Ryan started Kindergarten at MES in August of 2008 and Lydia and Emily have now completed 5th grade in June of 2016.  My mom once said to me that while my brother and I were going through various stages of childhood, it often seemed as if it took a long time to get through various events, but when she looked back on the time that had passed all at once--time had gone so quickly.  This is so true!!  I felt like we would never get completely out of elementary school (even though I love MES!!), but as I look back on the past 8 years, it really has flown by!!!

                                       
Ryan's first day of Kindergarten

                                                                Lydia and Emily's first day                                                                                             of Pre-K



Lydia and Emily had their 5th grade farewell on June 10.  They both received several awards as well as being presented with their completion certificate.  The 4th grade parents host the farewell (I helped with the hosting when Ryan was in 4th and when Lydia and Emily were) which was so nice.  The little photo booth was a big hit!!!  

Emily and Lydia with their first MES teacher, Ms. Therese Warner and their last MES teacher, Ms. Marianne Cline.  In Pre-K there was just one class so they had to be together.  For 5th grade we decided to put them together because we don't feel they will be together much in middle school.  Their strengths are so different which will cause them to have different classes.  They even picked different electives.  Ms. Cline is retiring after this year.  She has some new grandbabies on the way. Twins even!!  Two amazing women!!  We will miss you MES!!  We've come a long way baby.  

Lydia photobombing behind Ryan Layman and Owen Garshwiler (2 of her classmates)

Owen Garshwiler with Emily and Lydia.  Owen came to MES in the 1st grade.  He was in Emily's homeroom class that year.  We happened to run into him and his family at the soccer field one day.  Owen and Emily saw one another and hugged each other.  This caused me to meet Owen's mom, Molly, and this started a great friendship.  It is so true that your friends are who your kids friends are.  :)  It has been great having the girls in school with Owen all these years.  Owen has a younger sister, Cate who still has two more years at MES.

Lydia and Emily were accepted in the Pre-K program at MES.  This was difficult to make happen--especially with two kids needing to get in there.  While at the farewell, we got the kids who are still at MES who were in that class, together for a picture.  L to R--Lydia Washington, Emily Washington, Therese Warner (teacher), Emma Cude, Lilly Raynes, Austin Nichols, Ulnemic Chen.  Damien Burner and Kobe Marsten were also in that class and still at MES, but Kobe was not at the farewell and Damien left before we had the idea to take this picture.  :(

Processional for the 5th grade farewell

 Emily receiving her certificate for maintaining honor roll throughout the year.

 Emily and Lydia receiving their certificate for perfect attendance.

Emily was a library helper this year.  Each year the librarian asks several 5th graders to help out in the mornings.  They assist in checking out books, collecting books from the classes who will be visiting the library that day and checking books back in.  The 5th graders put their name in if they are interested in helping out with different things.  Emily was selected from the names and LOVED helping in the library!!  She and the other 4 students were the ones who helped out--one each day of the week.  Her day was Wednesday.  This is the certificate she received for doing this.

 The PE department honored several students for being exceptional in Physical Education.  Lydia and Emily each received a certificate for the Rockingham County Schools Standards of Physical Education.  In order to receive this they needed to maintain a certain level of ability and strength in PE.  We didn't know they would be getting this.  It was a nice surprise.

 Each year the music teacher at MES has a 5th grade chorus.  The 5th graders who choose to be part of the chorus are welcome to join.  The year the majority of the 5th grade participated in the chorus.  It was really great!  Emily and Lydia were part of this chorus.  Emily is interested in participating in the chorus in middle school.  Lydia's drama interest may conflict.

 Emily receiving her certificate of completion of the 5th grade.  And Elementary School.  She is now eligible to move on to Middle School.

Lydia receiving her certificate of completion of the 5th grade.  And Elementary School.  She is now eligible to move on to Middle School.

 Lydia and Katelyn Shifflett

 L to R--Katelyn, Marley, Thalya, Emely, Emily, Emma, Lydia

 Lydia and her good friend Jesela Cooper

 Emily and Lydia with Abby Showalter.  Abby started school at MES in 3rd grade.  Her father is in the military.  The day after school ended, Abby and her family moved to Hawaii.  Her father is going to be stationed there for the next few years.  Unfortunately she will not be moving to Middle School with the girls.

 Emily with Katelyn and her good friend Hayleigh.

 Our family in front of the MES sign.  The end of an era.

Crazy girls!!!  Marley, Katelyn, Hayleigh, Emily and Lydia

Bulletin board made for the 5th graders

Dance'n the Night Away

Ryan is getting ready to finish up his 7th grade year in middle school.  Middle school is where the dances start.  The elementary school where the kids went/go doesn't host dances.  It is strange for me to send my son to dances.  He went a few times during 6th grade, even met his girlfriend there.  This year he has not been to any of them, but wanted to go to the last one.  The last dance is the "formal" dance.  I have such mixed feelings about it as for the 8th graders, it is much like prom.  There are kids arriving in limos, paying LOTS of money for dresses and then there is an after party.  It makes me sad to think that the kids won't want or need to go to prom in high school as they will have already experienced it.  I hope not.

Ryan doesn't have a girlfriend right now so he went to the dance with two friends.  They dressed up and had a good time.  Growing up so fast!!

Kendall and Ryan

Ryan, Kendall and Andrew