A Close Getaway

We live about 45 minutes from a place called Chris Greene Lake. It is a beautiful lake that is surrounded by

(Ryan and Lynnea making "sand angels")

trees and hills and is mainly for fishing and boating. In addition to the boating and fishing area, they have a beach area for the kids to play and parents to relax. Not only is this place absolutely














beautiful, but it is located
behind the Charlottesville Airport. As a result, every so often you get to see a commercial airline fly very low over you while you are swimming in the lake. It is very cool! I have known about and been to Chris Green Lake for many years, but my kids have not been too much. This past Saturday, the kids and I invited my friend Kara and her daughters




Lynnea and Olivia to join us on our trip to Chris Greene Lake. We packed lunches and spent the entire afternoon there. It was amazing weather and the water was so nice! The kids all had such a great time! They did get a little tired since no one had naps, but when we ate dinner at the Wood Grill, they were the best kids you have ever seen. We starved them to behave :)

Ryan jumped off the dock a few times and they played in the sand and on the playground a little bit, but mostly swam in the lake. It is a beautiful place!

(Me with Olivia)

Monster Truckin

Thanks to one of our great neighbors, we had free tickets to the Monster Truck Show in Fishersville Friday night. We are not big Monster Truck fans, but I thought Ryan would really enjoy going. Mike had to work so going as a family was not an option.

We were given 4 tickets, but felt Lydia and Emily would not enjoy it as a result of the noise. Once we arrived and heard that it was not as

noisy as I thought it would be. I think they would

have been fine. They ended up staying with my

parents and my friend Rabia and her daughter,

Frances (she is Ryan's age) went with us. Her little boy, Henry, tagged along too. He sat on Rabia's lap and hung with us (wanting to sleep towards the end) really well the entire time. Plus, his admission was free :). Ryan and Frances really enjoyed the trucks! They both knew who Gravedigger was and I really pushed him liking Virginia Giant. This same great neighbor gave us a poster of Virginia Giant that I gave him the next day. VERY EXCITED!

Henry's "ear plugs" :)

We found that these shows have a lot of down time. The trucks themselves do not run that much. There is a lot of "entertainment skits" that are done between heats. Megasaurus was part of the entertainment. It was a "transformer" that "ate" a car. Ryan LOVED it!!

We did not get back to my parents house until 11:30 and did not get home and in the bed until 12:30, but it was fun and Ryan was pretty excited to get his Gravedigger pennant.

Summer Vacation

Ryan has been coming with me to my center this summer since he has been out of school. Our school age kids go on fieldtrips the entire summer. They go to the pool at least once a week, they go to the park pretty often and they often go to the free movies that our local movie theater hosts. In addition to these regulars, they have special things happen at least once a week as well. They have been to see a play, to a great Kids Workshop at Home Depot, have had a police officer come to talk to the kids about good and bad strangers and allowed the kids to see the police car, they have gone to Wood Grill for lunch (all 48 kids), an educational trip to Martin's Grocery Store and celebrated "Cow Appreciation Day" at Chick-Fil-A. I have posted a few pictures of Ryan having fun on his fieldtrips this summer. I will continue to post pictures for the remainder of the summer. He has been having such a great time!!

Camping with the Settles

What a terrific weekend!! The five of us went camping with my friend, Becky, and her family. Our kids are ages 6, 5, 4, 3 and 3. They absolutely love each other! This is the second year we have gone camping with this family. It is so much fun!! We went to Christopher Run Campground at Lake Anna. There is a great swimming area at the lake along with a little beach. They have a playground and some great fishing. Ryan and Lucas (Becky's 6 year old) both caught their first fish! Ryan actually caught 4 fish before the day was over! We were all pretty proud parents! Stuart owns a sailboat and he and Mike took it out on Sunday, before we left. His plan was to take the rest of us out as well, but when they returned it was getting late and starting to rain. Hopefully next time:). On Saturday morning, for breakfast, Becky brought ingredients to make "boiled bag omelets" that the kids could make themselves. They had such a great time shaking their bagged omelet and ate every bite! Never thought I would, but we sure do LOVE camping!!!

Ryan's First Trophy

Tonight was supposed to be Ryan's last t-ball game, but afternoon thunderstorms prevented them from playing. Ryan's coach had previously made plans for the team members and their families to go to Cici's Pizza to eat and pass out trophies. --All of the t-ball players receive a trophy. There is no score keeping, therefore no champions. T-ball is a great entry for kids to let them learn to bat and field. It was really nice that the entire league received trophies.-- Since they were not able to play the game, we met at Cici's at game time. Coach Nichol introduced each player and presented them with their trophy that had their name engraved on it. Ryan was SO proud as he walked up to accept his trophy. After showing it to Mike he sat beside me and said "Mommy, this is fragile." I said, "I know, it is fragile." "It's glass" he said. No idea :). When we got home he requested we place his trophy somewhere in his room that Lydia and Emily can't reach it.

In the picture with Ryan is Christian. Christian is a neighbor of ours. Ryan goes to his house two mornings a week and Christian's mom gets Ryan to school for us those days. This is a result of our work schedules.

Completely un-related to t-ball but very funny . . . I tend to find things funny that are really a "had to be there to think it was funny" kind of thing. Tonight, after leaving Cici's we stopped at Wal-Mart. Mike had to pick up a few things and I wanted to make a copy of a picture (which never happened, but that is a story for another time :( ). Mike took Ryan with him and Lydia and Emily came with me. Our Wal Mart has recently remodeled and I have no idea where ANYTHING is right now so our walk through the store to find the photo processing place was a long one. As we were walking I was explaining to the girls that Mommy had to make a copy of a picture and they must stay with me or they would suffer consequences. Lydia says to me "Ok Mommy, but Lydia and Emily (she sometimes talks about herself in the third person) need to go check something first and then we will come back to you." Trying to keep from laughing I corrected her and reiterated the consequence she would suffer if she went to "check on something first."

Lydia's "new" bike

Last fall we bought bikes for Lydia and Emily so they could ride bikes with Ryan. We purchased 14" bikes--the same size as Ryan's. Ryan had been riding his 14" bike for a while and we thought the girls would be ready for one. It turns out they were really not able to reach the bottom pedal when their leg was completely extended. In addition, they really did not seem strong enough to make the bikes move even after my dad attached little blocks to the pedals. As a result, they were not riding their bikes. When she found out about our delima, my friend Becky said that her son Mason had outgrown his 12" bike and wondered if we would like to have it. Emily immediately became attached to the new bike! She started riding with Ryan and was loving it. We tried to make her share with Lydia, but Lydia really did not seem interested in riding "Emily's" bike. She continued to try to ride the 14" bike, but would just get frustrated and stop trying.

Last week my friend, Kara and her girls came over for dinner. After dinner we took a walk around our neighborhood. The kids decided they wanted to ride their bikes. Ryan and Emily rode theirs, we loaned one of the 14" bikes to Lynnea and Lydia decided she wanted to ride in the wagon with Olivia. Kara commented on how great Lynnea was doing on this bigger bike. She explained that Lynnea only has a little bike and she has really outgrown it and does not like to ride it anymore. She was LOVING the one we let her ride. We thought it would be a great idea to trade bikes for a while. Lynnea took our 14" bike and they loaned us her 12" bike. Perfect idea!

Today I took the kids out to ride their bikes. When we received the bike from Lynnea I immediately announced it was Lydia's so she would be excited about it. She was ready to ride her new bike! She rode her bike longer today than she ever has! She was so confident with it and knew she was a big girl riding her bike! Hopefully Lynnea will have the same reaction! It was so great being out there with them today! They were all riding their bikes and everyone was happy :).

Ryan came up to me while they were riding and said "Lydia is the slow down one."

I asked him what he meant.

He said "Lydia is the slow down one because her bike is yellow. Emily is the go one because her bike is green and I am the stop one because my bike is red."

Too funny! My children are a traffic light :).

It's Lawn Party Time Again!!! YEA!

I am a lawn party addict. I love them! In a post last summer I explained our local custom of lawn parties (click on lawn parties in my labels). Last night was the first one of the season for me. They don't really start full force until summer actually starts, but some areas get theirs in earlier. Last night was the last night for the Elkton Fire Department Lawn Party. After having spent all day with us, Kara and her girls agreed to go with the kids and me to the lawn party last night since Mike could not go with us. The thing that I really love about this lawn party is the fireworks. There are other lawn parties that set off fireworks, but this one sets them off in a field and you park so close to the field where they are letting them off (not dangerously close) that you can actually see the people lighting them. We always get a good place to park so that when it is firework time, we can get our lawn chairs out and have a great view of both things. We ate dinner at the lawn party and we rode a few rides. Ryan rode his first roller coaster (small kiddie size) and loved it! All four kids rode the barrel of fun (we called it the cups) for the first time (well first time for my three anyway). The car they are in spins around while the entire ride spins around. Lydia HATED this one. She screamed "STOP SPINNING" the entire time she was riding. She never actually started crying, but when she got off she said "I don't like the cups!" After sharing some cotton candy and snow cones we headed out to watch the fireworks. They ended up starting late and the kids were tired so we decided to go ahead and go. As we were leaving they started so we pulled into a nearby street to watch them. It was a great view and we were inside the car so it was not as scary--well at least to Ryan and Lydia. After I heard them talking about the fireworks a little bit I turned to see if Emily was ok since she was not talking--it was then that I saw Cousin It (from the Adams Family) sitting in her seat. She had taken her blanked and put it over hear head. I asked her why she was covering her head with her blanket and she said "because the fireworks are too loud." I couldn't help but laugh. Best thing, from this street, I could still see the people setting the fireworks off. The pictures and movie are not very good--they were taken with my phone. In the roller coaster pictures, Ryan is in the first car.