County Fair

We went to the Cass County Fair near Weeping Water a few weeks ago. The kids wanted to see the animals and lots of their friends were participating in the Muttin Busting that night as well. We went straight for the cows first thing! Of course Samantha was afraid of them, but Alden & Clair were very interested in them. We also saw pigs, chickens, bunnies, goats, and a lot more! Alden liked the roosters and tried to talk to them. Clair tried to talk to the cows. And Samantha mainly hid behind me. After the animals, we walked to the Muttin Busting and found their friends. The picture of the kids and Caden & Cody (also shown riding the sheep) was taken about the time we needed to leave the fair and the kids were not very happy! It happened to be about 95* in the shade that day and it was very miserable! Clair seemed to sweat the most and we all needed showers/baths when we got back home before we could go to bed!

Clair's in big TROUBLE!

A few weeks ago I got out of the shower to find Clair in the Pantry! Since then, she's been hiding there alot! She likes to play with the lunch boxes and towels on the bottom level! She was very interested in the crock pot, so we had to find a new location for that!

KC & Eye Appointments

We drove down to Kansas City the night of our 8th year wedding anniversary, because we had eye appointments with Uncle Scott the next morning. Debbie & Scott had balloons for us and Debbie made an ice cream cake too! We had a fun evening with the kids at their house. The next morning, Debbie watched Clair while we had eye appointments. Debbie took her on a walk to the park and it sounds like she had fun! A lot more fun than getting our eyes checked. :) We got to see Scott's new office, which was really nice and really close to his house! After the eye appointments, we picked up Clair and headed to the Legends shopping area where we went to the TRex Cafe! The kids loved it! It was very neat inside! Lots of dinosaurs to look at! They got to "Build - A - Dino" at a shop in the restaurant! Alden named his FECTORD again and Samantha named hers PINKASAURUS. We did a little shopping at the Outlet stores and then I drove everyone home. (I didn't get my eyes dilated, so I was in the best shape to drive home.) Samantha, Alden, & Clair all slept the whole way home!

10 K Race

Doug & I ran the Lake Wherspann 10K (6.2 miles) on August 1st. It was my first race ever (other than high school track). It was chipped timed, so that made me feel pretty darn important! :-) We ran the race in 1 hour 6 minutes. We decided to run it so that we could send in our time for Walt Disney World Half Marathon in January 2012. If we send in a good time when we register for the WDW 1/2 Marathon race in January 2011, we can get ourselves out of the "walking" corral and bypass a whole bunch of people (FYI - there are over 20,000 people that do the WDW 1/2 Marathon!!). 1 hour 10 minutes was our goal, so we made that! It was brutal, but we survived!

Soccer Camp

Samantha attended the British Soccer Camp again this year. We decided to go to the Plattsmouth camp this year because the one in Nebraska City that she attended last year was during the week of her dance recital. We assumed that there would be a lot more kids at the Plattsmouth camp, however, we assumed wrong. There were only 4 kids again this year for her age group - Drew, Emily, Samantha, & Lucas! This was Emily's first year of soccer camp because you have to be 3 years old, however Lucas, Drew, & Samantha were all at the same camp in Nebraska City last year together! Their instructor for the week - Coach Chris - was British native that plays soccer in college in Jackson, MS. Alden wore flip flops the first day to watch Samantha and Coach Chris asked him if he wanted to play the next day, he just had to wear tennis shoes. Alden's face lighted up and we rushed off to buy him some new tennis shoes (he had grown out of his last pair)! We even got him some shin guards! Funny boy! He looked so cute and ready for soccer camp, however, he was too shy the next day, so he basically sat on the sidelines and drank water. He did do a couple of fun games with the kids though. Samantha had a blast! She really picked it up quick this year! Coach Chris said that she could be really good if she continues to work at it! Coach Chris taught them a bunch of new moves this year! We'll see how she does in her next round of soccer in the fall in Plattsmouth Micro Soccer.

On the last day, they have a Friday Fun Day where they can bring any friends/family they want to for fun and games. We called Uncle Chris and asked him to join her on Friday. I think he thought he'd be basically watching Samantha play, but he was wrong! He played all the games with her...he even did the crab walk! For the last day, the kids were on "teams". Samantha & Emily were on the Brazil team. Their colors are yellow and green, so the girls (and Alden and myself) dressed in yellow and green and painted their faces to look like the Brazil flag. The girls even had to research what the Brazil flag looked like and draw a picture of it. The boys (Drew & Lucas) were Spain - so they wore red. In the end, the girls won the scrimmage!!

VBS Closing Program

We held our Closing Program for Hero Headquarters VBS on Sunday, July 25th during church. The kids sang the songs they learned and Doug and Anna and Laura acted out each day's mission. I had to give a speech, too. I guess it was a family affair. The kids were really cute singing. Emily & Drew came to church and sang the songs. Samantha and Emily were HILARIOUS!! I told Samantha to sing loudly before church because I knew she knew the words to all the songs. Little did I know that Emily knew all the words too and they had a little singing (more like SHOUTING) contest. Luckily the church crowd thought they were cute too. :) Samantha taught Emily how to snap her fingers right in the middle of a song and Emily taught Samantha how to "throw the bones" (Husker Blackshirt style) instead of make an "O" for the "O" in HERO. :) Those two are quite a pair! After church, we took pictures of all the Moyers and the McKnights at church that day. My cousin Luke and his wife Brandy brought their little boy - Brogan (9 months) - to church to watch Drew & Emily too.

Special Photo Shoot for "Lanie Lou Who"

My friend Lori Field makes the awesome accessories that you always see in my kid's hair - flowers, headbands, & hats. She developed a website and needed some "models" for some photos and my girls were asked to be in it! Here are some pictures that were taken of my girls. Check out her website: http://www.lanielouwho.com/. If not to buy some cute things, then just check out the pictures of my girls that go through on the main page.

VBS 2010- HERO Headquarters

I was in charge of our church's Vacation Bible School (VBS) this year! My first year of actually being in charge! It was very hard work planning a whole week's worth of fun for kids! But SO rewarding! My journey began in January when I ordered the curriculum of HERO Headquarters, and we had a few long weeks of working on decorations and props and planning in June-July, and finally it all came to an end the week of July 18th! Doug was Maintenance Mac - an everyday super HERO - in our beginning skit every night! Alden liked to tag along with him while he said his lines, so we nicknamed him "mini mac" or "bread stick boy" (one of the other super HERO s in the skit was "Pizza Polly"). The kids seemed to think he was really cute! I had a HUGE support cast this year and it all turned out so well! We averaged about 45 to 50 kids each night and did crafts (that I planned out ahead of time - but did not actually teach the crafts this year) such as super HERO capes, masks, reusable bags (to be a hero for the environment), bracelets, and picture frames to hold a picture of their VBS group. Doug's mom made almost all of the snacks this year ahead of time and they were really cute! One night we had cupcakes that looked like sheep and another night the kids got 2 sugar cookies shaped like a men - one had sprinkles and the other did not - they were to represent Naaman and one of them had leprosy and other did not.