Babies' First Bowl Game / New Year's Eve

I am so far behind in blogging that I will never, ever be able to catch up. This makes me so sad. There are so many things the boys did or said in the last six months (not to mention a trip to Disney World and our first semester of homeschooling) that are gone with the wind, all because I didn't have/take the time to write them down, so rather than continue to bury my head in the sands of defeat, I'm just going to pick up right now ... well, with a few days ago when the boys and I went to watch the Cats win the Belk Bowl!

As soon as I found out that Kentucky would be playing in Charlotte, tickets to the Belk Bowl rose to the top of my Christmas list. Jeremy had to work and couldn't make the trip, but "Greenville Pop" (also known as "MaymePop," as opposed to "NanaPop," who lives here in Canton) was up for the drive. We arrived early enough to grant Jones's request of driving all the way to the top of the relatively-empty parking garage; Freddie was thrilled to show off his new closet-full of Nike gear, and I was just happy to have seats on the shady side of the stadium (an added bonus to avoiding the blinding sun is the perfect lighting in these photos!). It was a GREAT day for football - sixty degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

Also, mercifully, the boys have reached an age where they're a breeze to take to ballgames - it's been this way for the last and a half year or so. Gone are the days of them asking when it'll be over before it's even started. They no longer require a million trips to the bathroom or concession stand. Jones almost never needs his noise-cancelling headphones anymore. As I've said so many times, the bigger the boys get, the better. I love the fun we're able to have now that they're mature enough to handle it. I also love that my boys get excited about my Cats. We won a thriller, almost at the buzzer. Given the way Lynn Bowden won us the game, this one will live in UK lore for decades to come, so I'm so glad the boys and I were able to be a part of it!

Oh, and an eleven year old girl from Charlotte sang the National Anthem. She did an AMAZING job. As she sang, Jones turned to me, his hand over his chest, and said, "She's gonna wake up the bears in Canton!" That was, perhaps, his highest form of praise. Because the game had a noon kick-off, we were able to be home early enough to join Jeremy for a New Year's dinner at the Blue Rooster. From there, we did our traditional countdown with King Julian (thanks, Netflix!), and the boys were in their beds by 8:30. Jeremy and I followed not long after. We always assume the ball is gonna drop whether or not we're up to see it happen.

Here's hoping 2020 is as good to us as 2019 was!

I am OBSESSED with Freddie's
Nike obsession. I think his passion
is absolutely awesome, and I love seeing
his personality take its wonderful shape.

GiddyUp Junction

Tonite, the boys graduated from their first VBS program of the summer!

Since Sunday nite, they've been participating in the Giddyup Junction VBS at Mrs. Shana's church, Burnett Siding Missionary Baptist Church. They have had a BALL, and I have LOVED the incredible crafts they've brought home. The first nite, they painted rocks to look like cactuses; they also   made "WANTED" posters, and for the grand finale, they made mop horses, which was perfect, because ever since week started, Jones has been tying up and taking care of an imaginary horse. As soon as he got the mop horse, he told me his pretend horse died.

Ain't that a shame?

Here are the most memorable parts of the week:

1) I walked in on Tuesday nite and noticed "You'uns Prayer Wall." The kids had given their prayer requests, and the teacher had written them on the wall. I saw "People at St. Jude's" and immediately assumed Freddie'd made that request - he's been praying for the kids of St. Jude's ever since he heard about them during the Trike-a-Thon last month. I was thinking what a tender hearted little fella I am so proud to have. When I talked to him, he confirmed that he'd made that request. It wasn't ten seconds later that Jones told me Freddie had punched a little girl in the nose, because she kept cutting in line. That's pretty much the yin and the yang of Freddie Bear. He has the softest heart I have ever seen in a kid - but he's also has him limits when it comes to classroom etiquette.

We talked about the thousand reasons why hitting ANYONE - especially a girl! - was wrong, and Freddie was humbly remorseful ("I'm just sorry," he said with his head down). At bedtime, I was curious as to how hard he'd hit her (Jones said her nose bled. Freddie said it just "got red"), so I asked him. He very earnestly told me, "Like a baseball hard? I don't know. SHE knows. I don't know."

In retrospect, I guess it was a stupid question.

2) After the graduation ceremony and subsequent pizza supper, the boys went out to play on the church playground. Jeremy overheard a little girl ask Jones why his daddy walks like he does. Jones said, "He walks like he's got a sprained ankle," and then he did what Jeremy called a pretty spot-on imitation.

3) As Jeremy told me about the exchange, we commented about the abundance of gnats bedeviling us under the church's picnic pavilion. Later, as we drove him, Jones got whiny and said, "Mama, I feel like there's a bug in my ear." I'm on HIGH tick alert, so I pulled over as quickly as I could and looked. Sure enough, there WAS a bug in his ear. It wasn't a tick, thank God, but it was one of those gnats that'd been bothering Jeremy and me earlier in the nite.

So that was week one of VBS. I'm assuming there'll be a few more weeks of the same - our church hosts its VBS in mid-June, and I'm planning for them to attend at both of our lake churches (Oakwood at Hartwell and Mount Pleasant at Chatuge). They seem to really enjoy it - Freddie asked every nite, "Are we gonna play GAMES?!?" I think he loves the physical aspect of it, while Jones prefers the imagination component. I'll be honest: I love a couple of hours off, that churches up here serve DINNER before Bible school, and that the boys are hearing the Gospel over and over again and from different people, so it's a win all around!

Jones's Bug's Awards Day

I'm not sure how in the world we got here so fast, but today, Jones's year at HCA came to an end with Awards Day. Jones came home with the Most Growth Award, the Diligence Award, and, most importantly, the Christian Character Award. The whole elementary school also sang a song that was their theme song for the year ("I Wanna Live Like That"), and Jones was very sad to leave his classroom. In fact, after the year he had with Mrs. Clackett, he'd be content to stay a kindergartener forever.

I am so proud of him and so thankful for the year he's had. He's learned so much and matured even more. Though I'm very excited to start homeschooling in the fall, we will all miss HCA and be forever grateful for the time our family spent there!