I know two things about a horse....

and one is the spelling. H-O-R-S-E.......
Today the girls were going to a birthday party at their good friend Jeni's house. We made our own cards to go with the present. Emma knew that Jeni love's horse's and ( thank goodness ) wrote on a separate piece of paper that she taped on as an after thought the word
H-O-R-E-S-'- S...........
/
wow, she noticed that the marker smudged it and I said let's go ahead and take it off. I did bring it to the party and gave it to her grandmother, the girls pre-k teacher!!!! she loved it and asked if she could put it in "Jeni's book" where they keep a record of what's going on in her life.
/
there is alway's a story!

Craw-daddio's

Enie, meanie, and moe
trying to touch the sky!

one little monkey - hanging on a pole.......

monkey is now monkey bar queen!

that is a virginia/tennessee crawdad in the bucket

watch out - we didn't bring a change of clothes!!!

Dad says YOU hold the bucket and i'll scoot them in...!

eew, she's got it in her hand, ok, it's less than 2 inches long with tiny claws.

yup, that two inches of "eeeeew" is loose in the grass! and it' can't breathe!

ok dad, you get in there and get it!

i'm not picking it up!

4 little shockley's playing in the creek!

I Whipped Their Butts!

I got a spare on the 10th frame and had a 126 final ( a far cry from my old 145ish average back in the day ) - and this was with my RIGHT hand ladies and gents... since my left one ain't going to be bowling anymore, there is hope for me yet!

Sissy Squared....

Rachel at age 12 and what Hope will look like in 8 years!

Rachie

Em's

Guess when her school picture is folks? next friday -- I don't think that gap is going to be filled in time!

Latest in Shoe Fashion

The sad part is - those are my own bowling shoes!!! Gotta love Jim and Cheryl, I got them for Chirstmas one year.... my own ball and shoes, how sad. But I got to say who knew I'd find Big Daddio in a bowling alley ??? Lucky me.

Tunnel Slide

The bowling alley didn't open till 1pm and we had a 1/2 an hour to blow so we went to the park and Hope loves to go down the enclosed tunnel slide - I hollar up to her i'm going to get her and she says no way! Here she is coming down.

Hope

This is her latest smile, face all scrunched up.

Super Rach!

Big R at the top of the spider web thingy at the park - she can climb anything!

One crappy garage couch

Don't ask.

First Day for Hope

Hope went to the first day of Pre-K today -- all went well but we will see how the week goes, in the past she went one or two days to "school" and now it's M-Thrus 9am to 12:30.

Today after Emma got home I was going thru her Monday folder full of her work and test from last week and got the new sheet of items to accomplish this week along with Hope's sheet asking parents to work on items xyz...., school is going to be tough this year and Dad and I will really need to get our thinking caps on and try to remember lots of forgotten info. Dad helped Rachel last week with Geography - all the United States, she was trying to get them all down when Dad got one of those "Kate eats stinky cupcakes" ( not really the quote - but you get the idea ) and she got all of the 50 states except she got Minnisota and Missouri mixed up. Not too shabby.

Reason #1,000,001

it is cool to have kids...how many people can say they went to work this morning, unwittingly, with a poptart section the size of Delaware stuck in the back of your hair?? Huh, no one? thought not. Oh well, it came due to a hug so it an't be all bad.

Labor Day Weekend... Whew!

4 days flew by in a flash -- Daddio even took off most of Friday too! We took that opportunity to mow the lawn ( first time in a month ) and clean up the house -- Saturday we headed to Bay's Mountain in Tennessee. It's a great state park that has animals that have been rescued and would not survive in the wild. The first place we look is always the turtles... nothing like a swim to the log and getting some rays, then otters, wolves, deer, and several large birds.

Girls having some euro lunch - a baguette with cheese - and watermelon and grapes!

( not the typical lunch fair found in Tennessee either )

This is one of only 4 pictures we took at the farewell party for the Tolars, this is because David and I were in charge of the shindig and we stayed busy the whole time, this is a good shot of the covered dish table that went with the Shockley BBQ - nothing like a good church gathering!

We could not of ordered a better day - the weather was perfect, sunny, breeze, and lots of shady trees. We think the Tolars had a good time eating and having fellowship with the church family that is going to miss them more than words can say.

To the end we gathered and anyone who wanted to share something was welcome to speak to the group - and David and I kept looking at each other thinking one of us could do it but I kept tearing up and he didn't look much better. Little do the Tolars know that a mere 5 hour drive to us is nothing - so we will be taking them up on the offer of their spare bedroom in the new house.

After this party - we piled in the car and headed to Hillsville, VA to see the other side of the Shockley Clan. Graddaddy Dave and Nana Hazel and Uncle Chris, Kim and Lil'Christopher were up working on the house in Fancy Gap. We visited -had dinner and had to hit the road back home as it was a school night.

did I mention that they gave us a set of drums?????????

I wonder what I did in a past life to deserve this.

Hope running to the apple tree to get more food for the cows, and stepping in more than one cow pattie... eww.

Looking at the cows

( not much different than Abingdon cows - but still )

This one ate the apple out of Emma's hand

G-daddy - Hope - Uncle Ernie - Em's

Nana - Kim - Lil'Christopher - Em's

RP - Hope - Emma -Mamie

an interesting note: Mamie is the last of the original "Shockley's" that settled in the Hillsville area - she has a copy of the original land grant signed by the president giving the Shockley's 254 acres of land in Hillsville, VA - She has been working very hard on the Shockley family tree and it is a HUGE tree and very complete. You would never guess that she is 80 year old country girl! RP is one funny man and we had the pleasure of their company for dinner as well as the usual crowd.